These sourdough chocolate chip cookies are a thick bakery style cookie made with sourdough discard, brown sugar, vanilla, and tons of chocolate chips.
Sourdough baking has been one of my favorite pass times! While I love baking sourdough bread, I also love adding my discard (what’s leftover when you feed your starter) to baked goods, like these sourdough discard chocolate chip cookies or my fudgy sourdough brownies.
I’ve played with several recipes trying to mimic my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, but with the added flavor of the sourdough and this one I’m sharing is my favorite!
Ingredients
Butter: disclaimer, I have used this exact same recipe with browned butter and cold butter. I LOVE both versions, but prefer to use the melted or browned butter.
Sugar: both brown and granulate sugar are used.
Sourdough Discard: make sure that your discard is not active at all. I like to save up discard in the fridge and use at least 2 day old discard, otherwise you can end up with too puffy of cookies.
Eggs: no cookie is correct without some eggs.
Flour: I typically will use all-purpose, but I also love to substitute in half of the flour for bread flour. This gives a chewier textured cookie.
Baking Soda and Baking Powder: trust me, you want to add both here.
Salt: the salt really helps to bring out all of the flavors!
Chocolate Chips: we don’t skimp! Add them all in or swap for chopped chocolate bars. Milk chocolate may be my favorite, but dark chocolate is also so so good here!
How to Make Sourdough Discard Cookies
- Mix butter, sugars and discard. Add eggs and vanilla. Set aside.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture, do not overmix here. Leave a little bit of dry materials before adding in the chocolate chips. You want everything to be JUST incorporated.
- Chill in the fridge for four hours or as long as overnight for an extended ferment (do not do this on the counter).
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spoon out dough and roll into balls before placing on the pan. About 2-3 tbsp
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake.
My Favorite Hack for Chilled Dough
Scooping out chilled dough can be difficult to do! My hand often gets very tired, but this little hack will be a game changer for your chilled dough. Simply press the dough into a parchment lined half sheet pan (or 13″x9″ dish), cover, and place into fridge to chill. When it is time to bake up the dough, remove from the pan and cut into desired sized cookies. I like to then roll them into balls and bake, but you can leave them in squares if you wish.
Can You Freeze The Dough
Yes! Since this recipe does yield a lot of cookies I love to mix up a batch and freeze half. To freeze, shape into balls and place onto baking sheet. Place baking sheet into freezer for 30-60 minutes. Once frozen you can store in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Pull out frozen dough balls and bake from frozen, add an extra 2-4 minutes to the bake time.
Share Your Experience
I would love to hear about your experience making and enjoying my Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe! Feel free to tag me on Instagram or leave a review below. Your feedback helps me improve our recipes and provides inspiration to fellow bakers.
Save this recipe for later by simply using the pin button on the recipe card or any of the photos above. Happy cooking!
Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cups butter melted
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ½ cup discard
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Mix butter, sugars and discard. Add eggs and vanilla. Set aside.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
- Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture, do not overmix here. Leave a little bit of dry materials before adding in the chocolate chips. You want everything to be JUST incorporated.
- Chill in the fridge for four hours or as long as overnight for an extended ferment (do not do this on the counter and do not skip this step).
- Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Spoon out dough and roll into balls before placing on the pan. About 2-3 tbsp
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake.
I will never make chocolate chip cookies any other way ever again. These are heavenly! Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Do you use the butter straight from the fridge or do you soften it?
Straight from the fridge is my favorite here. However, if I can’t use my stand mixer then I will use softened.
All my sourdough and discard area frozen. I want to make cookies today. Can I substitute equal amounts flour and vinegar mixed to make 1/2 cup discard to use and get that little bit of sour taste? Have never done that but sounds like it might work. Thanks. Recipe looks wonderful
I have never tried it before so cannot say that it would work. You could try halfing the recipe incase it doesn’t turn out.
Thanks Kayla. I’ll give it a try with half recipe.
Kayla I did make the recipe but decided to use buttermilk instead. Not the same. They cookie was very good and is still my go to recipe but the buttermilk didn’t give it that tang that I expected. Will wait for the discard next time. 🙂 Thanks for your help.
Good to know! Thank you for the update.
Are you using just regular flour or unbleached flour?
I typically will use unbleached, but I have used bleached before and it works!
Our new favorite chocolate chip cookie! Baked some after refrigerating for 4 hours, and they were good. Let the remainder refrigerate overnight and baked some the next day… these were even better!. Froze the remainder using your chilled dough hack…now we have these delicious morsels ready to bake when we want them!?
Yay!! So glad that you enjoyed them as much as we do! Def so much better when left in the fridge overnight.
These are scrumptious! Grandkids loved them too – even though they are not keen on sourdough bread yet?
So so happy to hear that everyone loved them!
My friends say it’s the perfect “sweet and salty treat! I made them for our family Christmas gathering and my grown nieces and nephews were hiding them like Easter Eggs so they would have their own for later ! Lol. It’s safe to say they’re a major hit in my circle.
I am planning on making a batch for my bingo buddies Thursday, that’s where the real judgment will come. 😂
So glad they were a hit!
Kayla,
I just wanted to let you know that I have been using your recipe since last October. It is absolutely the best sourdough cookie recipe that I have found. I have been making butterscotch and chocolate chip sourdough cookies for my farm stand and co-workers. Everyone raves over them and asks for the recipe. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much Jennie! I am so happy to hear that you love this recipe as much as we do!
Are you using salted or unsalted butter ? Also have you ever sprinkled sea salt on top after ?
Honestly almost always use salted butter 😅 UNLESS I want to sprinkle with finishing salt. Then I will use unsalted butter.