Unlike other sourdough chocolate chip cookies recipes, these sophisticated cookies are thick and chewy, not cakey, because of the rolled oats in the dough!
I know I’ve been developing a lot of recipes using sourdough starter discard. But I can’t help myself. I have sourdough banana bread and sourdough onion rings. But once I figured out that I could make sourdough chocolate chip cookies with the discard, I was hooked! The tangy sourdough discard soaks into the thick cut rolled oats I used in the dough, and creates one of the most complex sophisticated chewy (not cakey) chocolate chip cookies I’ve made in a long time. It quite possible might replace my bakery-style chocolate chip cookies as my new favorite.
How do you make sourdough chocolate chip cookies?
Making sourdough cookies is similar to making regular chocolate chip cookies, but with two additional steps. You need to add the sourdough starter discard, and you need to add rolled oats to the cookie!
First you mix butter, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, baking soda, salt and a touch of nutmeg together until you have a creamy paste. Then you add an egg.
Once the egg is incorporated, add the sourdough starter discard. Then the flour and rolled oats! Stir in the chocolate chunks until they are evenly distributed in the dough.
Then (the hardest part) you wrap it all in plastic wrap and refrigerate for two days! Waiting is hard but totally worth it. Once rested, pull it out and bake it off with a little sprinkling of salt on top.
Why do you need to refrigerate the dough?
The sourdough starter discard is made with both flour and water. If you bake the cookies right away, the water in the dough will lead to a cakey cookie. Which is fine if that’s what you are looking for, but if you prefer a deep, more complex, chewy sourdough chocolate chip cookie, letting the dough chill in the fridge is the solution!
Chilling the dough in the fridge allows time for the rolled oats to absorb the liquid which leads to a chewy cookie. It also allows time for the flour to hydrate as well. In addition, the sourdough starter will develop more, creating a deeper flavor. The resulting dough will transform from a sticky paste to a drier cookie dough. And the baked cookie will have a complex caramelized ever-so-slight tangy flavor.
Where can I get a sourdough starter?
There are many online tutorials on how to make a sourdough starter on your own. My favorites include The Perfect Loaf, The Kitchn and King Arthur Flour. Instructions are fairly simple, you just combine flour and water and then let it sit around (anywhere from 4 to 9 days) until it starts to bubble, discarding some of the starter and feeding it with more water and flour on a daily or twice daily basis!
But if you don’t want to make a starter from scratch, you can ask your friends or neighbors if they wouldn’t mind sharing some. Facebook and Nextdoor are both great places to ask for starter. Because you have to feed and discard part of the starter on a regular basis, most folks have leftover starter they are happy to share with folks.
Of course, you can also just purchase a starter. King Arthur Flour sells starter online for those folks who don’t want to make one or can’t obtain one from friends.
Can I make this recipe without the sourdough starter?
This recipe is designed to be made with sourdough starter discard. If you don’t have a starter and don’t feel like making/getting one, I recommend you check out my chocolate chip oatmeal cookies or my bakery-style chocolate chip cookies recipe instead.
At what stage should the sourdough starter discard be at?
When you feed your sourdough starter, the starter usually has completed it feeding cycle, meaning it has collapsed in the container and needs more food. This is when you “discard” some starter and add more flour and water to the remaining unfed starter.
This recipe is designed for that starter discard, meaning it should be fairly liquidy, the consistency of pancake batter. If there is a little dark gray liquid (sometimes called hooch) on top, that’s ok. Just mix the liquid back into the starter before measuring out the 1/2 cup.
If the starter is still sticky and viscous, or “stringy” when you stir it, then it hasn’t completely digested all the gluten and flour. You need to let the starter digest more before using it in this recipe. Just set aside the starter discard for a day or two, without feeding it, at room temperature. It should be ready then.
How do I store these cookies?
These cookies store and keep on the countertop at room temperature for about 3 days. For longer storage, I place them in a resealable freezer Ziploc bag and store them in the freezer or up to 2 months. I warm them up by placing them on the counter for about 20 to 30 minutes. Or, if I’m impatient, I microwave them for 30 seconds or place them on a small baking sheet and heat them up in the toaster oven for 5 minutes at 300°F.
Can I freeze the cookie dough?
Yes! If you freeze the cookie dough, I suggest you first let the dough rest in the fridge for the 2 days. This makes it easier to handle the dough. Then form the disks and freeze the disks on a baking sheet in the freezer. Once the dough has frozen solid, move them to a resealable freezer Ziploc bag. Frozen cookie dough lasts up to 2 months in the freezer.
You can bake them directly from the freezer without thawing them. Just add an additional 2 minutes or so to the overall bake time.
What chocolate should I use in this cookie?
