Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Crisp edges and a chewy middle, these sourdough chocolate chip cookies are packed with flavor and loaded with chocolate. They are the perfect chocolate chip cookie that is quick, easy and can be mixed completely by hand. You're going to love them!
Servings: 20 cookies
Ingredients
- 113 grams unsalted butter about 1/2 cup, browned or melted
- 185 grams brown sugar (dark or light) about 3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons, see recipe notes
- 60 grams granulated sugar about 1/4 cup
- 100 grams sourdough discard scant 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 about 1/2 teaspoon
- 3 grams baking powder about 1/2 teaspoon
- 4 grams salt about 1/2 teaspoon
- 175 grams chocolate chunks or chocolate chips, about 1 cup
- flaky sea salt if desired
Instructions
- Brown the Butter: Heat the butter in a small to medium-sized pan on the stove over medium heat. Swirl the butter around and stir every minute. The butter will bubble up and fairly quickly, and you will notice a nutty smell and see little brown flecks appearing on the bottom of the pan when you stir the butter. Immediately remove the pan from the stove (the butter can burn quickly if left for too long on the stove).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 a few minutes to cool.Note: Melted butter can be substituted for the browned butter if you prefer.
- Mix Wet Ingredients: Add brown sugar and granulated sugar to the bowl. Mix together with a kitchen spatula or wooden spoon. Add the sourdough discard and stir together to combine completely. Mix in the egg yolk and vanilla extract until smooth and combined.
- Mix Dough: To a small bowl, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and fluff together. Pour the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix together until just combined. Add chocolate chips and stir into the dough until evenly dispersed. Note: If your sourdough discard is on the runny side, you may need to add a little extra flour to get the right texture of the dough. I like using a younger discard in this recipe since it’s thicker and gives a milder flavor, but if you enjoy the tang of an older, runnier discard, just be aware your dough may turn out wetter and need some adjustment with extra flour.
- Scoop and Chill Dough Balls: Scoop the dough into balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet or in an air-tight container. Cover the cookie dough balls and place into the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Alternatively stick the dough balls in the freezer and chill for 15-20 minutes before baking. It is possible to bake these cookies right away, but they will not be quite as thick and will spread a lot more than the chilled dough, resulting in a thinner and crispier cookie. You can also chill/long-ferment the dough in the refrigerator for up to 72 hours. Dough can be frozen and stored for 3 months. Let the balls come back to "chilled" temperature before baking.
- Bake Cookies: Preheat oven to 375ºF convection or 400ºF non-convection (see recipe note). Place 12 dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spread apart so they won't bake into each other. Add a few more chocolate chips to the top of each cookie if desired. Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes until edges are crispy and cookies are puffed up. The middle will still be a little gooey. Sprinkle the tops with flaky sea salt if desired. Let the cookies sit for about 5-10 minutes on the baking sheet to set up before removing to a cooling rack. Note: If you want uniform, circular cookies, take a round biscuit cutter and place it around one of the hot cookies straight out of the oven. Move your hand around in a cricle around the hot cookie.
- Repeat with the remaining cookie dough balls and enjoy. These cookies are especially delicious still slightly warm from the oven.
Video
Notes
Convection Bake: I almost always bake my cookies using the convection feature on my oven. This is what gives the crispy edges but a gooey center. If your oven doesn’t have convection bake, use 400ºF as the temperature and preheat your oven about 20 minutes before baking your first batch of cookies.
Brown Sugar: Use dark brown sugar for a deeper/richer flavor. Light brown sugar also makes a very good cookie.
Flaky Sea Salt: I like to sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top of the cookies right when they come out of the oven. This is optional.
Flour: For a thinner and crispier cookie, you can either decrease the flour in the cookie to about 140 grams or 1 cup of flour or bake the cookies immediately after mixing the dough (they will spread quite a bit). If your cookie dough feels too wet to scoop, add a little more flour. If using soft white whole wheat flour in this recipe, increase the flour to 225 grams.
Recipe Update: Originally this recipe called for using a hand-mixer to whip together the wet ingredients. The recipe also called exclusively for dark brown sugar and for the entire bowl of dough to be refrigerated before scooping the cookie dough balls. Over the years I've moved to mixing the dough with a wooden spoon or kitchen spatula. I also tend to use dark brown or light brown sugar and enjoy both flavors. Dark brown sugar will give a deeper flavor. I like to scoop my dough balls and refrigerate the dough ball instead of the entire bowl of dough. They chill faster that way - but you can use either method.
Sourdough Discard: If your sourdough discard is on the runny side, you may need to add a little extra flour to get the right texture of the dough. I like using a younger discard in this recipe since it’s thicker and gives a milder flavor, but if you enjoy the tang of an older, runnier discard, just be aware your dough may turn out wetter and need some adjustment with extra flour.
I feed my sourdough 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.
Nutrition
Calories: 175kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 139mg | Potassium: 73mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 146IU | Calcium: 25mg | Iron: 1mg
