Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies: Cinnamon Spiced & Salted
Imagine ooey-gooey, chewy, dark chocolate chip cookies… with a dash of snickerdoodle lovin’. And a hint of warm gingerbread spice. How about a sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top? Forget about it! Sounds too good to be true, right?! But that’s what you’re going to get with these drool-worthy spiced sourdough chocolate chip cookies.
If you prefer your cookies classic and don’t want the added spice, it’s all good. You can easily omit some optional ingredients and keep them as simple as you’d like. Yet if you stick to our recipe, these just might be the best sourdough chocolate chip cookies ever! You know… sugar and spice and everything nice.
Are you in need of a sourdough starter? You can either learn how to make one from scratch here, or pick up a dry sourdough starter from our shop – it’s 100% organic, alive, and essentially fool-proof to get going!
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Can I bake my sourdough cookies the next day?
Like most sourdough baking, this sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipe is very flexible when it comes to timing! You can bake the cookies an hour after you mix the dough, several hours later, or the next day. Truth be told, you could even refrigerate the dough for two to three days before baking – though we’ve never waited quite that long, so I can’t personally vouch for how it may impact the texture.
The longer the dough is allowed to rest and thereby ferment, the healthier it is! The fermentation process helps to break down gluten, reduce the glycemic index of the sourdough cookies (or bread), and enhance nutritional value. (If this is news to you, check out this article.) Therefore, if you have mild gluten sensitivities and rely on the fermentation process of sourdough to make baked goods easier to digest, I suggest allowing the dough to chill overnight before baking your spiced sourdough chocolate chip cookies. The added cinnamon also helps to reduce the glycemic response too!
Should I use active sourdough starter, or discarded starter in my sourdough chocolate chip cookies?
Either way! You can absolutely use unfed sourdough starter discard (the portion you remove when routinely feeding your starter culture) as a great way to reduce waste. Or, feed your starter and allow it to reach peak activity (at least doubling in size) – just like you would to make bread. Yet for the best results, use a sourdough starter that is at 100% hydration. Meaning, one that has been fed equal parts water and flour by weight. The instructions we commonly provide to feed a starter meets this requirement (feeding 1 scant cup flour and ½ cup water). It should have the consistency of thick pancake batter.
Spiced Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients
*Makes approximately 30 cookies* (2 to 3 dozen, depending on the size cookie balls you make)
- 1 ¾ cup flour (all-purpose or bread flour, see flour notes below)
- ¾ cup sourdough starter, discard or active
- ½ cup granulated white cane sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar. We love to use dark brown sugar for its deeper, robust molasses flavor! If you use light brown sugar instead, add an additional tsp of vanilla extract (use a full Tbsp instead of 2 tsp vanilla)
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 13 Tbsp butter, unsalted and softened
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp kosher salt or sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups (16 ounces) of chocolate chips. We’re huge dark chocolate lovers, and prefer to use chocolate chips that are in the 63-75% cocoa content range.
Optional, but highly recommended. This is what makes them spiced sourdough chocolate chip cookies, after all!
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon
- .5 to 1 tsp ground ginger (sliding scale based on your affinity for ginger)
- A pinch of nutmeg
- Coarse sea salt to sprinkle on top
What is the difference between using bread flour or all-purpose flour to make sourdough chocolate chip cookies?
Either all-purpose flour or bread flour work great for this cookie recipe! If you happen to have both, I suggest using 1 cup all-purpose and ¾ cup bread flour. Comparison baking trials show that using all-purpose flour will result in a slightly flatter cookie with a soft, chewy center and crisp outer edges. Bread flour creates a taller, fluffier, more chewy and cake-like cookie with less spread and crunch.
INSTRUCTIONS
Mix Dough
- First combine both types of sugar and the softened butter in a bowl. For the best results, use butter that has softened at room temperature or is otherwise is barely melted, but not liquid. Mix well.
- In a small separate bowl, whisk the egg. Then add the egg and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture. Beat until thoroughly combined.
- Add the sourdough starter to the wet ingredients and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients: the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices. Mix well.
- Next, add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredient bowl. Fold and stir until everything is just incorporated, but do not over mix!
- Finally, mix in the chocolate chips.
