Got a jar of discard sitting in the fridge? These sourdough cookie recipes turn it into chewy chocolate chip cookies, fudgy crinkles, spiced autumn bakes and crisp biscotti. Every one is a sourdough discard cookie, and none of them taste sour. The discard just adds depth and a bit of extra chew.
Jump to:
- Quick Picks
- Classic Sourdough Cookies
- Sourdough Cookies for Chocolate Lovers
- Seasonal Sourdough Cookies
- Fruity and Citrus Sourdough Cookies
- Nutty Sourdough Cookies
- Something a Little Different
- Sourdough Biscotti
- Find Your Cookie at a Glance
- Why Use Sourdough Discard in Cookies?
- Discard or Active Starter?
- Can I Add Discard to Any Cookie Recipe?
- Tips for Better Sourdough Cookies
- Make Ahead, Storage and Freezing
- More Ways to Use Sourdough Discard
- Sourdough Cookie FAQs
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Each recipe has been baked, rebaked and quality-checked (by me and Seb) here in North Wales before it went anywhere near the blog.
Not sure where to start? Here are my quick picks below
Quick Picks
- New to sourdough baking: Sourdough Chocolate Chipless Cookies
- Got a lot of discard to use up: Sourdough Peanut Butter Blossoms (130g), or either biscotti at 225g a batch
- No time to chill the dough: Sourdough Snowball Cookies (no chill, no egg)
- For a cookie tin or gift box: Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies or Almond and Orange Sourdough Biscotti
- Something different: Sourdough London Fog Cookies
- Seb's pick: the Turtle Cookies and the Chewy Ginger Cookies. I asked him to choose one. He didn't.
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Classic Sourdough Cookies
The staples. If you're new to baking with discard, start here.
Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip Cookies
Thick and chewy with crisp edges, milk chocolate chips and a pinch of nutmeg you'll notice without quite being able to name. Uses 80g of discard and needs a 4-hour chill.
Sourdough Sugar Cookies
A cut-out dough with a subtle tang that holds its shape in the oven, which matters when you're icing 40 of them. The 6-hour chill is what keeps the edges sharp.
RECIPE: Sourdough Sugar Cookies
Chocolate Chipless Sourdough Cookies
For people who pick the chocolate out. Brown butter and nutmeg give these chewy sugar cookies a toffee-ish depth, and the batch makes six properly generous cookies.
Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
Crackled tops, a nutty, buttery bite and a gentle tang underneath. At 125g of discard, this is one of the best cookies here for clearing out the jar.
RECIPE: Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
Sourdough Oat and Raisin Cookies
Oatmeal raisin cookies, if you're in the US, with cinnamon, nutmeg and a little orange zest that wakes up the raisins. It's the only recipe here written for discard or active starter, and it has the shortest chill of the classics at 2 hours.
RECIPE: Sourdough Oat and Raisin Cookies
Sourdough Cookies for Chocolate Lovers
Triple Chocolate Sourdough Cookies
A cocoa dough loaded with white, milk and dark chocolate chips. Subtle they are not, and the discard keeps the middles soft long after the edges have set.
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Pretzel Cookies
Salty pretzel pieces and chunks of milk or dark chocolate in a buttery dough. Sweet-salty in the way that makes "just one more" a lie you tell yourself.
Sourdough Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
Fudgy, brownie-like centres under a cracked icing sugar shell, with orange zest in the background. Made with oil rather than butter and 60g of discard.
Sourdough Turtle Cookies
Caramel, toasted pecans, dark chocolate and a pinch of flaky sea salt, all in one chewy cookie. Seb's joint favourite, and the reason the pecans never last long in this house.
RECIPE: Sourdough Turtle Cookies
Seasonal Sourdough Cookies
Cookies for the bits of the year that call for cinnamon, ginger or Mini Eggs. For more seasonal bakes, browse my Autumn (Fall) Sourdough Recipes and Christmas Sourdough Recipes.
Autumn/ Fall
Chewy Sourdough Apple Cookies with Brown Butter
Fresh apple, cinnamon and nutmeg folded into a brown butter dough, so it tastes like apple pie in something you can eat with one hand. Makes six large cookies.
Sourdough Pumpkin Cookies with Chocolate Chips
Pumpkin purée and nutmeg give a tender, melt-in-the-middle crumb, and white chocolate chips add pockets of sweetness. A good home for the half tin of pumpkin left over from something else.
