Double Chocolate Sourdough Cookies

Chewy, fudgy, and filled with two types of chocolate, these double chocolate sourdough cookies are made with sourdough discard for a rich, brownie-like cookie. Bake immediately or chill before baking for a stronger sourdough taste.

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Ingredients You'll Need and Why

You have standard cookie ingredients here, plus dark chocolate, milk chocolate, cocoa, and sourdough starter. These are our notes from recipe testing. You can find the full recipe card with complete measurements and instructions below.

• Chocolate: you'll need dark chocolate, about 70% cocoa solids, plus whatever kind of chocolate or chocolate chips you'd like to fold into the dough. We recommend milk or white for a contrast against the dark chocolate cookie dough, but dark chocolate is great too. Chocolate chips or chunks are just as good as chopped chocolate for adding in, but you should stick to bar chocolate or couverture for the cookie dough.
• Flour: all-purpose white flour. We haven't tested this recipe with gluten-free alternatives. See Alex's chocolate chickpea flour cookies.
• Butter: this should be real salted butter. Margarine and vegan butter make the cookies spread too much.
• Sugar: granulated white sugar. Keep in mind that reducing the sugar will change the texture of the cookies significantly.
• Eggs: use large eggs at room temperature. To quickly bring refrigerated eggs up to room temperature, submerge them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.
• Starter: use sourdough starter or discard, depending on what you have on hand. It should be weighed if using active starter. Use relatively fresh discard to avoid a too-strong flavour.
• Cocoa: this recipe is developed with natural cocoa powder, not Dutch process. Dutch process will make the cookies denser.
• Add-ins: try dehydrated marshmallows, replace the chocolate with chopped chocolate bars like twix, caramels, chopped candy canes, and more. See our guide on chocolate chip cookie add-ins for more ideas.

Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.

How to Make Sourdough Discard Cookies

We've included extra step-by-step photos for this recipe because readers can sometimes get hung up on what the dough for brownie cookies should look like, as the method is different from standard chocolate chip cookies.

Step 1: sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and soda, and salt together in a bowl and whisk to fully combine. Set aside. It's good practice to always sift your cocoa powder to remove lumps, which are hard to dissolve or break down without heat.

Step 2: melt the butter and chocolate in a bain-marie (double boiler) or over very low heat in a small saucepan if you have an induction stove. Melting in the microwave or in a saucepan with an electric or gas stove makes it very easy to burn the chocolate.

Related: Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Step 3: beat the eggs and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. The melted chocolate mixture should be set aside and cooling while you do this.

Step 4: add the melted chocolate mixture in a slow stream, mixing on low speed, until incorporated. It should be very glossy. Mix in the vanilla extract.

Step 5: stir the starter or discard into the mixture. Switch to a spatula at this step to avoid over-mixing the cookie dough.

Step 6: add the flour mixture and stir until almost combined. A few streaks of flour should be visible. You'll finish mixing once the extra chocolate is added.

Related: Sourdough Chocolate Muffins

Step 7: add the chopped chocolate to the dough and fold it in to incorporate. This will finish mixing the cookie dough. Avoid over-mixing, which makes the cookies tougher and harder.

Step 8: rest the dough for 30 minutes at room temperature, or refrigerate for up to 24 hours if you want some fermentation action. The cookies will be thicker if the dough has been chilled but can lose the crackly outer layer. The flavour is excellent either way.

Step 9: scoop the cookie dough onto a large lined baking sheet, making sure to leave enough space between the cookies to allow for spreading. This makes 18 cookies so you will need two baking sheets.

Step 10: bake for about 10 minutes. Immediately after removing from the oven, use a large round cookie cutter or bowl to reshape the cookies into rounds if you'd like.

Expert Tips for the Best Cookies

• Try chilling the dough: these are sourdough cookies, and you might want a stronger sourdough flavour or for some fermentation to occur. The cookie dough can be chilled, tightly covered, for up to 24 hours before baking. Note that the dough will be quite hard when chilled. Make sure to fully cool the cookies if the dough has chilled overnight - when warm they can be a little bread-like.
• Don't use ancient starter: try to use active starter or fairly fresh discard, less than a week old. Really old starter that's been at the back of the fridge for weeks should not be used in cookies.
• Use room temperature ingredients: because the dough is made with melted butter and chocolate, if the eggs are cold then the chocolate mixture will start to set as soon as it's added. You must use room temperature eggs for this recipe.
• Stick to the ratios: changing the amounts in a baking recipe is tricky, and we carefully test our recipes several times before publishing them to make sure they're just right. Changes like reducing the sugar, using a different flour type, or (in this case) adding extra melted chocolate will all cause noticeable problems with the cookies.

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