- Now, chill your spiced sourdough chocolate chip cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour, or until the next day. If you plan to let it chill for more than an hour, I suggest covering the bowl to prevent the dough from drying out – such as with a damp tea towel, beeswax wrap, or plastic wrap. Also, allow dough that has chilled for several hours or longer to sit out at room temperature for about 30 to 60 minutes before dividing into individual cookies and baking (sliding scale depending on how warm your house is).
Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Scoop or pinch about 2 to 3 tablespoons of cookie dough and roughly form into balls. I don’t measure, but shoot for ping pong ball to golf ball size. Place them 2 to 3 inches apart on an un-greased baking sheet, or one lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Do not grease your baking sheet!
- Sprinkle a pinch of coarse flaky sea salt on the top of each raw cookie before they go into the oven. The salt will spread out as the cookie does too.
- Bake for approximately 10 to 12 minutes, or until the top has set and they turn golden brown around the edges. You could also bake for a shorter time (8-9 minutes) for extra soft, gooey spiced sourdough chocolate chip cookies. The longer they bake, the more fluffy and cake-like they will become. If the cookies look a tad gooey right out of the oven, keep in mind they will continue to cook and set up slightly on the pan even after they come out of the oven.
- Allow the cookies to cool for several minutes on the baking pan, and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack.
Enjoy!
Now, all that is left to do is dig in and enjoy your delicious spiced sourdough chocolate chip cookies. Store leftover cookies that you plan to eat within a few days at room temperature in an airtight container, such as a glass food storage container with lid. Otherwise, you could also freeze excess cookies to enjoy within a few months. The Kitchn shares some great tips on freezing raw cookie dough and whole baked cookies.
I hope you love this spiced sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipe as much we do, and I can’t wait to see y’all make your own! Please come back to leave a review, and tag me on Instagram (@deannacat3) to share your creations. Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to spread the cookie love by sharing or pinning this article. Thanks for tuning in!
Don’t miss these related recipes:
- Simple Sourdough Focaccia Bread
- Sourdough Cornbread Recipe (vegan and GF options)
- Whole Wheat and Herb Sourdough Discard Crackers
- Simple No-Knead Sourdough Bread Recipe
- Cast Iron Whole Wheat Sourdough Pizza Crust
Spiced Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing bowls
- Baking sheets
- Optional: parchment paper or silicone cookie sheet liner
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups flour (all-purpose or bread flour, or a combination – see notes below*)
- 1/2 cup white granulated cane sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (dark preferred, if using light brown sugar add 1 extra tsp of vanilla)
- 3/4 cup 100% hydration sourdough starter, discard or active
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 13 Tbsp unsalted butter, soft at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (3 if using light brown sugar)
- 1 tsp kosher salt or sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups chocolate chips, dark chocolate preferred (16 ounces)
Optional "Spiced" Ingredients
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- .5 tsp ground ginger (up to 1 tsp)
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- coarse flaky sea salt, to top cookies before baking
Instructions
- First combine both sugars and the slightly softened butter. Mix well in a bowl.
- In a small separate bowl, whisk the egg. Then add the egg and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture. Beat until thoroughly combined.
- Add the sourdough starter to the wet ingredients and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients: the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredient bowl. Fold and stir until everything is just incorporated, but do not over mix!
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour, or until the next day. Cove the bowl to prevent the dough from drying out. Allow dough that has chilled for several hours or longer to sit out at room temperature for about 30 to 60 minutes before dividing into individual cookies and baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Scoop or pinch about 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and roughly form into balls (about golf ball size). Place them 2 to 3 inches apart on an un-greased baking sheet, or one lined with parchment paper.
- Sprinkle a pinch of flaky sea salt on the top of each raw cookie before they go into the oven.
- Bake for approximately 10 to 12 minutes*, or until the top has set and they turn golden brown. (See "bake time" notes below)
- Allow the cookies to cool for several minutes on the baking pan, and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
- Store leftovers at room temperature in an air-tight container for several days (up to a week), or freeze extras.
44 Comments
Ridzi Arora
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe with me. I just love it.
Jessica W
I made these yesterday and the family loves them. I will probably have to make them again tomorrow since they are almost all gone and I need to discard again….keeping my starter on counter so far.
