Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Make smart use of sourdough discard for an additional depth of flavor to brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
Ingredients
- 227 grams unsalted butter, cut into ¼ inch squares (16 Tablespoons or 2 sticks)
- 113 grams sourdough discard, at room temperature (½ cup)
- 240 grams all purpose flour (2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 146 grams light brown sugar (⅔ cup, firmly packed)
- 133 grams granulated sugar (⅔ cup)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 teaspoons vinegar (cider or white)
- 2 large egg yolks
- 340 grams semisweet and/or bittersweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
- Flaky sea salt
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Once fully melted, increase the heat to low-medium to cook the butter, stirring frequently with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon. The butter will start popping and crackling and then start foaming. The part of the butter that will start browning is the milk solids which will be on the bottom of the pan. This is why you need to keep stirring and lifting the spatula or spoon out of the pan to see what stage it is at. Once you have nicely browned specks on the bottom of the pan, remove the pan from the heat and immediately pour the butter into a heatproof bowl to stop it from cooking any further. (Be careful not to overcook the butter. It can go from brown to burnt very quickly.) Allow the butter to cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate until hardened, at least two hours. (Brown butter can be made a day or two in advance and stored in the refrigerator.) Allow to come to room temperate for 30 minutes prior to mixing the cookie dough.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
- In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the brown butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and vinegar. Add the egg yolks and beat until fully combined. Stir in the sourdough discard just until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix just until thy disappear. Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Divide and shape into rounds, each weighing 30 grams. Refrigerate at least one hour and up to two days.
- Preheat the oven to 375° F.
- Sprinkle sea salt on top of each cookie and bake the cold cookies 11-13 minutes, just until the edges are light brown and the middle looks a bit doughy.
- Cool for a few minutes on pan, then on a wire rack.
Notes
- The brown butter can be made ahead of time, even by a few days. If you are new to making brown butter, use a lower flame so you have more control over the cooking process. It may take a few minutes longer, but the butter will be less likely to go from brown to burnt so quickly.
- These can be made in one day, but plan ahead so your brown butter has time to solidify in the refrigerator and so that your cookie dough has time to get cold in the refrigerator.
- Remove the brown butter from the refrigerator 30 minutes before mixing the cookie dough.
- You can freeze raw cookie dough balls to bake later. (Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and place them in the freezer for about 30 minutes to get them cold. Then toss them in an airtight plastic bag. Pre-freezing them on the pan will prevent them from sticking to each other in the bag.) When ready to bake, place the frozen balls in the preheated oven. They may just need an additional minute or two.
- You can also freeze the fully baked cookies. They should come to room temperature in about 10 minutes.
- Deeper, quality chocolate is best for these cookies. (Milk chocolate is good, but not great.) Semi-sweet is fabulous, and a combination of semi-sweet and bittersweet is truly wonderful. Can’t find bittersweet chips? Just chop up a quality bittersweet chocolate bar. I use these semi-sweet chips, these bittersweet chips, and these milk chocolate chips. In the batch photographed with this post, I used a mix of Ghirardelli bittersweet chips with melt beautifully and Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips. All that said, Callebaut is one of my all time favorite chocolates to bake with. Their chocolate is slightly expensive, but it is what sets my cookies apart from everyone else’s. Use quality ingredients for a quality baked good!
Nutrition
Calories: 144kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 22mg | Sodium: 74mg | Potassium: 62mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 159IU | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg