Triple chocolate sourdough cookies
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These triple chocolate sourdough cookies are soft, chewy and fudgy triple chocolate cookies with the softness, flavour and nature of sourdough discard. They are easy to bake, ready to eat in under an hour, and super chocolatey.
Notes from The Patisserie
I have been developing recipes for over twelve years, and cookies are definitely one of my specialties. I adore baking and eating cookies, and anything with a chocolate chip inside has my heart.
These cookies combine three delicious things, my triple chocolate cookies, my triple chocolate nyc cookies, and also my sourdough starter. Over time, recipes can evolve and change, and personally I adore anything sourdough. These cookies have that crunchy, chewy, soft, gooey texture all in one, and they are delightful.
What makes sourdough cookies different to normal ones?
I find when baking sourdough bread itself, it’s got a wildly different flavour and texture to ‘regular’ bread, due to the properties of what sourdough is. It’s a living culture that you develop and nurture over time and it creates a particular ‘sour’ flavour that is what is adored.
Adding sourdough discard (which is unfed sourdough starter) to a bake, can do so much. It enhances the flavour of the bake, with the same style sour tang, and also changes the texture of the bake – usually a softer, chewier texture that makes a bake last longer.
How do I prep my sourdough to bake with?
Baking with sourdough is about balancing the addition of a liquid and a solid (the mixture of water and flour that is in a sourdough starter) and understanding how to then change a recipe to adapt this. Theoretically, a sourdough starter is 50% liquid and 50% solid, so realistically you need to remove certain quantities of solid and liquid to adapt.
I personally bake something such as these triple chocolate sourdough cookies, and my other discard bakes such as my sourdough discard brownies, by simply taking a jar of discard out of the fridge and baking with it.
Once discard has been in the fridge, it can often become a little runnier, it can split a little, but that is totally fine. Give the jar a mix, and remove that you need. You can also use fed sourdough starter to create these cookies, but it’s not essential.
Ingredient notes and recipe tips
The full recipe can be found in the recipe card below
- Butter – I generally use unsalted block butter, but you can use a baking spread, or margarine – this might just make them spread a little more
- Sugar – I used all light brown soft sugar because I wanted the natural caramel undertones, but granulated sugar or a mix of the both works wonderfully
- Sourdough discard – I used unfed sourdough starter, straight from the fridge
- Egg – I always use medium eggs in my baking for consistency, but you can use a large
- Vanilla – A little bit of vanilla extract is always delicious in a recipe, but it is optional – or you can swap it to a different flavouring that you prefer!
- Flour – I use plain flour, as you don’t want the raising agent from self raising flour – there is also less than a typical cookie, because of the flour in the discard
- Cocoa – I use a 100% cocoa content cocoa powder which is quite drying, but super chocolatey – this helps the texture and flavour of the cookies
- Raising agent – For the texture of a cookie, I would ALWAYS recommend using bicarbonate of soda – this is NOT baking powder (they are different)
- Salt – You can use either salted butter, or add sea salt like I do. I prefer sea salt, as I can control the flavour better – and I also sprinkle the baked cookies with it
- Chocolate – You can use all of one chocolate, a mix, chocolate chips, a chopped up bar… etc. Any chocolate you want.
FAQs
Generally I would not recommend this as the sugar content in hot chocolate powder is much higher, and generally the taste of chocolate is much lower. I use 100% cocoa content cocoa powder for best results
I use baking callets as I bulk buy my chocolate, but you can use any. You can also make it cheaper and use a bar of chocolate, and just cut it up into smaller pieces.
Yes, you can! Generally I use unfed sourdough discard because I have a jar in the fridge I keep for bakes like this, but you can use part unfed and fed, or even just fed sourdough starter.
They are a good average cookie size, I use a 5cm scoop to portion my cookies for consistency, and then get 16-18 out of the mixture.
No, you definitely don’t. The only important part is to make sure that the sourdough discard, butter, and sugar are really well mixed together before adding the other ingredients. If making by hand, it will just take a bit of arm power and mixing (don’t add extra liquid to make this easier as it will cause the cookies to spread)
Triple Chocolate Sourdough Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 175 g light brown soft sugar
- 100 sourdough discard
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 225 g plain flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- pinch of sea salt + extra
- 300 g chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200ºc/180ºc fan and line two large trays with parchment
- Beat together the butter, sugar and sourdough discard in a bowl
- Add the egg, vanilla and beat again
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate, and salt, and mix to combine
- Mix through the chocolate chunks
- Portion the cookies, I use a 5cm scoop but a heaped tablespoon also works
- Split the cookies between the trays with gaps in between as they will likely spread
- Bake for 11-13 minutes and then sprinkle with a little extra sea salt if you want when fresh out of the oven
- Leave to cool for 15-20 minutes
Notes
- These will last for 3-4+ days
- These can freeze for 3+ months
- I use this 5cm scoop for the cookies
- I use unfed starter from the fridge but fed starter can also work
Storage and freezing
These cookies are delicious when freshly baked, and still warm and gooey. However, they will last for 3-4 days, at room temperature on a cool day, or even in the fridge in a container.
You can freeze these cookies for 3+ months – I generally recommend freezing the cookies until solid on a tray, and then transferring to a freezer safe bag or container