Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies [soft + chewy]

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies are an essential sourdough recipe to have in your collection. Not only do they taste amazing, they will make your kitchen smell incredible, use up your sourdough discard and there's no brown butter in sight, making them simple to make with just a bowl and spoon.

These sourdough chocolate chip cookies can be made with active sourdough starter or sourdough discard. They're soft with a chewy texture in the middle and crisp edges (they're never cake-like) and will disappear from your cookie jar in record time!

You can customise this chewy sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipe with a few tweaks including changing the type of chocolate chips that you use, adding nuts or even a sprinkle of flaky sea salt (I've added a tonne of variation ideas further down the page!). You could also make these cookies into a sourdough cookie skillet!

If you want to try some other sourdough discard cookies, you might enjoy making these sourdough cowboy cookies, sourdough snickerdoodles, sourdough gingerbread cookies or sourdough Anzac biscuits (oatmeal cookies), sourdough thumbprint cookies or why not decorate these sourdough sugar cookies. Can you tell cookies are one of my favorite things? I've also popped all of my sourdough discard recipes here and all of my sourdough discard cookie recipes here.

What Is Sourdough Discard?

Sourdough discard is the portion of unfed starter that you remove before you feed your starter. You will generate quite a bit of discard while you're building your sourdough starter (it is essential to discard your starter before you feed it).

These cookies are a great way to use up your discard (you'll find loads of other ideas here). Once you've got a mature and active starter and you're baking sourdough bread regularly, you may not have as much discard. In this case, you can feed your starter a little extra to create some ... because cookies!!! They really are a great way to use up extra sourdough starter.

Here are 5 ways to strengthen your sourdough starter and here's how to increase the amount of starter you have in the jar.

How Long Can You Store Discard In The Fridge?

Because discard is unfed sourdough starter, it will not last indefinitely. It must be refrigerated (unless you are using it immediately after taking it out of the jar). You should try to use it within two weeks of putting it in the fridge. The reason being, the longer you leave it, the more sour it will become.

For this recipe I recommend using discard that's less than a few days old - you don't want your cookies to have too much of a sour flavor, particular because the dough is fermented overnight. In fact, maybe I should have called these overnight sourdough chocolate chip cookies.

You can read more about storing sourdough discard in the fridge here.

What's Different About Sourdough Cookies?

The thing that sets sourdough cookies apart from regular cookies is that sourdough discard contains water (generally 50%). Water isn't generally associated with cookies, so our technique in baking these must accomodate for this.

These cookies do not have any other liquid, apart from the sourdough discard and egg. You also need to chill this mixture down to allow it to rest and become firm. Refrigeration also helps to evaporate more of the water in the discard and concentrate the sugars.

I like the mixture after it's been in the fridge 24 hours - it tastes so much more complex and has a great sourdough tang! It also helps the cookies to spread less in the oven, giving you a better texture.

How To Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Sourdough chocolate chip cookies are pretty easy to make. Most of the time is waiting for the dough to chill in the fridge! It's a little bit like making delicious sourdough bread!

Here's how to make sourdough chocolate chip cookies with discard or active starter:

1. Place some of the dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking soda, corn starch, salt and chocolate chips) into a large bowl and combine. Set this aside.
   
2. Now in a separate bowl, combine sourdough starter, melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg + egg yolk and vanilla extract. Stir together until they resemble runny caramel.
   
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and bring together using a spatula. Once you've brought the dough together, cover it in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. It's best to refrigerate for 24 hours if you can.
   
4. The next day, when you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 165C (329F) and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
   
5. Use a cookie scoop or large spoon to scoop out balls of dough. I have used 30g dough balls for this recipe. Place the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets.
   
6. Place the cookies into the oven for 12 to 13 minutes or until they are golden brown on top but still molten in the centre.
   
7. Remove from the oven and carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool. The cookies will continue to bake for a few minutes after they are removed from the oven and will firm up as they cool.

