Here in the U.S., we will seemingly never tire of the chocolate chip cookie. Peek into just about any bakery counter and you’ll see some iteration: thin and crisp, mounded and cakey, sometimes with fat flakes of salt showered overtop, maybe some nuts. And because the cookie is just so beloved, it feels natural that we here at The Perfect Loaf should enter a recipe into the canon. Of course, that means a sourdough chocolate chip cookie. Specifically, sourdough starter discard chocolate chip cookies. (Should we call them SSDCCCs? Whew!)
Chocolate chip cookies have been delighting Americans (formally) since 1938, when Ruth Wakefield, who ran the Toll House restaurant in Massachusetts chopped up a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar and folded it into a simple vanilla cookie dough. The dough’s base is butter, sugar (typically white for spreading and tenderness, and brown for chewy denseness), eggs, vanilla, flour, some kind of chemical leavener, and chocolate chips. When reformulating it to incorporate a full cup of sourdough starter, we’ll make some adjustments to the liquid and flour, but otherwise, this recipe is pretty classic.
Eliminate Excess Water By Browning Butter and Omitting Egg White
As is the case in my recipe for sourdough starter discard sugar cookies, slowly browning 226 grams (1 cup) of butter on the stove allows some—about 20% or 40 grams, to be more specific—of its water to evaporate, leaving room to add that moisture back in via sourdough starter discard. Browning the butter also creates a lovely toasty flavor that emphasizes brown sugar’s caramel notes.
I also know that I can remove excess liquid from a cookie dough via egg whites, which are about 90% water. Perhaps you’ve noticed that many chocolate chip cookie recipes include whole eggs and an egg yolk? That extra yolk adds a little extra fat to the cookies, ultimately creating a fudgier texture (just like in these discard oatmeal raisin cookies). The resulting recipe calls for three egg yolks, but with compensating liquid from the starter to mimic two egg whites (70 grams total). That plus the water from the butter adds up officially to 115 grams liquid, or 230 grams starter discard. To make things simpler, I rounded down just a smidge to 220 grams, or 1 cup.
Sourdough Starter Discard Replaces Some the Removed Liquid and Some Dry Flour
With 220 grams of starter—cold from the fridge or ripe from a recent feeding—I could remove 110 grams of dry flour. A traditional cookie recipe’s bakers’ ratio dictates 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part sugar (definitely a different ratio than our flaky Cinnamon Toast Cookies). For a chewier cookie, a 1:1:1 ratio is recommended. I played with this a bit and I ended up with about 1 part each sugar and flour and sugar to .65 fat (butter and egg yolk). This ensured the cookie had enough structure to not spread too flat and the right amount of sweetness to offset the sourdough’s tang.
Some bakers use bread flour to get an extra-chewy cookie. If you have some and want to try it, go for it! But I say look no further than all-purpose flour. (And considering I feed my sourdough starter with AP and rye, there was no need to bring in another.) Of course, if you wanted to add a little earthiness to the cookies, you could swap in whole wheat or buckwheat flour for 25 to 50% of the dry all-purpose flour.
Semisweet Chocolate Is Ideal
I typically like bittersweet (at least 70%) chocolate in my cookies, but since the sourdough starter can be quite tangy, something a little sweeter, like semisweet (60%) is perfect. Technically speaking for a chocolate chip cookie to be so-named, it should probably involve chips—but I’ll admit I used chopped chocolate for these photos.
Rest the Dough For at Least an Hour for Extra Flavorful, Gooey-Centered Cookies
Resting cookie dough is a true exercise in the phrase “good things come to those who wait.” In the time the dough sits, all of the flour will fully hydrate and the melted butter will resolidify. Melted butter makes a denser, fudgy-chewy cookie (as opposed to creamed butter, which makes pillowy cookies, thanks to the air whipped in), but it can cause excess spreading. Rested, the cold fat doesn’t remelt as quickly when it hits the hot oven. These cookies have a fair amount of sugar, which also encourages spreading. You do need the sweetness to offset the tang of the starter, but resting the dough allows sugar’s hygroscopic properties to work their magic, absorbing moisture in the dough.
