Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Sourdough chocolate chip cookies are an incredibly easy-to-make chocolate chip cookie with tons more flavor and yum than the classic version! Use up your sourdough discard in these delicious, chewy cookies.
Brown Butter Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oh yeah, these cookies are loaded with delicious browned butter, chopped Hershey’s bars, and… sourdough starter discard?
I know what you’re thinking. Really, Ally, sourdough in cookies? But hear me out!
Your sourdough starter isn’t just for savory foods, I use discard in my sourdough discard cinnamon bread, sourdough discard brownies, and sourdough discard peanut butter cookies. And obviously these chocolate chip cookies, and they are so good; filled with flavor that normal chocolate chip cookies can’t reach.
This sourdough chocolate chip cookies recipe is dedicated to something sweet!
Tips
- Need a sourdough starter and fast? I got your back with my easy 24-hour sourdough starter!
- When measuring your flour, use the “scoop + level” method. Stir the flour in your flour bag or container vigorously, then spoon from the bag into a measuring cup, scrape the top of your measuring cup with the back of a knife or something flat. this will ensure you’re not packing the flour into the cup.
- I prefer a flatter, chewier cookie to an airy, cakey cookie, so I tend to slightly under-bake my cookies, and I like to give the cookie sheet a good bang on the counter once it comes out of the oven, this deflates a lot of the rise and gives my desired texture.
- Vary the fridge resting time for these cookies to see what you like best, I find the shorter the rest, the sweeter the cookie and the longer the rest the more nutty and less sweet the cookies turn out.
- When adding the browned butter to the cookie batter, use a spatula and get ALL those little bits of browned milk solids. Those little nuggets add so much caramel, nutty flavor to the cookies!
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Key Ingredients
Butter:
For these chocolate chip cookies, we aren’t just using butter, we’re using browned butter. Browned butter takes on a rich amber color and smells incredibly nutty and sweet. Don’t skip this step, it adds incredible flavor to your cookies!
Sourdough Discard:
The sourdough discard in this recipe, while not in the active stage, is still sourdough, it will naturally ferment your cookies and condition the dough, making the baked goods more tender and flavorful. We’re looking for a 100% hydration discard, which simply means it’s fed the same amount of water and flour by weight, not volume.
Chocolate:
This ingredient is really up to you as the baker, I used a milk chocolate bar, but you could swap the milk chocolate for a deeper, dark chocolate, or use chocolate chips.
Read More: How To Store Sourdough Discard
How To Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown The Butter:
- Add 1 cup butter to a small skillet over medium-low heat. Allow the butter to melt, then simmer. Simmer the butter, stirring regularly, until it takes on an amber color, the milk solids have browned, and it smells nutty. This will take between 3-5 minutes of simmering, but do watch it closely because the butter can burn.
- Pour the butter from the skillet into a heat-safe container and set it aside to cool. I popped mine in the fridge for about 20 minutes, so I could get baking sooner!
Make The Dough:
- Add cooled butter (and the milk solids that settled at the bottom of the container) and 1 ½ cups brown sugar and ½ cup granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and beat the butter and sugars together with the paddle attachment until completely smooth. (Swoon over the smell!)
- Add 3 egg yolks to the butter/sugar mixture and beat on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, scraping the sides as required.
- Then add 1 cup sourdough discard and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to the mixing bowl and beat wet ingredients on medium-low for a minute or two or until the mixture is completely combined.
- Meanwhile, whisk 2 ¾ cups unbleached all purpose flour, measured using the scoop and level method, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon kosher salt in a medium-sized bowl. Add dry ingredients to the bowl of your mixer. Stir in the flour at the lowest speed, until just combined.
- Pour in 2/3 of the roughly chopped chocolate bars, or 1 cup milk chocolate chips and mix for a few seconds until evenly distributed.
- Using plastic wrap, cover the dough by pressing the wrap firmly into the surface of the dough.
- Pop the dough into the fridge and allow it to “ferment” or rest in the fridge for 6- 24 hours.
Bake The Cookies:
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350f. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets with a #40 scooper, flatten the balls and then press a couple of reserved chocolate chunks into the top of the dough balls, or about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips.
- Bake the cookies on the top rack in your oven, at 350f for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are cooked through and beginning to brown around the edges.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and sprinkle with a pinch of flaky sea salt, if desired. This step is optional but totally recommended!
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire mesh cooling rack. If the cookies are “puffy” when they come out of the oven, give the cookie sheet a firm tap on the counter to deflate some of the rise.
Recipes To Put That Discard To Work!
Batch + Storage
Batch:
This recipe makes about 48 (4 dozen) cookies when using a #40 cookie scoop. If you’re rolling balls by hand, aim for about 30g cookie balls.
