Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies [soft + chewy]
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Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies are an essential sourdough recipe to have in your collection. Not only do these chocolate chip cookies 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, whisk and spoon (no stand mixer necessary).
These sourdough discard 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 (seriously I always make a double batch of these)!
What Makes This Recipe Different?
No Brown Butter - Most sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipes use brown butter. I'm a busy mom who doesn't have time for brown butter (unless it's whipped brown butter to spread on my sourdough toast). These cookies just use melted, salted butter, but still have the best flavor!
Long Fermented Cookie Dough - These cookies are best when the dough is fermented overnight in the fridge. Take the time to your sourdough starter to work its magic.
Totally Customizable - You can customise this chewy sourdough discard 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 salt (I've added a tonne of variation ideas further down the page!). You could also make these cookies into a sourdough cookie skillet or change them up into these sourdough chocolate chip cookie bars or even sourdough brookies. You might also like these sourdough oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Ingredients
- 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!
- Baking Soda - not to be confused with baking powder.
- 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). Cornstarch helps the cookies to bake soft and stay soft.
- Salt - Just a pinch of regular cooking salt in the cookie dough and then you can add some flaky salt to the top of the cookies if you want to before baking.
- Chocolate Chips - I always use semisweet chocolate chips for this recipe (I make so many of these sourdough chocolate chip cookies that I buy my chocolate chips in 2kg bags from Costco!).
- Sourdough Starter or Sourdough Discard - you can use either active sourdough starter or discard for this recipe, it doesn't make any difference to the final outcome.
- Melted Butter - I've used salted butter, melted and then allowed to cool for a little bit so it's not too hot when it's mixed with the eggs. You can use unsalted butter if you prefer.
- Sugar - You'll need a mix of granulated white and brown sugar for these gooey sourdough chocolate chip cookies. Use dark brown sugar for extra sweetness.
- Egg + Egg Yolk
- Vanilla Extract
How To Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
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! You'll often find me in the kitchen mixing up a batch of these before bed (I'm a bit of a night owl). They ferment overnight and can be baked the next day.
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.
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.
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 (but anything from around 12 to 24 hours is fine).
The next day, when you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 165ºC (330ºF) and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Use a cookie scoop or large spoon to scoop out balls of dough. I've used a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop for this recipe. Place the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets.
Place the cookies into the oven for 13 to 16 minutes or until they are golden brown on top but still molten in the centre. The baking time may differ depending on your oven.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for around 10 minutes. The cookies will continue to bake for a few minutes after they are removed from the oven and will firm up as they cool. After 10 minutes, carefully transfer to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely. 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.
Kate's Recipe Tips
- 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.
- 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.
- If your cookies are a little misshapen, use a biscuit cutter to swirl the cookies into a more round shape as soon as they come out of the oven.
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 sweet chocolate chips, pecans, rolled oats and sweetened coconut flakes or turn these chocolate chip cookies into sourdough s'mores cookies. Check out these other sourdough discard recipes and other sourdough cookie recipes too!
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 ziplock 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 balls in a freezer-safe bag and bake cookies as you want them. I freeze the dough into balls and then place into a ziplock 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. You might also enjoy these other sourdough cookie recipes that freeze really well.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you bake room temperature sourdough cookie dough, it will spread as soon as it hits the oven giving you flat cookies. Ideally, pop it in the fridge for around 24 hours. When you scoop the cookie dough out, try to make sure it's in a ball and don't flatten the dough balls out before they go in the oven.
Sourdough chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy with a unique sourdough tang. They aren't necessarily sour, as this can be offset by the the use of brown and white sugars. Sourdough cookies are a bit more complex and tangy in flavor than a regular cookie though.
This recipe has not been developed with gluten free flour, so I don't recommend using it. I developed the recipe to work with all purpose flour.
Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Cookies
Video
Equipment
- Baking Tray
- Cookie Scopp (I've used a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop)
Ingredients
- 350 g All Purpose Flour
- 3 g Baking Soda
- 6 g Corn Starch
- 2 g Salt
- 250 g Chocolate Chips (semi-sweet are best)
- 100 g Sourdough Starter (or Sourdough Discard)
- 180 g Salted Butter (Melted)
- 160 g Brown Sugar
- 100 g White Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 5 g Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Place some of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, corn starch, salt and chocolate chips) into a large mixing bowl and combine. Set this aside.