The time also allows for the flavors to meld a bit: Even just one hour in the fridge will yield a remarkably better-tasting cookie, but you can let them rest for up to 24 hours. The longer the rest time, the colder the dough, meaning the cookies will bake a smidge slower, and you’ll wind up with gooier centers.
Many cookie recipes encourage days of “aging” the batter. When it comes to these, the starter discard will age as well, developing a tangier flavor. Because of this, it’s best to limit the dough-resting stage to 24 hours. Waiting longer to bake? Scoop the rested dough into balls and freeze them. From there, bake the cookies as written (no need to defrost, but give them an extra few minutes in the oven).
For Picture-Perfect Cookies, Use Food Styling Tips
Ever wondered why the cookies in photos are perfectly round, with stunning flecks of chocolate studding the surface, while yours are oblong and the chocolate is lost? Two major tips I’ve learned from working in food styling can be used to diagnose both. Before baking, add a few extra pieces of chocolate to the top of each dough ball—you can hold off on mixing in 50 grams or so from the main recipe, or just add more. Either way, they’ll stay on the surface as the dough bakes.
As for perfectly round cookies, as soon as they come out of the oven, place a bowl or biscuit cutter (and keep it handy for these sourdough discard biscuits, next!) that’s slightly larger than the cookies over them and give it a little swirl, which encourages the edges to tuck in. You can also use this tip if you find the cookies weren’t placed far enough apart from each other on the pan and they’ve run into each other.
Bake Just Four Cookies Per Tray
It will seem like you can fit more than four cookie dough balls on a half sheet pan (and you can, physically.) But trust that these will bake into big (four-inch!) cookies, and to ensure they have room to spread without running into each other, four is the limit, leaving at least 3 inches of space between each dough ball. You can, however, bake two trays at a time. Follow the rules and you’ll be left with masterpieces.
Bake the Cookies Until “Medium Rare”
Baking cookies “medium-rare,” aka removing them from the oven when the centers are just barely set, leaves you with a crisp-edged, gooey-centered (when warm, or chewy-centered when cooled) cookie. They will seem like they could use a few more minutes, but if you let them cool on the sheet pan for 5 minutes before diving in, you’ll find the timing is actually perfect.
Print
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 13 minutes
- Yield: 19 cookies
- Category: Dessert, snack
- Cuisine: American
Description
These sourdough chocolate chip cookies cleverly incorporate discarded starter by removing excess moisture through browned butter and egg yolks, creating a perfect balance of tang and sweetness. The dough needs at least an hour of rest time to develop flavor and achieve crisp edges with a gooey center.
Ingredients
- 226 grams (1 cup, 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 220 grams (1 cup) light brown sugar
- 100g (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 250 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 5 grams (1 teaspoon) baking powder
- 3 grams (1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal or ½ teaspoon Morton) kosher salt
- 1 grams (¼ teaspoon) baking soda
- 42 grams (3 large) egg yolks
- 9 grams (2 teaspoons) vanilla extract
- 220 grams (1 cup) sourdough starter discard (unfed, 100% hydration)
- 196 grams (7 ounces, heaping 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips; or chopped semisweet chocolate
- Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Place the butter in a small saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Melt the butter until it starts to foam and sputter, about 3 minutes. Whisking often, continue to cook the butter until it starts to quiet down, smells nutty, and turns deeply golden brown, 5-7 minutes. As you whisk, try to lift any browning milk solids that are stuck to the pot. Remove from the heat and immediately pour into a large heatsafe bowl placed over a digital scale, making sure to scrape in as many browned bits stuck to the pan as possible. You should have about 180-190 grams butter remaining. Whisk both sugars into the hot brown butter until combined. Let the mixture cool slightly while you prep the dry ingredients.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Whisk in the egg yolks and vanilla into the butter and sugar mixture until combined. Whisk in the sourdough discard until smooth. Switch to a spatula and fold in the flour mixture and the chocolate. Transfer the dough to the fridge to let it rest for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, the dough rests, preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC) with a rack in the upper and lower third, and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Use a #16 (2-ounce; ¼-cup) cookie scoop to portion out mounds of dough (each should weigh about 70 grams). Roll each mound into a ball and then arrange 4 balls evenly on each sheet pan. It will seem like you could fit more: don’t be tempted! These are big cookies and they spread—make sure there’s at least 3 inches of space between each dough ball. Store remaining dough balls in the fridge until you’re ready to bake.