Casey
Holy moly. These are so stinking good! I wasn’t sure my kids would eat them with the spices but they LOVE them (maybe almost as much as I do. ha!) The first time I made them with coconut sugar instead of brown sugar and I think I might prefer them that way. I’m also wondering if I could get away with using honey in place of the white sugar…but I’m also scared to mess with perfection. Thanks for this recipe…I have a hard time imagining doing anything else ever again with my sourdough discard.
Becki
This cookie recipe is so good! I was hesitant to add the extra spices not wanting to “ruin” a good chocolate chip cookie. I’m so glad I added them because the flavor is delicious! The texture of the cookie is very nice – they are tender with just enough body to make a satisfying treat. Well done, Deanna!
PJ Grey
I’m very impressed with this cookie recipe! These are an exceptional delight. They bring together three of my favorite cookie flavors into one soft, chewy, satisfying, perfectly balanced sweet treat. Deanna’s recipe is also perfect for making into a cake-like bar cookie as well. Bonus feature: you can use fed or unfed sour dough starter! Win win win ! 5 ☆’s
Morgan
Hello! I was wondering if there is any possible way to attempt to make these gluten-free? If I use Cup4Cup flour (or something similar) do you think it will be edible?
Thanks so much!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hello Moran, I think it is worth a shot! Give it a go and let us know how it turned out for you, good luck!
Chelcy
I made these and they were delicious! Mine turned out very soft and cake-like, and the spices were subtle and not overpowering! Perfect for the holidays, so we left some out for Santa 🙂
Instead of baking the entire batch at once, I baked one tray and froze the rest on a cookie tray after scooping into individual dough balls. Once frozen, they can be combined in a bag for easy storage. I later baked the cookies directly from frozen (no need to thaw!) and at 350 for 18min and they were perfect. No difference in texture!
I will definitely be making these again! Thanks Deanna for another delicious recipe!
Shanonn H
These are amazing. I’ve made them 3 times this week. I’m considering changing up the spices to make more of a chai spiced cookie.
DeannaCat
Yum, that sounds great too! Let us know if you do experiment, what you use and how they turn out! Thank you for the feedback!
Bibiana Moreno
These were great and I’m glad to be able to use my discard too.
Jen
Y’ALL!!!! (Yes I’m from Texas) This is an amazing cookie recipe!
I can’t believe it never occurred to me to add these spices to a cookie before, it’s such a delicious twist! And the salt on top is a perfect touch. Personally I would use fewer chocolate chips next time but that just me- this amount is great if you love a lot of chocolate in your cookie. I can’t imagine ever throwing out my sourdough discard when this recipe exists!
Side note- I kept my dough covered in the fridge for a couple of days before baking it all and they still turned out excellent.
Tammy
Just made these are they are SO perfect! I love cinnamon, and am so happy to find yet another way to incorporate it into a baked good. Tried different baking times and think they came out perfect at about 11 min for my gooey preferences. Went with chopping up a chocolate bar vs. chips and they made for even more gooey explosions. Thank you!
Kathryn Z
I made these cookies today, and holy cow – the bar for cookies just went way, way up! These came out like those fancy bakery cookies that are normally the size of Andre the Giant’s head, but when made normal-ish sized (please tell me I’m not the only one who feels guilty when I can’t finish one of those enormous cookies and it goes stale/hard before you can eat the rest of it no matter how you store it)! I have been conducting very, very scientific analysis of peak freshness and gooey-ness, and am glad to report that a cookie broken in half when left out to sit on the counter for 5 hours STILL is soft, chewy, and peak deliciousness… which is more than I can say from anything you can find on the back of a toll house bag.
I can’t recommend this recipe enough, and the suggestion to use higher percentage dark chocolate chips (63% cacao in this case) was so spot on. Also, I tried it with the spice mix and I never want to have a chocolate chip cookie without that ever again now.
Thank you so much for this excellent recipe and yet another use for sourdough starter! 10/10 will bake again!
DeannaCat
Haha, thank you for the extensive and wonderful review Kathryn! And heck yes on the dark chocolate and spices! Thanks again for trying them, and tuning in here! Happy holidays.
Janelle Frederick
These are sooo good! Will definitely be my go to chocolate chip recipe. Love that I can use my discard for these.