Real Good Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

It is true, healthy chocolate chip cookies really do exist. Well, it is a “healthier version” when you make them sourdough chocolate chip cookies!

Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I title this “healthy” not because it is necessarily good for your body (although a moderate dose of sweet treats are good for the soul). Rather, I’m calling it healthy because the slow fermentation process will crack open the nutrients of the flour which is good for our bodies.

Flour is actually healthy for you. It contains nutrients like selenium, riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin, and thiamin that are all very good for you.

The slow fermentation of sourdough allows the living organisms in the sourdough starter to “chew on” and break apart the nutrients so that it is easier for our bodies to absorb.

Super good, yes! So make these sourdough chocolate chip cookies with delight!

Tips for making Sourdough Cookies

• If you do not have brown sugar you can easily make your own brown sugar by combining molasses and white sugar
• Use an ice cream scooper to easily form cookie balls
• Bake cookies on a cookie sheet so that they bake evenly

Tools You May Need

2 Mixing bowls

Kitchen Scale or measuring cups

Measuring spoons

Hand mixer or Stand mixer

Ice cream scooper

Cookie Sheet

Drying rack

Feeding Sourdough Starter

I keep a sourdough starter for making bread. Therefore, my sourdough starter is the same consistency as my bread mixture when I combine the ingredients to make bread. This is not all that important, but it is good to be aware of it.

To feed the sourdough starter for this cookie recipe, get rid of all the starter except for 50 ml.

Add 200 ml of White Flour and 50 ml of Whole Wheat Flour.

Pour in 200 ml of Water (I aim for the water temperature to be around 90°F-95°F). The water temperature is not wildly important in this recipe, but it can be helpful for trouble shooting when baking bread.

Ingredients

Sugar & Wet Ingredients

I start by mixing the wet ingredients into the bowl that I plan to store in the fridge. To this bowl, combine:

Brown Sugar

White Sugar

Softened Butter – I use unsalted because I’ll adding salt later on. If you only have salted butter, do not add salt later in the cookie dough mix.

Sourdough Starter – active and fed approximately 6-12 hours prior to mixing

Vanilla

Egg

Dry Ingredients

In a separate bowl, combine:

Unbleached White Flour

Salt

Baking Soda

Baking Powder

Chocolate Chips

How to make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sample Schedule

Since long fermentation takes time, you will only be able to eat a cookie on the fourth day.

To make things easier for you, here is a sample schedule: Feed the levain at 9 a.m., mix the cookie dough at 5 p.m. and store in fridge. Three days later, bake the cookies.

Feed Sourdough Starter (Day 1)

Start with feeding your sourdough starter. If it has been in the fridge, take it out and allow to come to room temperature first. Then follow these steps:

Remove all but 50ml of your sourdough starter.

Add 200ml of white flour, 50ml of whole wheat flour and 200ml of lukewarm water (90°F-95°F).

Let the sourdough starter rest (well, get to work) on countertop for 6-12 hours before mixing cookie dough.

Mix Cookie Dough (Day 1)

Depending on when you fed your sourdough starter, mix the cookie dough about 6-12 hours thereafter.

Again, I start with the bowl that I’m going to store in the fridge. With a mixed, combine the sugar and wet ingredients together including brown sugar, white sugar and softened butter.

Add sourdough starter, vanilla, and egg and mix well.

In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients (about a quarter at a time). Take care not to over mix

Ferment Cookie Dough (Day 2, 3, 4)

Store cookie dough in your fridge for 3 days.

It would be helpful to note that you could bake the cookies sooner, say on the second day, if you have to. The sourdough starter will just have had “less”time to ferment. 

I have also been out of town and baked the cookies on the 5th day and it still tasted delicious.

Bake Cookies (Day 4)

When you are ready to bake the cookies, remove cookie dough from fridge a few hours prior to baking so that the dough can soften for say scooping.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

With an ice cream scooper, scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet. I leave about a 1 inch spacing between the cookies.

Bake cookies for 20-25 minutes until the tops are lightly browned. Ovens can vary, so when you make these cookies the first time you should keep an eye on the cookies from the 15 minute mark until they are golden brown.

Once the cookies are lightly browned on top, remove them from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes. One time, the cookies would break apart when I was transferring them to the cookie sheet. To combat this, I let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet first for a couple of minutes and then transferred them to the cooling rack to cool completely.

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Recipe

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Other Sourdough Cookies & Baked Treats

Sourdough is a great way to make your baked goods a little healthier. This way, the flour will at at least boost your nutrient intake by undergoing a slight fermentation with the sourdough starter.

Some cookie recipes to consider are our pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, or the sourdough South African beskuit recipe, otherwise known as biscotti.

Pin Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

Watch how to make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies

If watching and learning is more up your alley, you can watch how I made these cookies on Youtube.