- Bake two pan of cookies at the same time, swapping oven racks halfway through baking, until the cookies are golden and set at the edges and slightly matte and barely set in the center, 11 to 13 minutes. If the bottom or top of your oven runs hotter, check that tray of cookies at the earliest finish mark. They may look quite puffy at this point, but will settle into wrinkles as they cool. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with flaky salt. Let cool on the sheet pans for 5 minutes before eating or transferring to cooling racks. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Can I Use Chopped Chocolate Instead of Chocolate Chips?
Yes! Chips are classic, but I actually think chopped chocolate looks nicer. Use what you have!
Can I Skip Resting the Cookie Dough?
I wouldn’t! There are real reasons to rest the dough (see above), all of which will yield a better cookie. It’s important to rest the dough for at least 1 hour before baking. Feed your starter, clean up the kitchen, preheat the oven, and you’ll find the time speeds by.
How Do I Get Perfectly Round Cookies?
For the most perfectly round cookies, place a bowl or biscuit cutter that’s slightly larger than the cookies over each finished cookie and swirl a few times.
Can I Freeze the Dough And Bake Cookies Later?
Yes! One of life’s great pleasures is cookie dough in the freezer. After resting the dough for 1 or up to 24 hours, scoop the dough into balls. Place them (without touching, but they can be snug) on a parchment-lined sheet pan and freeze until solid, about 2 hours. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 6 months. When you’re ready for a cookie, bake as directed, giving them a couple more minutes in the oven as needed to hit the visual indicators.
Can I Make These Cookies Smaller?
Yes! Form 50-gram balls of dough and bake 6 to a sheet pan, evenly spaced apart. Start checking them for doneness at 9 minutes. Making smaller cookies also means the total yield will be higher—we all know that more cookies is never a bad thing.
What’s Next?
In the mood for more cookies? Check out these discard sugar cookies or even oatmeal raisin cookies.
Or, see our collection of sourdough starter discard recipes for more ways to put that starter discard to use.
57 Comments
My friend made these and they were PHENOMENAL! Im excited to bake them and wondering about using "bake" versus "convection" how should I adjust my recipe for the latter or is not recommended?
Baking notes:
Followed the recipe, with a discard that uses about 25% WW flour. Used TJ's Pound Plus chocolate, which is 72% dark cacao. (It's called 'pound plus' because its 500g.) I went with 35g +/-size, which comes out on average at 3 inch diameter fully baked. I like the size. I held back some of the chocolate to follow the point on styling, but found, with chopped chocolate, it doesn't really add anything visual. In fact it looks a bit of a mess in that sense. Chips may work better there. I baked one sheet after a 4-hour retard, and then the balance the next morning, so about 18 hr retard. The longer retard definitely changed the texture to the better, but i couldn't tell the difference in the taste. I baked the first batch for 12 minutes at a true 375F, and in retrospect, that wasn't long enough. I baked the middle batches for around 15 minutes total, and that improved. The final batch increased the temp to 395F, and that seemed to be the sweet spot. This dough doesn't brown as I would have expected, but i learned from the multiple batches to look for the browning to reach the outer ring of the top. Don't wait for the top to brown entirely, or the bottoms will overcook. So I would start with 12 minutes, then keep an eye on for the browning. It is important to let the sheets cool before moving the cookies, as in the recipe, about 5 minutes. These cookies are soft and delicate, so need to be treated with care. I tore a few in the first batches, and learned that you may need to spin the pans around to release the edges of each cookie before lifting.
The taste is impressive. Would definitely do again. Way ahead of a traditional CCC.
I owe Rebecca an apology. The first time I made these they were meh. I recently tried the recipe again and my errors were clear: underbrowning the butter and baking them cold or from the freezer. They’ve made me excited to try more discard recipes.