- 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.
- Now pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to form the cookie dough.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place into the fridge for 12 to 24 hours.
- The next day, when you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 165C (330F) and line two cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a cookie scoop or large spoon to scoop out balls of dough. I have used a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop for this recipe. Place the dough balls onto the prepared baking sheets (press the balls down just a little bit).
- Place the cookies into the oven for 13 to 16 minutes at 165C (330F) or until they are golden brown on top but still molten in the centre.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the tray for around 10 minutes. The cookies will continue to bake for a few minutes after they are removed from the oven and will firm up as they cool. After 10 minutes, carefully transfer to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
These are literally THE BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever made! Idk that I will ever make a different recipe again.
Hi,
Can I make these cookies, separate onto a baking sheet and then freeze to bake at another time? Would thawing them overnight be sufficient time for starter to do it’s thing?
Thank you
You can. You don't really need to thaw them - just let them soften a few minutes before baking as directed. 🙂
I have made this recipe twice now and have not changed a thing. They went into the fridge overnight then cooked for morning tea. Wow these are the best choc chip biscuits I have ever eaten or made. Thank you Pantry Mama for sharing so many free recipes, photos and all.
Wow………
Oh wow thank you for your kind words, I'm so glad you love them! xo
This genius recipe has replaced each and every chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever made in many years of baking . I add walnuts.
Thanks as always for a fantastic recipe!
I'm so glad you love this recipe! Oh yum walnuts would be such a delicious addition for sure xo
My son absolutely loves these cookies! I replace the chocolate chips with m&ms and white chocolate chips, make 50g cookies and bake at 320 for about 20 mins. And he devours them! He would if I’d let him.
Usually I double the recipe and freeze a bunch of dough in balls and then take them out to bake for the week.
Oh yum! I'll have to try it with m&ms for my 3 boys, they would love that! Such a great idea to freeze the sourdough cookie dough 🙂 Thanks so much for commenting xx
These are my go to cookie. Sometimes the mixture gets refrigerated and sometimes they are cooked straight away. I make a triple batch once a fortnight and freeze two batches, and they are always gone before baking day!
I'm confused do you use the discard or the active starter? I can't wait to make these!
You can use either active sourdough starter or sourdough discard for these cookies, it really doesn't matter since it's not providing any leavening.
How long can we leave in the freezer ! Thank you 🩷 best cookies in the world!!!!!!
Thank you, Marissa! They will keep for about 3-4 months if they last that long 😉
Hello, I am writing from Turkey. It's very nice, but it's sweetened to my taste, so next time I'll try to reduce the sugar.
I'm confused about the eggs. Is it 1 whole egg + 1 yolk?
One whole egg plus one egg yolk. 🙂
This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever made!! I would love to try to sub in cocoa powder to make them a chocolate base with peppermint chips! Any recommendation on how to sub in cocoa powder?
That sounds delicious! We haven't tried that with this recipe, so can't say for sure. But you can use this chocolate cookie recipe or this one (and leave out the filling) and add peppermint ships.
Try this recipe for the first time using my rice sourdough starter discard. When I made my new starter for this recipe, I did use bread flour instead of rye when I fed it. They came out so soft and chewy and just scrumptious. This recipe is a keeper
Absolutely the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I make these for everyone and they always beg for more. Perfection.
I made these for the first time, and they were devoured in two days. My husband said they are the best chocolate cookie I've ever made.
Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Hi Kate - we love these but I have a question; storage suggestions I live in Australia pretty hot summer - eg can I store in fridge and can these be frozen when made thanks ☺️
Hey Leah - I'm in Australia too and recommend not storing in plastic at all. I always store in a biscuit tin or glass jar as they stay much fresher this way. I keep all the tins from Christmas for this reason! There's no reason you can't put them in the fridge, but I find that they are fine at room temp. They do freeze well both before and after baking 🙂
Have you tried mixing in a stand mixer and achieved the same results as hand mixing?
