Double Chocolate Chip Sourdough Cookies
These rich, fudgy, intensely chocolaty cookies are the perfect way to use sourdough discard. While discard recipes often lean toward pancakes, waffles, quick breads or muffins, the subtle finishing tang imparted by the sourdough is an unexpectedly perfect foil for rich, complex chocolate. If you have discard to use up, love all things chocolate and are ready for a more grown-up soft-baked double-chocolate cookie, this recipe was made for you.
About seven months ago, my younger son decided he wanted to experiment with creating a sourdough starter and baking sourdough bread. This wasn’t an area of baking I had delved into previously, so I thought it would be fun for us to explore together. While we haven’t quite perfected our sourdough technique, we have tried basic loaves, soft pretzels, bagels, a variety of dinner rolls and even pizza dough. Sometimes, the biggest challenge is figuring out what to do with the discard – other than simply discarding it.
Usually, my son goes back to his tried-and-true sourdough pancake and waffle recipes (if you are interested, I’d be happy to share – especially the waffle recipe since that is our own creation and uses a generous amount of discard). But when he’s busy and it is my turn to tend the starter you know I’m going to tinker. And when I tinker, it’s almost always something sweet, indulgent and – more often than not – chocolate.
Most recently, I decided to dip my toe into the realm of sourdough cookies. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, so I read dozens of recipes, forum posts and articles before getting started. I landed on this Sourdough Chocolate Cookie Recipe from Make It Dough as my starting point, though as usual, I treated it more as a guideline than a blueprint.
I had more discard to use than the original recipe called for, so I began by scaling the ingredients — some by exactly 50%, others by slightly different amounts. I eliminated the added moisture from the liquid espresso and used espresso powder instead, which let me increase the amount of melted chocolate in the dough. I also tweaked the method: melting the butter and chocolate in the microwave for convenience, adding the egg and vanilla with the sugars to help dissolve them, and chilling the dough longer for better hydration, deeper flavor, and easier handling.
I made these cookies while the rest of my family was out of the house so I was able to sneak the first taste. I couldn’t have been happier with the result – the chocolate flavor is intense, the texture is soft, fudgy perfection and right at the end comes a subtle sourdough tang that highlights the depth and richness of the chocolate. My family must have agreed because these cookies didn’t stick around long once they had the chance to try them.
Equipment
Ingredients
Method
- Place chopped butter, chocolate and espresso powder in a large microwave safe mixing bowl. Use a chocolate melting setting (or 30 second bursts) in the microwave – stir when prompted (or after each burst) until the chocolate and butter are fully melted and smooth. Set aside and let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.170 g (¾ cup) butter, 110 g (4 oz) bittersweet chocolate, 1 g (1 tsp) espresso powder
- Whisk the brown sugar, sugar, egg, egg yolk and vanilla into the cooled chocolate mixture until the sugars are dissolved and the mixture looks smooth and glossy.225 g (1 cups) brown sugar, 75 g (⅓ cup) sugar, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 20 g (1 ½ tbsp) vanilla
- Add the flour, sourdough discard, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder into the mixing bowl. Stir until no traces of discard and no dry bits of flour remain.270 g (2 cups) flour, 84 g (⅓ cup) sourdough discard, 15 g (1 tbsp) baking powder, 9 g (1 ½ tsp) salt, 38 g (7 ½ tbsp) cocoa powder
- Fold the chocolate chips in until they are evenly distributed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate, flavors to mature and the dough to firm up.260 g (1 ½ cups) chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and portion the cookies out using a firmly packed #30 cookie scoop. Slightly flatten the top of each mound of dough to form a thick disc. Arrange the cookie dough on your prepared baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. If you'd like, press a few extra chocolate chips into the surface of each cookie. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the edges are set, the center is soft and puffed and the surface looks dry. Avoid overbaking, the cookies should have a soft fudgy texture even after cooling completely.
Private Notes
Nutrition
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