Thanks for the great recipe! I've made delicious sourdough CCC before but couldn't remember how so tried this recipe. The browned butter is an incredible flavor. My starter is half whole grain rye and I also subbed rye for 50g of the flour. I agree I would have liked s little more salt in the dough but the flavor and texture are incredible.
I really like the recipes on here but something wasn't working about this recipe, I gave a well established starter which I use to make the brownies regularly.
These cookies were underwhelming, feeling quite soft and cakey rather than chewy and crumbly. They didn't have alot of flavour and lack a certain oumph of cocoa, salt and fat.
I feel like this needs a little revision to make it either more in-line with a shortbread or more in-line with a crispy/fudgy cookie, some maillard reaction could add alot of depth and texture.
where can I learn more about the developing of recipes with sourdough discard?
this is totally new for me
I was so excited to try these cookies, but they are a miss fail for me. They spread out so far and are somewhat flavorless. I like a thicker, cakier cookie, and I realized too late these are not what I was looking for. The search continues.
Mmmmm. These were transcendent. And very forgiving. I keep a pretty stiff starter and I used it to make a levain for these at roughly 100% hydration. I was also impatient and made the dough using the ripe, bubbly starter. Do not skimp on the crunchy salt at the end.
Can these be made as bar cookies in a 9×13 pan? If so, would you please provide the time and baking temp? Thank you!
Can these be made as bar cookies, in a 9×13 pan? If so, would you please provide the time and temp for baking? Thank you!
Whoa, I've never tried that but I don't see why not. I'd imagine you'd have to bake longer given the pan, but I can't say exactly how long.
These cookies are amazing, perfect size, perfect chew 😍
Glad you liked em Lillian!
Hi all – made these yesterday; left overnight to chill and baked this am. I agree with others that the overall salt in the recipe is too light- even with the flaky maldon on top. Also, 70g balls are HUGE. Even 50g are large. I opted for smaller and made 30g balls, baked for 10 min. Everything spread just fine and they are 'regular' cookies sized. I wonder if those whose cookies stayed puffed- maybe there was too much leavener – in either powder or soda? OR the bottom of the cookie baked faster/ deeper than the top. I had one pan on the bottom rack that browned on the bottom nicely but then the top stayed round. they were in the oven 6 vs 4 min- so sharing that tidbit incase it helps other. My discard was indeed OLD – gathered over 4-5 weeks and kept in the fridge as I don't bake that often (I DO keep my starter in the sourdough home which is the absolute BEST!!!).
My cookies overall turned out, well, underwhelming. I did realize a bit too late that my oven was under temp- so some med-rare cookies were really just, raw, lol. I double baked them with success, but they are still lacking the browning (and flavor). Overall, these are a bit fussy for me, from browning the butter to rolling the dough, I'm not sure I'll bake these again but I will try to incorporate my starter into more baked goods!
That is definitely some old starter 🙂 I don't like to keep mine much longer than 2 weeks, it gets very acidic there. Sounds like you gave em a shot, though, and CCCs are so personal.
I made this recipe yesterday with a fresh ripe starter from same day and baked this morning. The cookies have a caramel undertone with shiny slightly crisp top and a chewy inside and kept an impressive height – perfection. I’ve been experimenting with baking more with discard and think the key is to treat it like a levain and an essential ingredient rather than something you are using up to clear out the fridge. Along with the recipes here, I’ve been inspired by Caroline Schiff’s wonderful book “The Sweet Side of Sourdough”
Great way to look at things, Ruth! You can work discard into so many things.
I made these tonight and they are so yummy! I will definitely reuse the recipe.
So glad you liked em Katy!
this one was a big miss for me. not sure what went wrong, but these cookies didn't spread very much, stayed pretty tall even after collapsing, and just tasted like raw flour. i do think the salt was too low since i don't have flaky salt to put on top after baking, so i mixed my frozen leftover dough balls back together with more salt and that helped the flavor a little, but the texture is still not what i'm looking for. could i be seeing too much gluten development in the starter, since it's getting so well hydrated compared to what the flour in a normal cookie would get?
Is your starter a stiff starter or liquid? It should be liquid for this recipe!
My starter is typically stiff, but I made a 100% hydration levain specifically for this recipe.
