Brown Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Brown butter sourdough chocolate chip cookies are the perfect treat, made with a nutty brown butter flavor, loads of melty chocolate chips, and sourdough goodness. With a soft, chewy texture in the center with slightly crispy edges, these cookies will disappear in no time!
Transforming cookies into sourdough discard cookies comes with plenty of experimenting to find the right ratios. After all, baking is a science with each ingredient playing a vital role. Not enough flour produces a flat cookie that spreads too far. Too much flour and you end up with cakey cookies that barely spread in the oven.
After testing multiple batches of chocolate chip cookies, which my kids were pretty excited about, I finally created delicious cookies that checked all of the boxes for me. I wanted a cookie with lightly crispy, golden brown edges, a soft chewy center that melts in your mouth, tons of chocolate, and layers and layers of flavor. The brown butter, sourdough starter discard, and flaky salt come together to produce the ultimate chewy sourdough chocolate chip cookies!
Are you team crispy cookie or team chewy cookie? Until recently, our family was fully on team chewy, favoring chewy cookies that melt in your mouth. If you’re in the same camp, these are the cookies for you! They’re so delicious that I find myself sneaking one too many throughout the day.
Why Add Sourdough To Cookies?
You might be asking, isn’t sourdough starter just for baking sourdough bread? In short, no! There are so many uses for sourdough starter, especially sourdough discard.
At some point in maintaining a sourdough starter, you will need to discard a small amount of the starter during its feeding. Rather than throwing it away, add it to your cookies, quick breads, or scones. It’s a useful way to use every bit of food so that nothing goes to waste, while also imparting a subtle tang for a delicious depth of flavor. Check out these sourdough discard recipes.
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
- Butter – Browned butter has a deep, nutty flavor that enhances these sourdough cookies into something special. Heat unsalted butter in a medium-sized saucepan, leaving enough space for the butter to melt and bubble up.
- Sourdough starter – Use sourdough starter discard, a sourdough starter that hasn’t been fed for 12 hours. The sour flavor in the starter will intensify as more time passes since the starters last feeding.
- Brown sugar – The caramel note in the brown sugar complements the nutty brown butter flavor. I find light brown sugar is the perfect balance.
- White sugar – Adding a touch of granulated sugar or cane sugar helps create crispy edges.
- Egg yolks – I remove the egg whites to balance the additional water content from the sourdough starter that’s not normally found in a chocolate chip cookie recipe.
- Vanilla extract – What’s a chocolate chip cookie without vanilla extract? I use a healthy amount of vanilla extract for maximum flavor.
- Flour – All-purpose flour will give your cookies a great chew.
- Baking soda – Leavens the cookies so they rise and spread as they bake.
- Salt – Flavors the baked goods.
- Chocolate chips – Use your favorite chocolate chip. For a fun variation, use chocolate chunks or mini chips.
How To Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown the Butter
Melt 226 g (1 cup/2 sticks) of unsalted butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan on the stove. Swirl the pan often and scrape the bottom of the pan with a heat-proof spatula until the butter foams and the milk solids turn golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
Mixing the Cookie Dough
Pour the melted butter into a large mixing bowl and wait a couple of minutes for the butter to cool. Add 300 g (1 1/2 cups) brown sugar and 100 gm (1/2 cup) granulated sugar to the bowl, stirring to incorporate.
Next, add 3 large egg yolks, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, and 125 g (1/2 cup) of sourdough starter discard to the bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together 282 g (2 1/4 cups) of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to combine. Lastly, stir in chocolate chips.
It’s normal for brown butter cookie dough to have a greasier look than traditional chocolate chip cookie dough, but once chilled, there’s no difference between the two.
Chill
Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.
Bake
Remove the dough from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
Scoop the cookies using a cookie scoop and place them onto the prepare baking pan 2 inches apart.
Bake in the preheated oven for 9-10 minutes.
The cookies are done when the edges of the cookies are set and just starting to turn a golden color with the middle of the cookie being puffy and having a glossy look. I know the cookies don’t look like they are done yet, but this is when you want remove them from the oven.
Tip: Be sure you don’t overbake for chewy cookies. If you bake until they’re golden brown, they will be overbaked, resulting in a crispy cookie.
Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes to finish baking. While they rest, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a pinch of flaky salt and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. The cookies will be soft and fall apart easily while still warm but will firm up once fully cool.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They are best eaten within 2-3 days, gradually drying out the longer they sit.
FAQs
Do I Need To Brown the Butter?
The extra step of adding browned butter elevates the classic chocolate chip cookie into something extra special without a ton of extra time. I actually love using brown butter because I can start with cold butter straight from the fridge versus waiting for it to warm to room temperature.
Do I Have To Chill The Cookie Dough?
There are a few reasons why it’s a good idea to chill the cookie dough. First, if you bake the cookies right after mixing the dough, the warm cookie dough will spread too much in the oven, causing flat cookies. Second, time in the fridge allows the flour to properly hydrate. This process can take anywhere from 30-90 minutes, depending on the protein level in the flour. Lastly, the sourdough discard is filled with a colony of bacteria. Left to long ferment, the bacteria will break down a large amount of the phytic acid, making the grains easier to digest.
What Type of Chocolate Is Best In Chocolate Chip Cookies?
The type of chocolate in a chocolate chip cookie will give you a different cookie experience. Semi-sweet chocolate chips are the most popular with its middle-of-the-road level of sweetness, a hint of sweetness but not overly so.
For those that nothing is ever too sweet, opt for milk chocolate. With no hint of a bitter undertone and a creamy texture, the milk chocolate chip cookie is the perfect dunking cookie. At the other end of the sweetness spectrum lies dark chocolate with a deep, more complex flavor that’s the least sweet of the bunch.
With sweet cookie dough, I will always choose a dark chocolate chip in chocolate chip cookies for a well-balanced flavor. Still can’t decide? The best way to know what you enjoy is to experiment. Try each kind of chocolate and then note what you think of it.
Can I Freeze Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Yes! You can freeze cookie dough balls or baked cookies.
Scoop the cookie dough and place each dough ball onto a baking sheet. Freeze for an hour until the dough balls are completely frozen. Remove the cookie dough balls and place them into a freezer-safe bag. Label the bag with the name and baking instructions. You may need to add a minute or two to the baking time.
To freeze cookies, bake as directed and allow to cool completely. Place cookies into a plastic freezer bag, pushing out as much air as possible, and place in the freezer. For best results, enjoy within 3 months.
Brown Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 226 g unsalted butter 1 cup
- 100 g sugar ½ cup
- 300 g brown sugar 1½ cup, packed
- 3 large egg yolks
- 125 g sourdough starter discard ½ cup
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 282 g all-purpose flour 2¼ cups
Instructions
Brown the Butter
- Melt 226 g (1 cup/2 sticks) of unsalted butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan on the stove. Swirl the pan often and scrape the bottom of the pan with a heat-proof spatula until the butter foams and the milk solids turn golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.
Mixing the Cookie Dough
- Pour the melted butter into a large mixing bowl and wait a couple of minutes for the butter to cool. Add 300 g (1 1/2 cups) brown sugar and 100 gm (1/2 cup) granulated sugar to the bowl, stirring to incorporate.
- Next, add 3 large egg yolks, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, and 125 g (1/2 cup) of sourdough starter discard to the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together 282 g (2 1/4 cups) of all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1 tsp salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to combine. Lastly, stir in chocolate chips.
- It’s normal for the cookie dough to look more greasy than a traditional chocolate chip cookie dough.
Chill
- Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.
Bake
- Remove the dough from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- Scoop the cookies using a cookie scoop and place them onto the prepare baking pan 2 inches apart.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 9-10 minutes.
- The edges of the cookies will be set and just start to turn a golden color, while the middle of the cookie will be puffy and have a glossy look. The cookies will look like they aren’t done yet.
- Tip: Be sure you don’t overbake for chewy cookies. If you bake until they’re golden brown, they will be overbaked, resulting in a crispy cookie.
- Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 2 minutes to finish baking. While they rest, sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a pinch of flaky salt and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. The cookies will be soft and fall apart easily while still warm but will firm up once fully cool.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They are best eaten within 2-3 days, gradually drying out the longer they sit.