Everyone’s favorite chocolate is different. I have friends who prefer milk or white chocolate while others say the darker the better! Personally, I find the sweet spot (get it? THE SWEET SPOT) is usually around 54%. For me, it’s a great balance of sweetness and dark chocolate.
But you can use whatever chocolate you like to eat out of hand. Feel free to also mix it up and use different chocolates in the cookie! This particular cookie has a mix of milk, 54% dark and 72% dark chocolate in it. A mix of chocolate types gives the cookie even more dimension and complex flavor.
Can I substitute the chocolate chunks?
Yes! I love to use chopped chocolate chunks in my cookie because they melt better than chocolate chips which are designed to hold their shape when heated up.
But if you don’t have chocolate that you can chop up or you don’t feel like doing that extra step, you can totally substitute chocolate chips, another flavored chip, chocolate candies, or add in nuts. Just use 2 cups total of whatever you use. Here’s a few suggestions:
- Chocolate chips: white, milk, semi, or bittersweet
- Butterscotch chips
- Peanut butter chips
- Cinnamon chips
- M&M candies
- Reese’s Pieces
- Walnuts
- Pecans
- Pistachios
- Macadamia nuts
- Cacao nibs
Tips on making the best sourdough chocolate chip cookie
- Rest the dough in the fridge for 2 days. This allows the rolled oats to absorb the liquid and gives a chewier, more complex-flavored cookie.
- Use cold butter and eggs. A lot of recipes require you to bring the butter and egg to room temperature. Don’t bother doing that with this recipe. Just cut up the butter into 1/2-inch cubes first. This will let it cream easier in the mixing bowl. You want a thick paste to cling to the side of the bowl, but you don’t need it to be light and fluffy. Fluffy and over beating the butter will lead to a more cakey cookie.
- Use thick rolled cut oats. You can use regular rolled oats but I prefer thick cut at they give a bigger “chew” to the cookie. If all you have is quick cook rolled oats, that will work too. Just keep in mind the resulting cookie won’t be quite as chewy. Don’t use instant already sweetened oatmeal that comes in the packet. That oatmeal already has sugar and flavoring in it and won’t work in this recipe.
- Press some chocolate on top of the cookie right before you bake. This is a food styling trick but it ensure that not only will your cookies look Instagram/Pinterest worthy, but also means you have extra chocolate in every cookie.
- Sprinkle some crunchy salt on top. If you have sea salt like Maldon or Sel de Gris or fancy-pants finishing salt like vanilla salt, this is the time to use it! The salt on top gives a nice crunch as well as a sophisticated counterpoint to the sweet cookie.
- Underbake the cookie slightly. Once you see the edges of the dough start to turn golden brown, take the cookies out of the oven. Let them rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, to let the residual heat help bake off the cookie. But the under-baked cookie will lead to a soft and chewy cookie.
Do I need a stand mixer? Can I use a hand mixer or do it by hand?
Though a stand mixer definitely makes things easier, you can certainly make this recipe using a hand mixer or by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula. The only thing I would suggest is to cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and letting the cubes of butter sit in the bowl for 10 minutes or so to warm up.
A stand mixer has a strong motor that can cream and mix the cold butter but a hand mixer (or a your arm) isn’t quite as powerful. Allowing the butter to warm up slightly will help you out immensely when making this dough without a stand mixer.
If you like these sourdough chocolate chip cookies, check out my other chocolate chip cookies
- Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Reverse Pan Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chocolate Chip Pistachio Cookies with Toffee Bits
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies with Streusel Topping
- Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butterscotch Cookies with triple chocolate chips
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks or 230 g
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 220 g
- 1/2 cup white sugar 100 g
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg optional but recommended
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter discard 125 g (see
section above ) - 2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
- 1 1/2 cups thick cut rolled oats 170 g
- 2 cups chopped chocolate or chocolate chips, 380 g
To finish
- 1/2 cup chopped chocolate optional
- 1 tablespoon flaky salt like Maldon, Sel de Gris or Diamond Crystal Kosher, optional
Instructions
- Cut the butter into 1/2-inch chunks and place it in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Mix the ingredients together until they become a creamy paste that clings to the side of the bowl.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the egg. Mix to incorporate. The mixture might look a little “broken” but don’t worry about it. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and add the sourdough starter discard.
- At this point the mixture will definitely look broken, but again, that’s normal.
- Add the flour and mix together, turning the mixer on and off again in bursts, until the dry ingredient is absorbed. Repeat with the oats. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions.
- Add the chopped chocolate and mix together with a wooden spoon or spatula by hand. You can also use the mixer, but I like to use a wood spoon or spatula because I have more control over making sure the chocolate is mixed and evenly distributed in the dough.
- Place a large piece of plastic wrap on your table or counter and scrape the dough onto it. The dough will be very sticky. This is normal! Once all the dough is on the plastic wrap, place another piece of plastic wrap over it, and press down all over, until it is a uniform 1-inch thick piece. Tightly seal and wrap around the edges with the overhanging plastic wrap, and then put on a baking sheet or cutting board and store in the refrigerate for 48 hours (2 days). This allows for the sourdough discard to grow a little in strength, as well as the oats to absorb the excess liquid from the discard.
- Once the dough has chilled in the fridge for 2 days, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with silicon baking sheets or parchment paper. Break off a piece of dough and form a 1/2-inch thick disk that is about 1-inch in diameter with your hands. You can also form balls, then press down, but I like to do thick disks as this encourages a thick round cookie shape. If you have a scale, it should be about 2 1/2 ounces or 70 grams. Place on the prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat this process until you have about 5 or 6 dough disks on both baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Push a couple of pieces of chocolate chunks on top of the disks, then sprinkle a pinch of the flaky salt over the disk.
- Bake in the oven 13 to 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie are golden brown. Rotate the pans front to back and top to bottom if your oven has hot spots. You want the center of the cookie to be slightly underbaked, as they will set up as they cool. If you are baking with parchment paper, start checking the cookies around 11 minutes, as they bake faster.
- Repeat with the remaining dough. Let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
Lee Rosenthal says
can these be made as bars? If so, with what adjustments?
Irvin says
Ooh That’s a good question! I have not made these into bars. BUT my educated guess is that it would be great! Press the dough directly from the mixing bowl into a 9 x 13-inch pan. You can line the pan with parchment paper if you’d like to make the cookie bar pop out easier. But that’s optional. Stick the pan in the fridge for 2 days. Then bake directly from the fridge.
Bake at a slightly lower temperature, 325°F. You’ll also need to increase the bake time. My guess is somewhere between 25 to 35 minutes? But I’d start checking at 25 minutes and work from there (my guess is 25 is too early, but better to check early than too late!).
If you do make these as bars, please come back and let me know how they turn out! I’ll add a section about baking them into bars with your feedback.
Jessica says
Hey There Irvin! I did try this recipe as a bar recipe and it turned out great! I pressed the dough into a 9×13 glass dish lined with parchment paper. It was about an inch think and baked at 325 for 20 min, spun it around and baked for another 15 or so. The bars baked well, a little over an inch thick. I’d say as the bar they were cakey but not in a bad way and still had some chew to them. They were a big hit! Next time I’ll try them as actual cookies but the kids requested bars :). Thanks for a fun way to use my sour dough starter!
Stephanie says
I made these cookies last night and let me tell you…Amazing! I used a 1 inch biscuit cutter to shape the cookies and I had 75 cookies that were perfectly crunchy and chewy all at the same time. They are a great size to box up and give away….during holidays, as client gifts, or just because. We ate probably a dozen of them just like that because they tasted so good…and they are oh so yummy dunked in a cold glass of milk! This will be a recipe I will make over and over and over again.
Tess says
Rave reviews from the family and neighbours. Hurrah! Will use less chocolate next time – son’s response to cookies, ‘There’s too much chocolate’
Eva says
If I wanted to add maybe 2 TBS of peanut butter to the batter, what adjustments would you make? Would you use less butter? Thanks!
Heather says
I’m wondering if there’s any reason not to shape the dough to be chilled in a log, instead of 1″ thick slab? Then the log can just be sliced into rounds, eliminating the post-chill shaping.
Guillermo says
That’s exactly what I did! Parchment paper helped the rolling-up as it provided more structure to the roll than plastic wrap alone. The dough was mushy when I rolled it, but it REALLY firmed up after 2 days in the fridge. It was just like the supermarket rolls-just cut and bake!
Erin Morin says
Hi Irvin! You named my favorite places in San Francisco in your bio <3
You probably get questions like this a lot but can I cut any of the chill/fridge time if I let the discard and oats sit together on the counter first? This recipe is absolutely amazing but I was hoping to let them sit all day and still cook late tonight… you'll probably say no but its worth a shot! lol
Serena says
Hi!! Love this recipe! Quick question: can I leave the dough in the fridge for more than 2 days?
Eileen Derosa says
Really awesome. I will try these at my home.
Kathy says
WOW these cookies are amazing. They might just be my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, plus it uses sourdough discard so we’re really winning. Added some dark chocolate bars, white chocolate, and nuts for mix ins. Next time might try it with some dried cranberries too. These cookies are worth the 2 day wait! (Although I may have snuck a few dough tastes during those 48 hours).
Sue says
I mixed these up today and can’t wait to bake them in a couple days. I substituted caramel chips for the chocolate and plan to put some chopped pecans on top with the salt! I love anything “salted caramel “ so I am anxious to see how these turn out! Thanks for sharing the recipe and all your great tips!
Reyna says
These were delicious!! Definitely added to my go-to recipes for sourdough discard.