"cannon" in beginning should be canon
Oof. Thank you 🙂
Daaaaang these are so good!! Going right to the hips! haha!
The taste and texture were fantastic but we all did agree we don't love a flat cookie. Keeping this recipe for sure but going to play with more flour to add a bit more volume to the final product.
To make them less flat, I like to bake them from the freezer 🙂
I made these and I must have done something wrong because they puffed up and didn’t deflate all the way. The result was a fluffy and light chocolate chip cookie. I’ll probably play around with the recipe because my boyfriend loves them. Lol
Hah! Hmm, mine did not turn out this way. give them another shot and please report back!
There is salt listed twice in the ingredient list. The first one is 3g of salt and then at the bottom 4g of salt. Which one is the correct one to use.
3 grams salt. Fixed!
These sound amazing, cant wait to try them.
They're great 🙂
Thank you! I’ve been reading your emails for years. Finally bought your book. Kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I was never able to get or keep a starter. I’ve tried so many times and so many recipes. It wasn’t until you unpacked the science and math behind sourdough that everything clicked! I got excellent results my first time out! My family is so happy! Thank you! And, these cookies are amazing! Again, science and math win!!
Means so much to hear, Kasey. Thank you for getting my book and your comments 🙂 Math and science for the win every time!
These look great! Imma try them today. Discard brownies and crackers are my goto because those dang brownies are addictive, so this is a welcome change. I like to roll the dough into a round (or square or other fun shape) log, wrap well then freeze. Then I just cut them into slices to bake, less work with sticky dough and they all come out perfectly uniform!
They are great! Definitely should have used 50-60% instead of 80% chocolate, the dough is sour enough that sweet helps. I put a little sugar granules with the salt and that cut it fine.
That's a really great tip! I've been balling these up, then freezing, but I like that idea, too. Will try next 🙂
Hello ! Recipe looks fantastic !
Wondering : how many days can I keep the dough in the fridge ? Asking because of the amount of sourdough in the dough ! Thanks !
Hey Jo! I've done 24 hours with no problem. If going longer, I would freeze the dough (which I've also done and they bake really well straight from the freezer).
As always thank you so much!
They sound great, but I am severely allergic to eggs! In most recipes calling for ‘’whole” eggs I substitute a flax”egg”. But obviously this adds more liquid than this recipe wants. Since I cannot add the egg yolks do you have any work around? Thx.
Hey David! Check out my reply to Tam, below 🙂
If one were to wish to omit eggs in this recipe, can you speculate on alternatives? Like, I wonder what the purpose of the three egg yolks is- are they providing some leavening and/or is there some other dough characteristic they provide? And if one were to use a flax based egg replacer, would you consider adjusting the baking soda or add baking powder? I really would like to have a great SDD master cookie recipe so I'll try them with egg replacer/flax eggs and report back. I like to have vegan options for folks I cook for but eggs are also pushing $9 a dozen right now. Thank you!
From Rebecca:
"The yolks here provide richness and a dense, chewy texture to the cookies (compared to dough made with whole eggs, which would be more light/cakey). I'd say they could certainly try replacing the yolks with their preferred flax egg option, perhaps pulling back on the water a smidge since whole eggs are ~2 parts white (mostly water) and 1 part yolk (mostly fat)? The yolks aren't acting as a leavener here, so I don't think they'd need to add any extra powder/soda! In terms of making the cookies fully vegan, if they have vegan butter they trust for browning, I'd go with that."
I tried to brown Country Crock Plant Butter and it browned up nicely! I also just added 42g Just Eggs Plant based egg product along with vegan chips. Right now it's resting. I'll come back to report on how amazing they are!
I see kosher salt is listed twice, but I see it once in the instructions. Is this an error or am I missing something?
Hey Miriam, it's an error, sorry. I fixed it! Should only be 3g salt in the batter. LMK what you think of these when you make em!
I see the printing version of this recipe still shows the 2 separate kosher salt ingredients.
I believe it's in the instructions to add to the top of the cookies after baking.
Made these and they turned out FANTASTIC! Thanks for another great recipe!
So glad you liked them! I'm making another batch here today 🙂