As the primary caregiver of a sourdough starter, I am always looking for ways to use the discard. These Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies are one of them. If you like thin and chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, I put a variation at the bottom for those. But you should definitely try the chocolate chip version! They're extra flavorful and have a soft but firm texture.
Truthfully, at first I was a little hesitant to put sourdough in cookies thinking it might make them bready. And yes, that did happen with the first batch of discard cookies. It took a few tries, but I finally got the cookies just how I like them. They're dense but tender, medium size cookies with extra flavor from the discard and brown butter.
Egg Yolks Only and Brown Butter
I was really hoping to make sourdough chocolate chip cookies with a whole egg, but in all my test batches I found that using egg yolks or in this case, one egg yolk worked much better. In addition to using egg yolks, I browned the butter, which added even more flavor and helped balance the moisture from the sourdough discard.
Sourdough Flavor in Cookies
Everyone's cookies are going to taste a bit different based on their sourdough. If your discard has wheat or rye in it, you'll get a tiny hint of those flavors in the cookies. Aging the dough also enhances the flavor a little, but I found that these cookies are also good baked right away. With the brown butter and sourdough, you don't need to age the dough for extra flavor.
Super Chips or Chunks
I call these Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies because I used Guittard's Super Cookie Chips and Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips. Those are very large size chips which are perfect for large cookies. If you don't have larger size chips (Ghirardelli Bittersweet are also large) you may want to use chunks of broken chocolate bar. The point is, they larger size pieces of chocolate just work better here.
Bake Time
Bake time turned out be a little longer than 15 minutes with cold dough, and as usual baking with a fan assist (hello, Breville toaster oven) gave the cookies nice cracks and crevices. These are excellent chocolate chip cookies and another perfect way to use up that discard.
Oatmeal Raisin Sourdough Discard Cookies
Use ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons flour (80 grams) of flour instead of 110 grams. Add ¾ cup (60 grams) old fashioned oats, ¾ teaspoon cinnamon, ⅛ nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon allspice plus a big handful of raisins. If you have some, a teaspoon of honey is a nice addition. These should spread quite a bit and be thin and chewy.
Recipe
Small Batch Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter plus 1 teaspoon (88 grams)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (65 grams)
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar (65 grams)
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract (6 grams)
- 50 grams sourdough discard
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or just weigh) (110 grams)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅜ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup Ghirardelli Bittersweet or Guittard Super Chips
- flaky salt for the tops
Instructions
- Brown 6 tablespoons (84 grams) of butter in a small saucepan. Set a mixing bowl on a scale and scrape in the browned butter. You should now have only about 65 to 70 grams due to moisture loss. Add the reserved teaspoon (4 grams) of butter to the hot butter and let set. You can do this at room temperature or stick the bowl in the freezer and stir every 10 minutes.
- One the butter has set (soft, squishy and opaque) add both sugars to the mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Add the egg yolk, and vanilla and beat for another minute.
- Remove bowl from mixer stand, set on scale and pour in 50 grams of sourdough discard.
- Mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to the mixing bowl, and stir to make a soft dough. Stir in the chocolate chips or chunks.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Scoop out medium size balls of dough and arrange on either plastic wrapped lined plates (for chilling) or directly on a parchment lined baking sheet if you wish to bake right away.
- Bake for about 12 minutes or until edges are golden and centers look soft. May take longer depending on oven. See notes if you are using a toaster oven or convection.
- When cookies are baked, slide the parchment onto the counter and let cool on the parchment. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Sprinkle flaky sea salt on top if using.
Leave a Reply