Sourdough Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
The classic snickerdoodle crackle and cream of tartar tang, rolled in pumpkin spice sugar. One batch makes 32 cookies from 100g of discard, which makes it a good one for sharing.
Chewy Sourdough Ginger Cookies
Ground ginger for warmth and chopped stem ginger for little sticky, fiery bursts. Seb's other joint favourite, and the one I bake when I want something spiced that isn't trying to be Christmas.
RECIPE: Chewy Sourdough Ginger Cookies
Christmas
These three are my festive favourites, and there are more in my Christmas Sourdough Recipes roundup.
Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
Golden syrup, ginger and mixed spice in a sturdy, soft-baked dough that's built for cutters and icing. The 10-hour rest suits making the dough the night before, and a batch makes about 45.
RECIPE: Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
Sourdough Snowball Cookies
Buttery, crumbly balls of pecan and pistachio rolled in icing sugar until they look like they've been out in the weather. No egg and no chill, so they're one of the quickest bakes in the collection.
RECIPE: Sourdough Snowball Cookies
Sourdough Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
Sharp dried cranberries against sweet white chocolate, in a chewy cookie with crisp edges. They also look the part on a festive plate, which never hurts.
Easter
Sourdough Easter Cookies with Mini Eggs
Mini Eggs (small candy-coated chocolate eggs) are crushed into the dough, with bigger pieces pressed on top so every cookie gets that crunchy shell. Chewy, colourful and gone before Easter Monday.
Fruity and Citrus Sourdough Cookies
Sourdough Lemon Crinkle Cookies
The zest of two lemons plus fresh juice, under a crackled icing sugar coat. Soft, almost fudgy centres, and properly lemony rather than vaguely citrus-adjacent.
RECIPE: Sourdough Lemon Crinkle Cookies
Sourdough White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies
Brown butter, white chocolate, flaky salt and frozen raspberries that stay whole and sharp. The dough balls go into the freezer instead of a long chill, so you can bake them in about 2 hours or keep them frozen for weeks.
Sourdough Thumbprint Cookies with Lemon Curd
Soft, buttery cookies with a pool of tangy lemon curd in the middle, and the discard echoes that tang nicely. Makes 30, after just a 1-hour chill.
Sourdough Discard Thumbprint Cookies with Jam
The cookie-tin classic, filled with whatever jam you have open. A 30-minute chill makes it one of the fastest sourdough discard cookie recipes on the list.
Sourdough Banana Bread Cookies
Very ripe banana, cinnamon, walnuts and chocolate chips, so it's banana bread in cookie form, chewy rather than cakey. It's the answer for when you've got discard and a brown banana in the fruit bowl.
RECIPE: Sourdough Banana Bread Cookies
Nutty Sourdough Cookies
Chewy Sourdough Butter Pecan Cookies
Toasted pecans, a little cinnamon and flaky sea salt in a rich, chewy dough. It tastes like butter pecan ice cream, only you can leave it out on the side.
Sourdough Peanut Butter Blossoms
A US Christmas classic: tender peanut butter cookies with a chocolate kiss pressed into each warm top. No chill, and 130g of discard, the most of any cookie here.
RECIPE: Sourdough Peanut Butter Blossoms
Sourdough Tahini Cookies
Tahini brings a toasty, slightly savoury nuttiness, and dark chocolate stops it getting too grown-up. Chewy, not too sweet, and a good use of 125g of discard.
RECIPE: Sourdough Tahini Cookies
Something a Little Different
The ones I bake when I'm bored of being sensible.
Sourdough London Fog Cookies
Earl Grey tea leaves and a little culinary lavender, inspired by the London Fog latte. Floral without tasting like soap, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
RECIPE: Sourdough London Fog Cookies
Matcha Sourdough Cookies with White Chocolate
Grassy, slightly bitter matcha balanced by sweet white chocolate chips, in a chewy cookie that's very green indeed. Matcha fans will get it. Everyone else will ask what it is, then take a second one.
Sourdough Red Velvet Cookies
A light cocoa dough coloured deep red, studded with white chocolate chips. The colour gets them noticed, and the chewy middle is why people come back for more.