I will be honest – I was impatient and baked half of it after resting only 1 day and thought they already tasted great. I baked the rest of them after 2 days of rest and didn’t notice much of a difference (Probably the main benefit of waiting is that I don’t eat the entire batch of cookies in 1 day). So for anyone else who might be impatient, you can probably get away with 1 day of chilling
Kate Goatley says
Mine turned out extremely dry…I waited the 2 days and it was a 100% hydration starter. I’m so sad. What might have lead to this?
Sable says
It is supposed to be the discard, not a hydrated/active starter
J.D. says
My beloved spouse says these are the tops! She said life is so good when you get fresh sourdough bread on the weekend and then awesome cookies mid week.
Nancy says
I have made a lot of choc chip cookie recipes and this one is my all time favorite. The hard part is waiting two days to cook and eat them 🙂
Nancy says
I just wanted to post an update to my first comment. I made these cookies the other day and couldn’t wait so I cooked a few on the next day. For me, there is a definite taste difference. They are much better if you wait for two days before you cook them. I don’t know why but even my husband agreed. So please wait, it’s worth it!
Shaynee says
Can I use honey as sub for sugar in recipe if yes how much should I use?
Bonnie W says
My new favorite sourdough starter discard recipe – these cookies are addictive!! I made them with regular rolled oats and semisweet chocolate chips. Can’t wait to make them again!
Roshan Kumar says
chocolate chip cookies is my all time favorite. I will definitely try your recipe in my home. You have explained in a very nice and easy way. Thanks
Kristiana Michaela Buenavides Villarete says
Good day!
I just want to ask if I can mold first the dough into a 6 ounces cookie before I put it in the freezer for two days? Thank you.
Best regards
Rebecca says
These were so unbelievably and delightfully chewy! I’ve been tweaking recipes looking for this exact texture! Thank you! I toasted the oats, browned the butter, and cut the white sugar in half, and they were so amazing that my sister requested I make them for my nephew for his birthday in lieu of a cake. I found them a little too sweet still, so I think I’ll eliminate the white sugar entirely next time. They were still delicious!
If I were to use sourdough discard that isn’t quite to the discard stage yet, would it alter the texture of the cookie or just leave a more mild sourdough tang?
Suzanne says
This looks so good! What a fun way to use sourdough starter!
Vanessa says
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
carla says
Hei! So awesome taste of the cookies!! thanks for the recipe, but it kind of melt the dough when i baked, any advice for why is this happening? I let the dough rest the two days :S
Marianne J. WILLIAMS says
I forgot to check that I had enough of all ingredients. I only had a little AP flour, 1 c., so subbed 2 c bread flour for the 2 c AP flour. I’m going to bake them anyway since I’m impatient to try them. I’ll get back to you on the results.
Marianne J. WILLIAMS says
I wanted to double the recipe to make 44 cookies. When I moved the Guage above to do so, all ingredients doubled except the butter. It starts by having butter doubled at 2 cups but still says “2 sticks or 230g.” after that. Is that how you want the recipe to read?
Marianne J. WILLIAMS says
I just baked your wonderful recipe above for the first time. I left the dough in the frig. for 24 hrs, as recommended. The dough wasn’t hard to form into discs even though it was rather firm. I must say that they were/are scrumptious!! My husband is diabetic so I must watch how much sugar he takes in. Therefore, I needed to tweak your recipe a bit…I used 1/2 C Splenda Brown Sugar Blend per 22 cookies and increased vanilla by 1/2 t. Again, thanks for taking your time to develop this delicious sourdough cookie recipe!
Courtney says
Hi! I really want to make these, but I don’t have rolled oats. I definitely prefer chewy with crispy edges to cake-y, is there any way I can get that without the oats? Add more flour or something?
Leslie says
So what happens if I put the dough in the fridge and forgot about it so it has been 7 days in the fridge? Still okay to bake?
Madje says
I cut the recipe in half. I adjusted a tad for the whole egg. They passed the “hubby” test. I made 48 cookies in total. They’re not chewy, but crispy; yummy all the same! I’m glad I have another use for discard. Oh, and I used Stevia in place of the white sugar. As they cooled, they firmed up a bit more. I’ll be sure to keep this recipe! Thanks! 💚🍀👍
Jason says
Ooh, sourdough chocolate chip cookies?! These sound amazing! I’m definitely gonna try this recipe. That chewy texture sounds perfect TrueSizeOf . Hope mine turn out as good!
M James says
So I made this recipe. I took half of it and rolled it up in saran & put in fridge. TomorrowI will move it to the freezer to make cookies another time. Then I used cookie scoop and made half the batch !! They were amazing . Also I added coconut !!! So good.
M James says
if I put the dough in the fridge and forgot about it so it has been 7 d google