Ingredient Notes

I wanted to explain a little bit about why some of the ingredients have been included in this recipe ... just in case you were curious or haven't made chewy chocolate chip cookies before.

• brown sugar (or dark brown sugar) - it's best to use a higher proportion of brown sugar to white granulated sugar for a softer, chewier texture.
  
• corn starch - a little cornstarch will give you a softer cookie (cornstarch is called cornflour in Australia and the UK. It's the white powder you add to gravy or sauces to thicken them, not yellow cornmeal).
  
• all purpose flour - you want to use flour with a lower protein for the best cookies (I know, you are used to using high protein bread flour for sourdough bread) but trust me on this, stick with all purpose flour!

Must Read Tips for The Best Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Now this is a really simple recipe ... but there a few things you need to do to make sure you get the best results! You want chewy cookies that aren't caky or dry with lovely chocolate chunks evenly distributed throughout.

• Make sure you melt the butter for this recipe before you start. Letting it cool just slightly before you add it to the other ingredients will give you the best result. You don't want it to have cooled too much - it should still be slightly warm. I use salted butter in this recipe, but you can use unsalted butter if you prefer.
  
• Adding the chocolate chips to the flour mixture ensures they are evenly distributed as they are slightly coated in flour before the liquid ingredients are poured in.
  
• Don't be tempted to add more flour to the mixture - even if you think it seems too wet for cookie dough! Adding more flour will give you a cake-like cookie.
  
• Refrigerating the dough will give you the best sourdough chocolate chip cookies. It means they won't spread so much in the oven and you'll get a chewier, softer texture to the cooled cookies. I also love that refrigerating them overnight means that the dough ferments and the sourdough bacteria get to work their magic on your cookie dough! While you won't reap the same health benefits as eating sourdough bread, they're still doing lots of good!
  
• Don't over cook these cookies. Remove them from the oven when the centre still looks wet or they will be too dry when they cool.
  
• I've used chocolate chips in my cookies. If you prefer a more "molten" or melted chocolate texture to your cookies, you can use chocolate chunks or chopped chocolate.

Tasty Flavor Variations

There are lots of variations that you can make with these cookies. Here are a few of my family's favorites:

• Add 100g of roasted peanuts along with the chocolate chips for a delicious peanut twist.
  
• White Chocolate, Cranberry & Macadamia - Replace the milk chocolate chips with 50g each of white chocolate chips, dried cranberries and macadamia nuts.
  
• Add a few tablespoons of your favorite chai spice or pumpkin spice to the mixture when you mix the dry ingredients for a spiced twist (seriously so good!).
  
• Swap the milk chocolate chips for dark chocolate chips and sprinkle them with flaky sea salt before baking.

You might also enjoy these sourdough cowboy cookies full of chocolate chips, pecans, rolled oats and sweetened coconut flakes.

These sourdough discard cookies would make a gorgeous gift! We love to gift them to our neighbours, teachers and friends!

Size Matters

When you are scooping out the cookie dough for these cookies, size matters! In the pictures in this blog post I've used 30g balls of cookie dough. I find this is the perfect size to ensure a chewier cookie.

For extra large bakery style cookies you could use up to 100g of cookie dough. You'll just have to bake them a little longer if you're making cookies this size.

Storing & Freezing

You can keep these cookies fresh for about 3 or 4 days in an airtight container (although they don't last long in my house). I find they stay freshest in a glass jar (I absolutely love having chewy sourdough chocolate chip cookies in my glass cookie jar). Avoid storing them in a plastic container.

These can be frozen too. I freeze baked cookies on a cookie tray and then pop into a ziploc bag. That way I can take out a couple to pop into lunchboxes when I need them. They defrost well.

You can also freeze the cookie dough and bake cookies as you want them. I freeze the dough into balls and then place into a ziploc bag so I can grab out a handful as I want them. Pop the frozen balls onto a baking tray and let them soften a little before baking as per normal.

Frequently Asked Questions