easy homemade sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
These easy homemade sourdough chocolate chip cookies have been my go to for years. My mom made chocolate chip cookies all the time when we were growing up. It brings back so many good memories when my house smells like homemade chocolate chip cookies. Plus I love that I get to carry on the tradition with my own kids.
Before having children, I tried for years to make my mom’s recipe. I don’t know how I managed to always screw it up, but they never turned out like my mom’s. Sometimes they weren’t even worth eating. I finally found a recipe that worked every time for me and they were so yummy and easy. When my family started changing how we eat we brought sourdough into our lives. I figured out how to make these delicious no fail cookies using sourdough to ferment the flour. Does this make the cookie healthy? Probably not… but it does make me feel better about giving them to my kiddos as a special treat here and there.
Why sourdough?
Sourdough is a wild yeast that helps to break down the gluten in flour to make it more digestable to our bodies. With all of the toxins we face in our world today, gluten can get quite difficult for our bodies to digest causing discomfort and other issues.
Before I started baking with sourdough, one of our children really benefited from a gluten free diet but wasn’t allergic to gluten. While there are so many more options for gluten free now a days, it was still hard cutting out that food group. And buying gluten free foods at the store just traded one toxin for others. Using sourdough and fermenting doughs for 8-12 hours (sometimes more) was a great solution. And gave this mama some piece of mind.
How to make sourdough chocolate chip cookies
Ingredients
- all-purpose flour (I like to use unbleached organic)
- baking soda (make sure it is not expired or too old)
- salt (I like to use Redmond Real Salt)
- unsalted butter (room temperature)
- light brown sugar
- granulated or cane sugar
- sourdough starter (active or discard)
- large egg (room temperature)
- vanilla extract
- chocolate chips (dark or semi-sweet, we like to use the allergen free chocolate chips that do not have as many harmful ingredients in them)
Instructions
Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium size bowl. If you have the time to sift them through a strainer it will be best. If my baking soda is a little clumpy and do not have time to strain, I just rub the clumps between my fingers.
In a separate bowl add softened butter and sugars. Use an electric mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment to cream them together. This will take about one to three minutes.
Add sourdough starter, egg, and vanilla and mix on low speed. The sourdough starter can be active or discard.
Little by little add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients using a wooden spoon. Make sure not to over mix. As soon as the flour is mixed in stop mixing.
Gentle fold the chocolate chips in using your wooden spoon. My family loves chocolate but we tend to like our chocolate chip cookies with just over a cup of chocolate chips. However, if you’re the kid of person who wants mostly a chocolate cookie go ahead and throw the whole bag or a little over two cups in your dough.
If you would like to ferment your flour I would suggest to put plastic wrap over your dough and let it chill in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours. You could even go up to two days if you like. The longer it sits in the fridge the more your flour will ferment making your cookies have that tangy sourdough flavor but also more digestible for you. We like our cookies at about 12 hours.
If you do not wish to ferment your dough I would still recommend letting it chill in the refrigerator for at least 30-60 minutes before baking.
Using a small cookie scoop, ice-cream scoop, tablespoon, or two spoons like my mom ball up your dough and drop them on your prepared baking sheets. I use a small cookie scoop that holds 4 teaspoons and get exactly 36 cookies. I use three cookie sheets placing twelve cookies per cookie sheet. Generally, I just reuse the same cookie sheet as it cools pretty fast, but that’s just my way of making less dirty dishes to wash :).
Bake cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the edges start to brown. Depending on the size of your cookies this will be 10-15 minutes. My cookies bake perfectly to our taste at 14 minutes. The picture below is what my cookies look like when I pull them out of the oven.
Let cookies cool on sheet for a few minutes then transfer them to a wire rack. Or, if you are like me and don’t like making a lot of dirty dishes, place them on parchment paper on your counter. Let them cool before eating.
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 6 tbsp cane or granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup active or discard sourdough starter
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 to 2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together.
- In another medium bowl using an electric mixer at medium speed beat together the butter, cane or granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. This will take about 1-3 minutes.
- Add sourdough starter, egg, and vanilla and mix on low speed until combined.
- Little by little add the flour mixture to the wet mixture using a wooden spoon until just incorporated. Do not over mix.
- Using a wooden spoon gently mix in the chocolate chips. I like to use just over a cup, but if you like a little cookie with your chocolate chips go for the full 2 (or more) cups.
- If you would like to ferment your dough, place plastic wrap on top of your bowl and place in refrigerator for 12-24 hours. The longer it sits the tangier the cookies will be. I like about 12 hours. Or you can skip fermentation and bake these cookies right away. I suggest letting your dough chill for at least 30-60 minutes prior to baking even if you are not fermenting.
- Using a small cookie scoop (4 tsp capacity) drop the dough in equal amounts onto prepared baking sheets. I can get 12 cookies per sheet. If you like larger cookies feel free to use a larger scoop and rounded tablespoons. Baking times will vary on the size of your cookies.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for about 10-15 minutes. Every oven and climate are a little different. My cookies bake perfectly at 14 minutes. The bottoms and edges will start to brown.
- Let cookies cool slightly (2-5 minutes) on baking sheet then transfer to parchment paper lined counter or wire racks.
- Depending on your size of cookie you will get 15-36 cookies. I use a small scoop and get 36 cookies exactly.
