Sourdough Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

    When I first started my sourdough journey I thought that I would never have extra starter because I was just going to be making so much bread. Of course, I overestimated the amount of bread my husband, baby, and I can eat! So, I found myself searching for other ways to use my sourdough starter. Thankfully, I found a ton! I discovered there are ways to integrate sourdough into just about anything that you bake and even some things you don't. So, of course, I had to try a few. Although this isn't my first non-bread sourdough recipe, this might be my new favorite. 

    I started off my cookies by browning some butter. To be honest, for the longest time I thought browning butter for my baked goods was a huge waste of time and just made more dirty dishes. Boy was I wrong! Browned butter adds a caramelized goodness to my goodies that I did not expect! So, no matter how much you want to, do not skip this step!

    When my butter was ready I mixed it into my brown sugar and my white sugar. When those were well combined, I added in my vanilla and eggs and once again mixed everything until it was smooth. Then, I added my sourdough starter. Because this recipe is not going to proof and need that extra puffiness you can use your starter at peak, unfed, or anywhere in between. Just keep in mind that an unfed starter can be very sour and that isn't always what you want in a cookie (unless it is) so I like to use mine on days that I miss peak so it won't be good for a loaf of bread but its still too early to feed it. 

    To measure my starter for cookies I like to mix it to pop all of the bubbles then measure out 1/2 cup. I do this because I do not want to bust out my scale just to measure one thing but 1/2 cup of starter can have a wide range of mass depending on how bubbly it is. If this were a recipe that depended more on the yeast content for rising then I would not hesitate to use a kitchen scale but, like I mentioned, these cookies don't rise, so I don't need to worry about being too picky. 

    Once my sourdough starter was very well mixed into my dough I added flour and baking soda. I like to mix my flour and baking soda together before I add it into my wet mixture to avoid baking soda pockets but you don't have to. Before my flour was fully incorporated I cut up some baking chocolate and mixed it into my cookie dough. 

    At this point you have two options: refrigerate or bake. The main difference between the two is how thick your cookie will end up. If you bake them right away they will flatten out because the butter is already melted. Personally, I am impatient and like a thinner cookie so I rarely refrigerate. When my dough was ready I used a cookie scoop and plopped mounds of dough straight onto my cookie sheet. I like to press another piece of chocolate into the top to make it prettier but that is optional.

    I baked my cookies for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees Farenheit and they turned out perfect! Before they were cooled I sprinkled them with a tish of coarse sea salt to enhance the flavor. As soon as they were cool enough to handle I chowed down and these cookies were so delicious! There is a slight tang from the sourdough but I enjoy it and I think if I didn't tell someone they had sourdough in it they wouldn't even know! The brown butter and the salt topping also add so much to these cookies that make them astronomically better than your basic chocolate chip. On top of it all, it is a great way to use up sourdough starter!

    What did you think of this recipe? Leave me a comment!