It will shock you that the secret ingredient in this delicious cookie is sourdough discard. These are the best sourdough chocolate chip cookies and this recipe is a great way to use sourdough discard and add some health benefits to a treat. Plus the texture of the center of these cookies is just like cookie dough! Expect a cake-like cookie, not cakey cookies.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies overhead final shot

This chocolate chip cookie recipe doesn’t even require any eggs so this is a great option for anyone with an egg allergy or intolerance and, if you use vegan butter, these cookies can be made completely vegan.

If you’ve never worked with sourdough discard, read on to learn more about the benefits of incorporating this ingredient into your baking. Adding discard helps improve the nutritional profile of your baked goods and the sourdough flavor is subtle if you notice it at all.

Ingredients to Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

High-Quality White Flour
Baking Soda
Fine Salt
Unsalted Butter (or Vegan Butter)
White Sugar
Brown Sugar
Sourdough Starter Discard
Vanilla Extract
Milk Chocolate Chips (or Vegan Chocolate Chips)

Tools to Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Parchment Paper
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Liquid Glass Measuring Cup
Stand or Hand Mixer
Mixing Bowl
Whisk or Dough Hook
Sturdy Spatula or Wooden Spoon
1oz Cookie Scoop

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie overhead shot

All About Ingredients

I use KAMUT® White Flour in most of my recipes because it improves taste and nutrition but I write all of my recipes for both KAMUT® White Flour and regular all-purpose flour so use what works best for you! If you’ve never tried KAMUT® White Flour and you can find it online or at a store near you, I highly recommend giving it a try. You can easily substitute KAMUT® White Flour for regular AP and vice versa. I write a lot more about KAMUT® Brand Wheat here if you are interested in learning more.

In this recipe, I use fine salt instead of the coarse sea salt in my Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt since I want the salt to melt into these cookies and enhance the other flavors. Choose any fine salt that works for you.

Just like in most of my other cookie recipes, I use cold butter for these sourdough discard cookies. I like to use cold butter so that I can bake without too much pre-planning and I can cut down on cookie dough chill time. However, I only recommend cold butter if you are using a powerful bowl-lift stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. If you use a tilt-head mixer or a hand mixer, I recommend room temperature butter. Trust me, I almost destroyed my tilt-head mixer because of my cold butter habit and I definitely cut a few years off it’s lifespan so please learn from my mistakes! If you use softened, room temperature butter, just be sure to chill your cookie dough. I have notes for both methods in the recipe.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies dry ingredients

Speaking of butter, I use unsalted dairy butter in this recipe but no eggs so you can make this entirely plant-based with your non-dairy butter of choice. If you substitute a salted nondairy butter, just reduce the added salt by half.

As mentioned, this cookie recipe requires no eggs! This is because the added sourdough discard helps the cookies rise and eggs would just make the cookies too cakey. So, this recipe being egg-free makes for a better cookie and makes it a great option for those with dietary restrictions, egg allergies or who are vegan!

To add to the health benefits of these cookies, this recipe includes less sugar than my other cookie recipes but the inclusion of milk chocolate chips brings back some of that missing sweetness. I love milk chocolate chips but you can absolutely substitute your favorite chocolate chips in this recipe. These cookies are already healthier than classic chocolate chip cookies with the addition of sourdough, the reduction of sugar and especially if you use KAMUT® Brand White Flour but you can increase the health benefits even more if you prefer dark chocolate and use a high-quality brand that states the percentage of cacao on the packaging. There are a variety of opinions on what constitutes dark chocolate but anything more than 55% cacao will taste darker than standard semisweet chocolate chips and anything more than 70% cacao is undoubtedly dark chocolate. The first time I made these cookies, I used dark chocolate but I prefer the milk chocolate in this recipe for that perfect balance of sweet yet not too sweet. Chocolate chunks would also work great in this recipe.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies on tray

All About Sourdough

One of the biggest differences between these cookies and many classic chocolate cookie recipes is the addition of sourdough discard. Sourdough discard is the leftover when you feed your active sourdough starter. You would use the active sourdough starter for bread but the discard is a great addition to many recipes. I’ll be completely honest. At the time of writing this post, I’ve made sourdough bread exactly one time but I continue to feed and maintain my starter to use in other baking recipes. Someday, I’ll attempt the sourdough bread again but, for now, I love using sourdough starter in muffins, pancakes and, of course, these cookies! So keep an eye out for other sourdough discard recipes in the near future!

The best quality starter will come from another, more established starter but you can absolutely start your own, especially if you plan to use the discard more than the actual active starter. My starter is from a friend that, like many, started making sourdough during the pandemic. Her bread is amazing but even she said her starter wasn’t great until about six months in so definitely get a starter from a friend if possible!

Don’t worry, sourdough cookies Depending on the age of your discard, you might notice more or less sourdough flavor but I’ve always thought it was very subtle. One reason it’s great to add sourdough discard to your baking recipes is that it prevents food waste. If you are going to maintain a sourdough starter, you have to feed the starter and remove the discard so why not use it? I’ve seen completely opposing viewpoints on the appropriate age of a starter (some say use up until it’s seven days old and some say don’t use until it’s at least seven days old!) so just go ahead and use your sourdough discard as long as it doesn’t have mold or separation.

When I plan to use my sourdough discard, I pull it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Or, I just plan to bake something with discard soon after I feed my starter.

Another reason to bake with sourdough discard is to increase the health benefits of your baked goods. Sourdough is a fermented food so it can aid in digestion and many people who have an intolerance to wheat can consume sourdough without a problem. And even for those without a wheat intolerance, sourdough can just make you feel better. If your digestion is working better, you will absorb more nutrients from your food and just feel better – sometimes without being able to pinpoint the reason. A lot of people even claim to put on weight with regular wheat but not when that same wheat is made into a sourdough baked good.

Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies overhead cookie on plate

How to Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (if you used softened, room temperature butter, wait to preheat oven). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Mix the dry ingredients together using a whisk or dough hook and set aside.

Cream together the butter and both sugars and then add the vanilla and the starter and mix until just combined. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and, again, mix until just combined. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer or set the hand mixer aside and stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula.

Use the cookie scoop to scoop slightly overfull scoops of cookie dough. Place up to 8 cookies on each parchment-lined baking sheet. If you used room-temperature butter, chill the trays with the cookie dough balls for 30 minutes before baking and preheat oven when chill time is almost finished. If you used cold butter, no need to chill the trays.

Bake cookies for 18 minutes and swap and rotate trays halfway through bake time. Transfer each cookie sheet to a wire rack and lightly press the bottom of a drinking glass onto the top of each cookie to flatten slightly. Let cookies cool completely on the trays before serving or storing.

For best results, these sourdough discard chocolate chip cookies should be kept in an air-tight container at room temperature or frozen for up to three months.