Life-Changing Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies (The BEST!)
These sourdough chocolate chip cookies will be the BEST homemade cookies you’ll ever bake. This easy sourdough recipe features a soft, gooey center that perfectly contrasts the crisp edges. Best of all, it is PACKED with chocolate!
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Ah, I have a love affair with chocolate chip cookies. What’s not to love about them? They hit the spot every time!
Today, we are making sourdough chocolate chip cookies. I’ve tested countless sourdough cookie recipes in my kitchen for over a year to perfect this recipe. Needless to say, I’ve put in a ton of work to develop these cookies!
I’ve developed all the sourdough recipes on my website and they’ve gone viral online. A couple of fan favorites are my ultra-moist sourdough vanilla cupcakes and my perfectly soft sourdough sandwich bread recipe. Let’s not forget the sourdough beignets recipe I developed that tastes BETTER than the Disneyworld beignets!
Likewise, I’m pretty proud of this sourdough cookie recipe and I know that you’ll love it. So, let’s get started with the perfect sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Why Are These My FAVORITE Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- Crispy edges with a soft and gooey middle
- PACKED with chocolate chunks in every bite!
- Bakery-style BIG.
- The most indulgent cookie you will ever make.
- The sourdough adds a slight tang, which goes oh so well in this sweet recipe.
Key Ingredients For Sourdough Discard Cookies
The cookie dough is made with your standard cookie ingredients: flour, baking soda/powder, salt, butter, vanilla, etc. However, unlike your regular run-of-the-mill cookie recipe, this one features a (not so) secret ingredient: sourdough starter discard.
- Sourdough Discard: Adds a slight tang to these cookies that pairs well with the sweet chocolate. It’s better to use discard than an active sourdough starter.
- Browned Butter: Adds a delicious nuttiness to the cookies. This process takes 15 minutes on the stovetop but I promise it is worth it! Plus, since sourdough discard had liquid, we need to remove liquid from the recipe elsewhere, or else the cookies will be flat.
- Brown Sugar and White Sugar: brown sugar adds flavor, moisture, and a golden-brown color. White sugar adds sweetness, and texture, and helps the cookie spread during baking.
- All-Purpose Flour: I’ve tested this recipe with half cake flour and half bread flour. Honestly, the
- Chocolate Chips: I use over one pound of semi-sweet chocolate chips (yes, that’s a lot!). Feel free to use other types of chocolate chips or even a chopped-up dark chocolate bar.
- Egg Yolk and One Whole Egg: The extra egg yolk is a surefire way to make these discard chocolate chip cookies super chewy.
2 Important Tips For Success
1. Brown The Butter. This step is worth it and needed! To brown the butter, you need to cook butter on the stovetop on medium heat in a stainless steel pan. Although this process takes 15 minutes, the flavor the browned butter adds is so intense that we might as well be camping (ba-dum tush!).
Not only does this process add a ton of flavor, but it’s also needed. Since these are sourdough cookies and discard is 50% liquid, the discard adds liquid to the cookie batter. If the cookie batter has too much liquid, then the cookies will spread too much during the baking process. We do NOT want this.
2. Chill The Cookie Dough. For best results, you must chill the cookie dough in the fridge. Chilling the cookie dough is so important! Before baking these cookies, the dough must be chilled in the refrigerator for at least two hours. This helps the cookies stay thick.
For an even better cookie, I recommend chilling the dough for 24 hours or up to 72 hours. Even baking the next day will yield better results. The three-day fermentation in the refrigerator helps develop that sourdough tang and adds even more flavor to these delicious cookies.
Can I Freeze The Dough?
Yes, you absolutely can freeze the cookie dough. After you roll them into balls, freeze them in a large freezer-safe bag.
I bake them straight from the freezer and keep them in the oven for an extra two minutes. This way, you can batch-make these cookies and pop them into the oven whenever you’re hungry.
Other Sourdough Discard Recipes You’ll LOVE
Ultimate Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Rolls
Simply Easy Fried Sourdough Beignets Recipe with Milk
Moist Vanilla Sourdough Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Best Sourdough Discard Scones with Chocolate Chips
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
- 1 ¼ Cups (284 g) Unsalted Butter 284 grams; 2 ½ sticks
- 3 ¼ Cups (408 g) AP Flour 408 grams
- 1 ¼ Teaspoons (1.25 Teaspoons) Baking Soda
- 1 ½ Teaspoons (1.5 Teaspoons) Baking Powder
- 1 ½ Teaspoons (1.5 Teaspoons) Coarse Salt
- 1 ¼ Cups (275 g) Light Brown Sugar 275 grams
- 1 Cup plus 2 Tablespoons (225 g) Granulated Sugar 225 grams
- 1 (1) Large Egg room temperature
- 1 (1) Large Egg Yolk room temperature
- ¼ Cup (100 g) Sourdough Discard 100 grams; room temperature
- 2 Teaspoons (2 Teaspoons) Vanilla Extract
- 1 ¼ Pounds (567 g) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips 567 grams
- 1 Teaspoon (1 Teaspoon) Sea Salt for sprinkling; optional.
Instructions
- Brown The Butter: Place the butter into a stainless steel or nonstick pan. Turn on the stove to medium heat. Stir the butter the entire time to keep it moving. Once the butter melts, it will begin to foam and sizzle. Keep stirring. The butter will turn golden brown in about 5-8 minutes from when you start. You will see bits of dark brown specks at the bottom of the pan. Turn off the stove and pour the butter into a heat-proof bowl. Let the butter cool for 15 minutes.
- Combine Flour Mixture: In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Make sure the ingredients are evenly distributed. Set aside.
- Make Wet Mixture: In the bowl of your stand mixer, add the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed until combined. Then, add one egg yolk and one egg, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined. Then, add the sourdough discard and mix on medium-low until combined.
- Combine Wet Mixture and Flour Mixture: In the bowl of the stand mixer, add the flour mixture. Mix on low speed until combined and you see no more dry specks of flour. This will take 5-15 seconds.
- Add Chocolate: Add the chocolate chips in the stand mixture bowl. Mix on medium-low speed until the chocolate is evenly distributed (roughly 30 seconds).
- Shape: Cover the cookie dough and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes (this makes it easier to shape). Using a cookie scoop or measuring cup, scoop 3 ½ ounces of dough (this recipe makes big cookies). Roll into a ball, making sure the shape is round. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
- Chill: If you plan on baking these the same day, cover with plastic wrap and chill the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours. However, I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough for at least 24 hours and up to 72 hours.
- Bake: Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place 6-9 cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle the cookies with coarse sea salt. Bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes and let them cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. After 10 minutes of cooling on a baking sheet, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The cookie dough freezes great! You can batch-make these cookies, shape the dough, and freeze. Store baked cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to four days.
- No Mixer? No problem! Feel free to make this recipe by hand. It’ll take a little elbow grease but you can definitely do it.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Stand Mixer | Kitchen Scale | Baking Sheets | Cooling Rack
- Brown Butter: Cook the butter on the stovetop on medium heat. Don’t stop until you see brown bits on the bottom of the pan. The brown bits are the flavor!
- Can I add nuts or different add-ins?: Yes, you absolutely can. You will need to measure by volume and not by weight if you want to use different mix-ins. For instance, replace one cup of chocolate chips with one cup of nuts, dried berries, white chocolate chips, etc.
Oh, ho ho! These were absolutely amazing!!! We had grown our sourdough starter until it filled up the whole bowl it was in and lemme tell you it was a large bowl. My mom and I were looking for some sourdough discard recipes that would use up quite a bit so we could get our Waldough to a reasonable size. Me and my sister made these for our family, and they were a huge crowd pleaser. They were sooooo crisp on the outside and unbelievably chewy in the middle. It was as if you made a cookie out of caramel, and you got that texture, but it tastes like the best chocolate chip cookie you’ve ever tasted. It basically melted in your mouth. We doubled the batch and got a total of 34 cookies, and they were gigantic. We did put them in the fridge to rest, but we’re a bunch of impatient people so an hour was all they rested for. They flattened more than Xena’s did for sure, but they were still a delightfully thin and crispy cookie! Thanks for this amazing recipe!
Hi, Eva! First off, I love that your starter’s name is “Waldough” LOL! That’s such a creative name for a starter.
I am glad that you and your family love my sourdough chocolate chip cookies recipe! I agree, it’s tough to wait during the resting period. I suggest that next time, you make a total of 68 cookies (first half to eat the day of and the other half to eat the next day Haha).
Have a great week!
Best,
Xena
Am anxious to make this recipe but don’t understand what you mean by discard. I have about two cups of active starter in the frig now. Can I use that’?
Hi Debbie, sourdough discard is basically active starter that you “discard” from the starter. Yes, you can use the two cups of starter that you have in the refrigerator. It is best to use “unfed starter”. If you have any more questions, let me know. I am always here to help.
Best,
Xena
Hi! My daughter and I are allergic to eggs. Can the recipe go without? Or do you recommend a substitute?
Hello Allie,
I have not tried this recipe without eggs and I do not know how it would turn out. If you try it, please let me know and leave a comment! It will help out other readers.