RECIPE: Sourdough Red Velvet Cookies
Sourdough Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies
Soft red velvet cookies filled with a sweet cream cheese centre, like a cupcake that's been simplified. The dough is egg-free, and the filled cookies live in the fridge.
Sourdough Biscotti
Twice-baked Italian biscuits (cookies, if you're in the US) that are crisp, dunkable and the best keepers in the collection. Each batch uses a hefty 225g of discard.
Chocolate Sourdough Biscotti with Hazelnuts
Cocoa, orange and olive oil with whole blanched hazelnuts, baked until crunchy all the way through. They're made for dipping in coffee, and sturdy enough to post to someone you like.
Almond and Orange Sourdough Biscotti
Orange zest, olive oil and blanched almonds, crisp and fragrant. The recipe makes about 50, which is plenty for gift bags and a jar for yourself.
Find Your Cookie at a Glance
The discard column is grams of unfed sourdough starter at 100% hydration (equal weights of flour and water). Chill is the time the dough spends in the fridge or freezer before baking.
| Cookie | Discard | Egg | Chill | Texture | Makes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sourdough Discard Chocolate Chip | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy, crisp edges | 8 |
| Sugar Cookies | 50g | Whole | 6 hrs | Cut-out, holds shape | 40 |
| Chocolate Chipless | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 6 large |
| Peanut Butter | 125g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Soft, chewy, crackled | 12 |
| Oat and Raisin | 75g (discard or active) | Whole | 2 hrs | Chewy | 16 |
| Triple Chocolate | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Soft, chewy | 8 |
| Chocolate Chip Pretzel | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Soft, crisp edges | 8 large |
| Chocolate Crinkle | 60g | Whole | 4 hrs | Fudgy | 14 |
| Turtle | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 8 |
| Apple Brown Butter | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 6 large |
| Pumpkin Chocolate Chip | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Soft, tender | 8 large |
| Pumpkin Snickerdoodle | 100g | 2 yolks | 4 hrs | Chewy, crackled | 32 |
| Chewy Ginger | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 8 large |
| Gingerbread | 100g | Whole | 10 hrs | Soft, cut-out | 45 |
| Snowball | 50g | None | None | Buttery, crumbly | 12 to 13 |
| Cranberry White Chocolate | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy, crisp edges | 8 |
| Easter Mini Eggs | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 8 |
| Lemon Crinkle | 50g | Whole | 4 hrs | Soft, fudgy | 18 |
| White Chocolate Raspberry | 80g | Yolk | 1.5 to 2 hrs (freezer) | Soft | 8 |
| Lemon Curd Thumbprint | 70g | Whole | 1 hr | Soft, buttery | 30 |
| Jam Thumbprint | 70g | Whole | 30 mins | Soft, buttery | 30 |
| Banana Bread | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 10 |
| Butter Pecan | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 8 |
| Peanut Butter Blossoms | 130g | Whole | None | Soft, tender | 30 |
| Tahini | 125g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 12 |
| London Fog | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 6 |
| Matcha White Chocolate | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 8 |
| Red Velvet | 80g | Yolk | 4 hrs | Chewy | 8 large |
| Red Velvet Thumbprint | 60g | None | 20 mins, only if soft | Soft | 16 to 18 |
| Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti | 225g | Whole + 1 white | 30 mins rest | Crunchy | 34 |
| Almond Orange Biscotti | 225g | Whole + 1 white | None | Crisp | 50 |
Why Use Sourdough Discard in Cookies?
Sourdough discard adds flavour and chew to cookies without making them taste sour. In a cookie, 50g to 130g (or more for bigger batches) of discard sits alongside butter, sugar and usually chocolate or spice, so the tang comes through as depth: a slightly richer, more rounded, almost caramel-like note rather than anything sharp.
It also brings moisture. Discard is half water, and that extra hydration is a big part of why so many of these cookies bake up chewy in the middle instead of dry.
And the practical bit: it uses up starter that would otherwise go in the bin, which is the whole reason most of us start making sourdough discard cookies in the first place. More sourdough discard recipes below.
Discard or Active Starter?
Every recipe in this collection is written for sourdough discard, meaning unfed starter straight from the jar. The discard is there for flavour and texture, not for rise. Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) or baking powder does the lifting, so your starter doesn't need to be bubbly or recently fed.