Storage:
Once baked, your sourdough chocolate chip cookies can be kept in an airtight container or cookie jar with a tight-fitting lid for up to 5 days.
If you don’t want to bake all the cookies at once, you can scoop them all into cookie dough balls and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Pop the cookie sheet into the freezer for 2-3 hours, or until frozen completely, then transfer to a freezer ziplock bag. Frozen cookie balls will keep for 2-3 months in the freezer without any problem!
To bake frozen cookie balls; place them on a parchment lined baking sheet to thaw while the oven is preheating, then bake according to the recipe, adding 2-3 minutes to ensure they are fully cooked!
Variations + Substitutions
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📖 Printable Recipe
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 ¾ cups unbleached all purpose flour using the scoop and level method see notes
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- scant 1 cup sourdough discard
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars roughly chopped, or 1 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Add 1 cup unsalted butter to a small skillet and brown over medium-low heat.
- Pour the butter from the skillet into a heat-safe container and set it aside to cool.
- Once the butter is cooled, add it and 1 ½ cups brown sugar and ½ cup granulated sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and beat the butter and sugars together with the paddle attachment until completely smooth.
- Add the 3 egg yolks to the butter/sugar mixture and beat on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, scraping the sides as required.
- Add the scant 1 cup sourdough discard and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to the mixing bowl and beat on medium-low for a minute or two or until the mixture is completely combined.
- Meanwhile, whisk 2 ¾ cups unbleached all purpose flour using the scoop and level method, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and s1 teaspoon kosher salt in a medium-sized bowl. Then add to the bowl of your mixer. Stir in the flour at the lowest speed, until just combined.
- Pour in 2/3 of the roughly chopped chocolate bars or 1 cup of milk chocolate chips and mix for a few seconds until evenly distributed.
- Using plastic wrap, cover the dough by pressing the wrap firmly into the surface of the dough.
- Rest the covered dough in the fridge for 6-24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350f. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, press a couple of reserved chocolate chunks or chips into the top of each dough ball.
- Bake the cookies on the top rack in your oven, at 350f for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are cooked through and beginning to brown around the edges.
- Remove cookies from the oven, sprinkle with flaked salt and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before transferring to a wire mesh cooling rack. If the cookies are "puffy" when they come out of the oven, give the cookie sheet a firm tap on the counter.
Notes
Batch:
This recipe makes about 48 (4 dozen) cookies when using a #40 cookie scoop. If you’re rolling balls by hand, aim for about 30g cookie balls.Storage:
Once baked, your sourdough chocolate chip cookies can be kept in a cookie jar with a tight-fitting lid for up to 5 days. To freeze, the dough all into cookie dough balls and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Freeze the dough balls 2-3 hours, or until frozen completely, then transfer to a freezer ziplock bag. Frozen cookie balls will keep for 2-3 months in the freezer. To bake frozen cookie balls; place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet to thaw while the oven is preheating, then bake according to the recipe, adding 2-3 minutes to ensure they are fully cooked!variations + substitutions:
- swap out the milk chocolate bars for dark chocolate bars.
- use chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate chunks.
- add some spice: a teaspoon of CINNAMON EXTRACT, or cinnamon makes a slightly spiced and totally irresistible cookie!
Recommended Equipment + Ingredients
Nutrition
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I just tried a different recipe last week for sourdough chocolate chip cookies from another site and they were dense hockey pucks that didnt rise. I was nervous to take the plunge on these but they turned out amazing!! I love the toffee flavour that comes from the browned butter and the sprinkle of salt after cooking is such a good idea. Thanks for the recipe- its a keeper!
I just tried a different recipe last week for sourdough chocolate chip cookies from another site and they were dense hockey pucks that didnt rise. I was nervous to take the plunge on these but they turned out amazing!! I love the toffee flavour that comes from the browned butter and the sprinkle of salt after cooking is such a good idea. Thanks for the recipe- its a keeper!
What size Hershey’s chocolate bars do you use? Do you have a version of this recipe that uses ingredients by weight?
Hi Gabriel, you could easily use a cup or a cup and a half of chocolate chips 🙂 I try to use cup measurements for discard recipes as they are a lot more forgiving, but next time I make these cookies I’ll try and get measurements!
All these sourdough discard recipes sound like ones I’d like to try. But what exactly is sourdough discard? Thanks! Neilann Thomas
Sourdough discard is just unfed starter that you remove from the starter before you feed! It’s called discard but that’s a total misnomer cause it’s totally valuable! I have some articles on discard that may help you; what to do with sourdough discard and how to store sourdough discard.