That should work with the paddle attachment 🙂
Why not 2 eggs instead of 1 egg + 1 egg yolk?
The extra yolk helps give the cookies a nice chewy texture 🙂
Is this one egg plus an egg yolk? Or just the egg including the yolk?
Hi Sarah, It's one whole egg, plus an additional yolk.
I'm so glad I found you! I live in the US and I try and bake almost everything long ferment sourdough so to be healthier, and you do so many things sourdough! I've not even searched out all you do! And tho in the states, I prefer baking with metric measurements, it's so much more accurate and easier. Thank you.
Yay! We're so glad you're here, Karey! Kate is such a great baker and has so many delicious recipes here. Thank you so much for your comment. 🙂
How long would the cookie dough be good for in the fridge? Made the dough then forgot about it after 3 days. Want to make sure it’s still good to bake!
Yes it will still be good ... I've left mine a week and it's been fine when baked 🙂
I made these with sugar substitutes on a 1:1 basis. The dough was extremely stiff and the cookies didn’t spread out as I expected. I ended up smashing them down with a fork midway through. Do you think the substitute sugar (monk fruit/allulose) affected this? I haven’t baked all of them yet, so I have time to adjust or add something before I finish them tomorrow. They taste good 🙂
Yes, changing the sugar will definitely change the recipe. The brown sugar helps the cookies to spread, so changing this will definitely affect the structure of the cookie. I haven't used monk fruit or allulose so I can't comment on how to use them in this recipe, I'm sorry.
These are perfect and my go to recipe! Would love to add some pumpkin puree to them for Fall. Any suggestions on how much of the pumpkin puree to add? Would I need to alter other ingredients?
If you watch out towards the end of this week, I've got a sourdough pumpkin chocolate chip recipe coming! It will use 150g of pumpkin puree if that helps 😉 xx
In your sourdough chocolate chip recipe you say refrigerate for 24 hours in one paragraph and the next you say 12 hours. Which is it, 12 or 24?
Thank you.
You can refrigerate this recipe for as little as 2 hours or as much as 24 or even 48 hours, so it's really up to you! The flavor deepens the longer you leave it in the refrigerator.
Hello Pantrymama
why do you only use some of the mixed dry ingredients into the wet ingredients? When do you add the rest? It's not stated in your recipe.
All of the ingredients are added, it's just that the sugars (which are technically dry ingredients) are added to the wet ingredients, so I just say to add some of the dry ingredients, as otherwise, people might just add the sugars into the dry ingredients 🙂
Hi! Hoping to make these but unsure if using my discard straight from the refrigerator is okay? Does it need to get to room temp first? Thank you!
You can use sourdough discard straight from the fridge 🙂
Can I bake in convection setting? And if so could I put both cookie sheets in at the same time ? And what temp for convection?
I always use a fan forced oven (which is convection) so this temp will work for that, but of course, every oven is different, so keep an eye on yours and adjust as necessary. Yes I always bake multiple baking trays at the same time 🙂
Hi ,
How can I make these less sweet and so they’ll also flatten out when baking?
I did 20g less brown and regular sugar and they were not sweet enough but the full amount late time I tried were too sweet for me?
They should flatten out when you bake them. Try baking at a slightly higher temperature to help with this (every oven is different, so you might need to play around with temperature). The sugar is there, not only for the sweetness, but also for the structure and texture of the cookie, so I don't recommend playing with this. You could add less chocolate chips to reduce the sweetness. Another tip is to sprinkle the tops with flaky sea salt which can cut through the sweetness.
When will they go soft and chewy? I got them out of the oven several hours ago in airtight container.
If they aren't soft and chewy, then I would say they are a little overdone 🙂 You want them to be still soft in the centre when you remove them from the oven 🙂 Try adding a slice of bread into the container with the cookies and this should help post bake 🙂
These are far and above the best Chocolate Chip Cookies I have ever HAD - homemade or store bought - my deepest thanks for all of your hard work and generosity to share your recipe for making our "baking treasures" truly memorable.