Sourdough Toffee Crunch Chocolate Chip Cookies

These sourdough toffee crunch chocolate chip cookies are soft, chewy, & delicious and a great way to use your sourdough starter!

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You can use a sourdough starter for so much more than just making bread!  One of my favorite uses for my starter is baking delicious sourdough cookies.  Sourdough cookies don’t need to long ferment at room temperature but can be baked right away or cold-proofed in the fridge for several days to get some of that tangy sourdough flavor.

My daughter loves to bake with me in the kitchen and she recently discovered English toffee bits.  She’s obsessed and has wanted to put them in everything, so this recipe is inspired by one of our days together in the kitchen.  What’s better than classic chocolate chip cookies?  Adding sourdough and chopped pecans!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• These chewy cookies can be baked right away or the dough can be cold-proofed in the fridge for a few hours or days before baking if you want a more noticeable sourdough flavor.
• You can use either sourdough starter discard or active sourdough starter, whatever you have will work just fine since the starter is not doing the leavening in this recipe, but rather the baking soda and baking powder.
• These cookies are made with brown butter which gives them a sort of caramel flavor and perfectly crisp edges.  Using brown butter and egg yolk only rather than the whole egg is the trick to making sourdough cookies that are chewy rather than cakey.

Spend the day with me in my kitchen making some delicious, home-cooked food including these cookies!

What You’ll Need

Ingredients

1 cup browned, unsalted butter (225 grams)

3 egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar (150 grams)

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (150 grams)

3/4 cup sourdough discard (active starter is ok too) (180 grams)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups all-purpose flour (240 grams)

1 cup toffee bits (225 grams)

1/2 cup chopped pecans (60 grams)

12 oz. chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, roughly chopped (340 grams)

Tools

Large mixing bowl and wooden spoon or stand mixer with the paddle attachment

Small skillet or saucepan to brown the butter

Cookie sheets and parchment paper

Wire rack for cooling

Kitchen scale (optional)

Step-by-step Instructions

If you’ll be baking right away, preheat the oven to 350F and prepare a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Brown the butter

Do NOT skip this step, or you will end up with cakey cookies.  Trust me, it’s worth the extra step.  Use a small saucepan to brown the butter on medium heat.  Once the butter is golden brown, remove it from heat and allow it to cool a little bit, then pour it into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.

Add the brown sugar and white sugar to the large bowl with the brown butter and mix.  Adding the sugars to the butter before adding the egg yolks prevents them from scrambling when coming into contact with the hot/warm melted butter.  Once the butter and sugar are combined, add the egg yolks, sourdough starter, and vanilla and mix until combined.

Add the dry ingredients

Whisk the all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a separate bowl, and then add the dry ingredients to the large bowl of wet ingredients and mix until just combined.  Do not overmix.  

Add the toffee bits, pecans, and rough-chopped chocolate chips and stir.

Bake the Cookies

Use a cookie scoop or spoon the cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets and bake at 350F until you have crispy edges but the middles are still soft, 10-12 minutes.

Storage

If you won’t be baking right away, cover the bowl of cookie dough with plastic wrap or store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.  Store this sourdough chocolate chip cookie dough in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.  Once the cookies are baked, you can store them at room temperature for 3-4 days or freeze them for up to 3 months.

Q & A

What is Sourdough Discard? 

Sourdough discard is an immature or inactive sourdough starter.  When first establishing a new starter, discard is what you remove before each feed.  With an established, mature starter – discard is simply inactive starter removed or used before a feed or after the peak.  

How do I make a sourdough starter?

To make a sourdough starter, mix equal parts water and flour in a jar, cover with a loose fitting lid, and allow to ferment at room temp for 24 hours. Discard half of the mixture after the 24 hours is up, “feed” the starter equal parts water and flour, cover with a loose fitting lid, and allow to ferment at room temp for 24 hours. Repeat this process of discarding, feeding, and fermenting for 1-2 weeks and you will have a mature sourdough starter ready to bake with. See my detailed blog posts on how to make and maintain a sourdough starter.

How does sourdough affect the taste of chocolate chip cookies?

Using sourdough should add some tanginess and depth to the flavor of your cookies, but they should not be sour.  Sourdough discard cookies should be sweet.  This recipe makes sweet, chewy sourdough chocolate chip cookies.

Do I have to brown the butter to make sourdough cookies?

Yes. If you want the cookies to be chewy and soft.  If you don’t mind a cake-like consistency, you can skip browning the butter.  Browned butter will not only result in a better texture but also better flavor.  The best cookies are made with brown butter!

Can I use bread flour to make sourdough chocolate chip cookies?

Yes. You can use bread flour to make sourdough chocolate chip cookies.  But it will change the texture since bread flour is higher in protein.  The final product will be dense rather than soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies.  If you don’t mind the difference in texture, go for it!

Tips for the best sourdough cookies

• For the best results, brown the butter until it is just golden brown with flecks of milk solids appearing at the bottom of the saucepan.  Watch the butter closely to avoid burning it.  This one step goes a long way to achieve that chewy texture that is an essential part of making the perfect cookie.
• Do not overmix.  Overmixing cookie dough can make the cookies hard and dry rather than soft and chewy.
• Cold-proof the cookie dough in the fridge in an airtight container overnight for some added sourdough flavor.  

More Sourdough Cookie Recipes

Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sourdough Lemon Drop Cookies

Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

More Sourdough Discard Recipes

Fluffy Sourdough Discard Pancakes

Sourdough Discard Blueberry Muffins

30-Minute Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Rolls