Brown Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Thick, chewy and deep flavor - these brown butter sourdough chocolate chunk cookies are perfect to satisfy your sweet tooth. Add a sprinkle of sea salt for a more complex flavor or a little less flour for a thinner, crispier cookie.
Ingredients
- 113 grams unsalted butter 1/2 cup
- 185 grams dark brown sugar 3/4 cup
- 60 grams granulated sugar 1/4 cup
- 100 grams sourdough discard about 1/2 cup, see recipe notes
- 1 egg yolk from a large egg
- 4 grams vanilla extract 1 teaspoon
- 175 grams all purpose flour about 1 1/3 cups, see recipe notes
- 3 grams baking soda 1/2 teaspoon
- 3 grams baking powder 1/2 teaspoon
- 4 grams salt 1/2 teaspoon
- 175 grams chocolate chunks or chocolate chips, about 1 cup
- flaky sea salt if desired
Instructions
- Brown Butter: Heat the butter in a pan or pot on the stove over medium heat. Swirl the butter around and stir every few minutes until little brown flecks are on the bottom of the pan and the butter smells nutty and delicious. Be careful not to overheat as it can burn the butter. Pour the brown butter along with all the little brown bits on the bottom of the pan into a medium sized bowl and let sit for 5 minutes or up to a couple hours to cool.
- Add the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar to the bowl with the brown butter. Use a hand mixer and mix to combine.
- Mix in the egg yolk, sourdough discard and vanilla extract. Whip together with the mixer until the batter is cohesive and turns light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- To a small bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and fluff together. Pour the flour mixture into the cookie mixture and mix together until just combined. Add chocolate chunks (or chips) and stir into the dough.
- Place the whole bowl into the freezer and chill the dough for 10-15 minutes. It is possible to bake these cookies right away, but they will not be quite as puffy and will spread a lot more than the chilled dough. You can also chill the dough in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours or freeze the dough in small balls. Let the balls come back to "chilled" temperature before baking.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees convection. Scoop the dough into balls and place onto a parchment lined baking sheet (my favorite linked here, affiliate link), about 12 cookies per baking sheet. Sprinkle the top with flaky sea salt if desired.
- Bake cookies at 375 degrees convection for 7-8 minutes until cookies are puffed up and the edges are a little crispy. Let the cookies sit for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet to set up before removing. If your oven doesn't have a convection setting, preheat oven for 20 minutes and bake cookies at 400 degrees for 8-9 minutes.
- Repeat with the remaining cookie dough and enjoy!
Notes
Substitutions: This recipe has the best flavor with dark brown sugar. You can substitute for light brown sugar, but the cookies may have a little more sourdough tang.
Sourdough Discard: I feed my starter with equal weights of water and flour for a 100% hydration starter. If your starter is fed differently, you will want to adjust the amount of flour called for in the recipe; adding more flour for a starter that is fed with a higher percentage of water and less flour for a lower hydration starter. The longer your discard sits in the fridge, the more tangy flavor it will have AND the more runny it will be. If your discard is more runny, you may need to add a little extra flour to this cookie dough. I prefer using a younger discard that's a little thicker and not quite so tangy in this recipe to balance with the other flavors.
UPDATE Flour: This recipe was originally posted using volume measurements. I've updated the recipe to use grams. To make the cookie thin and crispy, use 140 grams of flour (about 1 cup). For a thicker cookie, use 1 1/3 cups flour, 175 grams. If your cookie dough feels too wet to scoop, add a little more flour.
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