Chocolate Chip Sourdough Cookies

Learn how to make these scrumptious Chocolate Chip Sourdough Cookies with my step-by-step tutorial!

At this point in my sourdough journey, I’m not sure why I was surprised by how good these sourdough chocolate chip cookies are.

But I was.

By now I should realize that sourdough makes just about everything amazing. Including cookies!

These soft-yet-crispy cookies are the perfect way to use up any leftover sourdough starter.

But let’s be honest, you’ll want to make these even if you have to feed your starter especially for the recipe. They’re just that good.

Okay, let me show you how to make some scrumptious, chewy sourdough chocolate chip cookies!

Video Tutorial

Here’s a video overview of the recipe in case you learn better by watching! The full written tutorial and printable recipe are below.

Ingredient Notes:

First, let’s go over the simple ingredients:

• Unsalted Butter: I use Kerrygold grass-fed butter here, but any unsalted butter should work.
• Brown Sugar: This helps to keep the cookies soft and adds a lovely, deep flavor. I use light brown sugar, but I’m sure you could use dark brown sugar in a pinch.
• Granulated Sugar: I use organic cane sugar. You can use either 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, or 1 cup. 2/3 cup is a nice sweetness level, but it will result in more cakey cookies. If you use the full 1 cup of sugar, you’ll get crispy edges and a chewy centers.
• Eggs: You’ll be using 1 whole egg and 1 yolk. Since you’re adding in the sourdough starter, you’ll want to reduce the liquid in the rest of the recipe a bit. Removing 1 white helps with this.
• Vanilla Extract: Please use pure vanilla extract.
• Sourdough Starter: We’ll discuss this more below.
• All-purpose Flour: I use organic, unbleached flour.
• Salt: I use unrefined sea salt, so if you use table salt you may want to reduce the amount slightly.
• Baking Powder and Baking Soda
• Chocolate Chips or Chopped Chocolate: I’ll discuss this more below.

A Word About Sourdough Starter:

You can use either sourdough discard or an active sourdough starter for this recipe. However, I do not recommend using discard that is really old and sour. If you do, your cookies may have an overly sour flavor and have a different texture.

Also important: I keep my starter at 100% hydration which means I feed it equal weights, not volumes, of flour and water. If you keep your starter at a different hydration percentage, make sure to feed it at 100% hydration for this recipe.

Chopped Chocolate vs Chocolate Chips:

You can use either chopped chocolate bars or chocolate chips/chocolate chunks in this recipe.

I personally like dark chocolate chips, but semisweet or bittersweet will work as well.

I love the flavor that chopped chocolate brings to the table, but it does tend to make your cookies more messy since the chocolate melts more.

If you plan on only chilling your dough for 1 hour, I recommend using chocolate chips.

Browning the Butter:

First, you’re going to brown the butter. This helps to reduce the water content of the butter.

Now, the thought of browning butter may seem intimidating to you, but it’s actually really easy! You just need to keep an eye on it. And you can use cold butter from the fridge – no waiting for it to soften!

You’re basically going to melt 2 sticks of butter, but leave it on the stove just long enough for the milk solids to start to brown.

Once they’re a nice golden brown, you want to get that skillet off of the heat and pour the butter out of the pan and into a heat proof large mixing bowl ASAP. If you leave it in the pan, the residual heat can quickly take the butter from browned to burnt.

Mixing the Dough:

1. Add the sugars to the browned butter and stir.
2. Once the mixture is somewhat cooled, add the egg and yolk.
3. Add the sourdough starter. I like to weigh it into the bowl to save on dirtying up a measuring cup!
4. Finally, whisk it all together until well combined.

I love that you don’t have to pull out your stand mixer for this recipe!

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

1. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients/butter mixture.
2. Next, stir until there are only a few streaks of unmixed flour.
3. Add the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips.
4. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon just until the chocolate is evenly distributed.

Chilling the Dough:

Cover the bowl with a lid or place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface.

Chill for at least 1 hour, preferably 12 hours, and up to 48 hours.

Baking:

When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 Celsius). Line a heavy duty cookie sheet with parchment paper.

I love my All-Clad baking sheet, but even a thinner baking sheet will work here. Just keep an eye on the cookies as they bake since they may bake at a different rate.

Using either a cookie scoop or 2 spoons, form 1 ½ to 2-inch balls of dough and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cookies are just starting to brown around the edges.

IMPORTANT: If you like soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies, DO NOT overbake!

Cooling:

Place the cookie sheet on a wire rack and allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 10 minutes.

If you like your cookies extra salty, you could give these a sprinkle of flaky sea salt while they’re still warm.

Then transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of a cookie that was chilled for 1 hour before baking, and one that was chilled for 24 hours before baking.

I found that the dough that was only chilled for 1 hour resulted in cookies that were a little more “crumbly.” Still very delicious, though!

The dough that was chilled for 24 hours had a superior texture in my opinion.

Serving:

As is true with all chocolate chip cookies, these are best served warm from the oven. But they’re still delicious after they’ve cooled completely!

I love them alongside a glass of milk or a matcha latte. And I’m sure they’d be heavenly with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Storing:

These sourdough cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for several days.

For longer term storage, you can place them in a freezer safe container and store in the freezer for about 6-8 weeks. Of course you’ll want to thaw them a bit before serving.

How to Freeze the Dough:

If the dough is room temperature, portion out scoops of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill until firm. Then transfer to a freezer safe zipper top bag.

If the dough is already chilled, you can simply portion out scoops of the dough and put them directly into the freezer-safe bag.

Remove as much air as possible from the bag and store flat in the freezer. It will keep for about 6-8 weeks.

How to Bake Frozen Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:

When you’re ready to bake, simply bake the frozen cookie dough balls as directed in the recipe but increase the baking time to 17-20 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown.

You could also thaw the dough in the fridge overnight and bake as directed in the recipe. But there’s really no need to thaw first!

I find that the frozen cookie dough results in crispier cookies, which is quite lovely!

So that’s my Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! Make sure to check out my other sourdough discard recipes below:

More Sourdough Discard Recipes:

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