Having said that, you can easily replace discard with active sourdough starter (measured by weight).
How old can discard be? For cookies, I use discard that's been in the fridge for up to a week. Beyond that it gets noticeably sharper, and in simple bakes like sugar cookies or thumbprints you'll taste it.
Weigh it. Discard varies a lot in thickness, so a "cup" of one starter can weigh quite differently from another. Every recipe here gives it in grams for that reason.
Can I Add Discard to Any Cookie Recipe?
Not reliably. Cookie dough is a carefully balanced, fairly dry dough, and discard brings extra flour and water into it. Add it to a recipe that wasn't designed for it and you'll often get cookies that spread, puff up and turn cakey, or both.
The safest route is a recipe that's built around discard from the start, with the flour, fat and liquid adjusted to match. That's exactly what all 31 of these sourdough cookie recipes are.
Tips for Better Sourdough Cookies
🌡️ Stop the spread before it starts. Flat cookies usually come down to warm dough, butter that was too soft, unusually runny discard, or skipping the chill. Give the dough its full chill time and keep the dough balls in the fridge between batches if your kitchen is warm.
🧁 Cakey instead of chewy? Too much flour, too much discard or a few extra minutes in the oven will all push a cookie towards cake. Weighing and pulling them early (below) fixes most of it.
⚖️ Weigh everything, not just the discard. Flour measured by the cup can vary by 20g or more, and in a small cookie batch that's enough to change the texture.
🥄 Portion evenly. Use a cookie scoop or weigh each dough ball so the whole tray bakes at the same rate. Mixed sizes means burnt small ones and raw big ones.
👀 Pull them out early. Take chewy types of cookies out when the edges are set and the centres still look slightly underdone. They carry on cooking on the hot tray and firm up as they cool.
🧈 Cool your brown butter. Several recipes use brown butter (the Chocolate Chipless, Apple and White Chocolate Raspberry cookies). Let it cool to room temperature before mixing, or it melts the sugar and you end up with greasy, flat cookies.
Make Ahead, Storage and Freezing
Make ahead: the chill time in most of these recipes is a built-in break, so you can mix the dough one day and bake later. The Sourdough Gingerbread is designed for exactly that, with a 10-hour rest that works well overnight.
Storing baked cookies: keep them in an airtight tin at room temperature. Chewy cookies are at their best for 3 to 4 days. Biscotti keep for up to 2 weeks. The Red Velvet Thumbprints have a cream cheese filling, so store those in the fridge.
Freezing dough balls: this works for the whole collection. Freeze the portioned dough balls on a lined tray until solid, then move them to a freezer bag or container for up to 3 months. Bake straight from frozen and add 1 to 2 minutes to the bake time.
Gifting and posting: biscotti and gingerbread are the best travellers. They're sturdy, they keep, and they don't mind a bumpy ride. Thumbprints and crinkles are better handed over in person.
More Ways to Use Sourdough Discard
Cookies are only the start. If your discard jar is still looking full, try my Sourdough Dessert Recipes for cakes, bars and puddings, or the Sourdough Discard Breakfast Recipes for pancakes, muffins and more.
Planning ahead for December? The Christmas Sourdough Recipes roundup has you covered.
You'll find everything else in the Sourdough Discard category. And if your starter itself is giving you grief, grab my Free Sourdough Starter Troubleshooting Guide.
Sourdough Cookie FAQs
Yes, cold discard works in all of these cookies. If you're creaming butter and sugar first, very cold discard can firm the mixture up a little or make it look slightly curdled. If that happens, keep mixing for a minute and it will come back together. Or let the discard sit out for 20 to 30 minutes before you start.
Two recipes in this collection have no egg at all: the Sourdough Snowball Cookies and the Sourdough Red Velvet Thumbprint Cookies. The Snowball Cookies also need no chilling, so they're a quick option if you've run out of eggs.
An egg yolk adds fat and richness without the extra water that comes with the white. That extra water would make the cookies puff up and turn cakey. Discard already brings moisture to the dough, so a single yolk is often all a chewy cookie needs.
Chilling firms up the butter, so the cookies hold their shape and bake up thick rather than spreading. It also gives the flour time to absorb the moisture from the discard and egg, which improves the chew and lets the flavour deepen. A 4-hour chill is standard across most of these recipes for that reason.
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