Hannah's Home Cookin'

These easy brown butter sourdough chocolate chunks cookies are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Top each warm and gooey cookie with flaky sea salt, and you won’t be able to eat just one!

Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

I searched high and low for the perfect sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipe, and honestly could not find something that I liked. So, I ventured out to make my own. With a bit of experimentation and a lot of love, I figured out how to make the most perfect browned butter sourdough chocolate chip cookies ever!

This easy recipe takes all the good things about sourdough, and puts it into a chocolate chunk cookie. I’ve stuck with an eight hour ferment because I’m too impatient to wait any longer to make my cookies! But you can ferment for up to 24 hours.

Pair these amazing cookies with a heaping scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream, or a big ol’ glass of raw milk. Every gooey cookie needs something cold to wash it down.

Why You’ll Love this Recipe

• If you are sensitive to gluten, sourdough chocolate chunk cookies may be your new best friend! Fermenting cookies with sourdough helps to reduce the gluten content and make it much easier to digest. Give it a whirl and let me know whatcha think!
• It only takes about 15 minutes to prep these cookies. Then set and forget until you’re ready to bake them.
• Brown butter sourdough chocolate chip cookie dough is great to make ahead of time. It can ferment for up to 24 hours, so make it early and let it sit until you need it!

Ingredients

• brown sugar
• white sugar
• sourdough discard
• egg yolks
• vanilla extract 
• all purpose flour
• browned butter
• baking soda
• baking powder
• chocolate chunks
• Flaky sea salt to top

Substitutions and Variations

If you can’t find chocolate chunks, you can use chocolate chips. I love 70% dark chocolate chunks in these cookies, but you can use milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate and anything else you want.

You can omit the flaky sea salt if you prefer, but if you’ve never tried it then promise me that you’ll at least give it a shot. It really makes these cookies extra incredible!

Use salted or unsalted butter, whichever you prefer. If you use unsalted butter, add a good pinch of salt to the cookie dough.

Some chopped pecans or walnuts would be a lovely additions to these gooey and chewy cookies.

How to Make Brown Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookies

To begin, add one cup of butter to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Continuously stir the butter as it melts and browns. Once it turns to a golden brown color, immediately remove it from the heat and pour into a small bowl.

Allow the browned butter to cool before mixing it into the cookie dough. You can cool it quickly by popping it into the fridge or freezer for a few minutes.

Add brown sugar, white sugar and egg yolks to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer.

Beat the ingredients together for about a minute, then add the butter, sourdough discard and pure vanilla extract. Mix wet ingredients until just combined. Don’t over mix!

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder.

Add half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold in with a silicone spatula.

Pour the rest of dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined. You may need to use your hands at this stage!

Add 3/4 of a 12oz bag of chocolate chunks to the sourdough cookie dough. Leave 1/4 of the bag behind for later. Fold the chunks into the cookie dough until well combined and evenly distributed.

Cover the bowl of cookie dough in plastic wrap or beeswax wrap and store in the fridge for 8-24 hours.

When you are ready to bake, line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease with a bit of butter. Preheat the oven to 375° Fahrenheit.

Scoop the dough out with a cookie scoop or spoons and lightly roll with your hands. Place each dough ball 1 to 2 inches apart on the parchment paper lined baking sheet. Then grab those reserved chocolate chunks and press a few into the tops of each cookie.

Bake cookies in a preheated oven for 7-9 minutes. Immediately sprinkle coarse sea salt over the tops of each cookie. Then allow them to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Serve warm enjoy!

How to Store Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Store leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. You can also freeze cookies for up to 2 months. Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before storing, or condensation can build up inside their container and make them soggy.

Tips and Tricks

• Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl as you mix the cookie dough together to ensure you’re getting all of the ingredients incorporated.
• Aside from mixing the wet ingredients, don’t use the electric mixer to mix the dough together. Use a spoon, spatula or your hands.
• Feel free to add anything the these cookies, just don’t overload the dough or it may not bake evenly.