Vegan Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies: Tasty Discard Recipe - Foragers of Happiness (2024)

Introduction

Vegan sourdough chocolate chip cookies are a super easy and delicious way to use up your sourdough starter discard. They have a subtle sourdough flavor, and are super easy to make. They are completely egg-free and dairy-free, which makes them a great treat for vegans or people with egg and dairy allergies. Your friends and family will love these cookies and will beg you for the recipe.

A Few Notes About the Ingredients

Sourdough Discard

The sourdough discard is the star of the show in this recipe. You want to make sure you have enough sourdough starter for this recipe, which requires 1/2 cup. If you don’t have quite enough, you can feed your starter a couple hours before making these cookies to increase the volume and allow your starter to ferment a bit.

It’s okay to use an active starter for this recipe but you do not need to. An unfed starter is perfectly fine for this recipe. In fact, I’ve made this recipe with starter that I had sitting in my fridge for a week without being fed.

​Flour

You don’t need to use bread flour for this recipe. All purpose flour works great and is often less expensive and easier to find than a good bread flour. Save your bread flour for baking your delicious sourdough bread.

Vegan Butter

You want to pull your butter out of the fridge to soften a little before making these cookies. If you don’t it will be very hard to cream the sugars and butter. It is also hard on your stand mixer to try beat cold hard butter. I usually let my butter soften for 30 minutes to and hour before baking with it.

If you’re in a pinch for time or forgot to pull out your butter, you can soften it for 10-15 seconds in the microwave. Just make sure you remove the wrapper, especially if you are using Earth Balance, which has foil in the wrapper. Yikes!

Sugar

This recipe uses both refined white sugar, and brown sugar. You can use either light brown or dark brown sugar, but I like the way the dark sugar tastes better. Dark brown sugar makes the cookies have a richer, more complex flavor.

Vegan Egg

​I love the way Ener-G Egg Replacer turns out in baked goods. If you don’t have any of this on hand, you can also make a flax egg or a chia egg.

Chocolate Chips

You can use either chocolate chips or chocolate chunks in this recipe. I like the way chocolate chunks look and they are usually larger, so you will get a big bite of chocolate.

Make sure you check that your chocolate chips are dairy free. There are several brands that don’t have dairy products, but several do. I like to use Trader Joe’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. Enjoy Life also has food allergy-friendly chocolate chips that are free from the top 14 allergens.

Rolled Oats

I like to add a little bit healthy fiber to my cookies to avoid that sugar spike that happens when you eat too much dessert. Adding some rolled oats is a great way to do that. This is an optional step but you won’t even notice they are in there.

How to Make Vegan Sourdough Discard Cookies

Make the Egg Replacer

The first step in this recipe is to make the vegan egg replacer. You want to do this step first because it gives the egg replacer a chance to thicken and form the desired texture. Once you prep this, you can set it aside and get started on the rest of the recipe.

Mix the Ingredients Together to Form the Basic Cookie Dough

1. Combine the Dry Ingredients
2. Cream the Butter and Sugars
3. Add the Sourdough Discard, Vegan Egg, and Vanilla Extract
4. Add the Dry Ingredients to the Wet Ingredients
5. Add the Oats and Chocolate Chips

Chill the Dough

For best results, you want to chill the cookie dough before baking. This hardens the butter and prevents undesirable spreading and flat cookies when you bake them. You can refrigerate this sourdough cookie dough overnight as well. This will result in a more sour flavor in your cookies because the discard will slowly ferment the dough. Before sticking the bowl in the fridge, make sure you cover your bowl with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out.

If you want to make this dough ahead of time you can also freeze the cookie dough. Form the cookie dough into balls and place in a gallon freezer-safe bag before storing. This way, you can pop a few cookies out of the bag at a time and use just what you need. For uniform cookie sizes, a cookie scoop is best, however you can eyeball it and use a regular tablespoon to form your cookie dough balls.

Preheat the Oven and Bake

For easy cleanup, line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. This also prevents the cookies from sticking to the baking pan.

This recipe calls for a slightly higher baking temperature of 375^oF. I found that this results in a better golden appearance without over-baking or drying out the cookies. You want to avoid over-baking your cookies so you still have the soft and chewy center.

Once your cookies are baked, cool them on a wire rack at room temperature for at least 5 minutes before enjoying them.

Substitutions and Variations

There are several ways you can adjust this recipe to fit your needs:

• Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans or other nuts
• Leave out the oats
• Add 1/2 cup of extra oats for a heartier texture
• Use dairy-free white chocolate chips
• Substitute coconut oil for the vegan butter
• Sprinkle the cookies with flaky salt after they have cooled for 10 minutes.
• If you are not vegan, try using brown butter in this recipe.

Storage

These cookies are best stored in an airtight container so they do not dry out. They last up to one week but are best if eaten within 4 days (they are so tasty, this probably won’t be an issue).

FAQs

Can I Use Fed Sourdough Starter for My Cookies?

Yes, you can feed your starter before making these cookies. You might find that your sourdough cookies will rise a little bit more in the oven, but they will flatten out as they cool down.

Can You Eat Raw Sourdough Discard Cookie Dough?

No, sourdough discard cookie dough should not be eaten raw. Raw flour can be contaminated with dangerous bacteria like E. coli. In fact, the FDA recommends avoiding eating any raw flour and washing your hands after handling it.

Can You Make Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies with Almond Flour?

I have not tried making these cookies with almond flour. If you are gluten-free, these might not be the best cookies to make. You might try another recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies as sourdough starter does contain gluten.

A Final Word

I hope you enjoy this recipe for homemadesourdough discard chocolate chip cookies. If you like this recipe, will you consider sharing this chewysourdough chocolate chip cookie recipe on your favorite social media platform? It really helps our site! We will be posting more sourdough discard recipes in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, you might enjoy these recipes:

The BEST Sourdough Blondies

Brown Butter Sourdough Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Most DELICIOUS Vegan Zucchini Muffins You’ve Ever Had

*This post may contain affiliate links in which I make a small commission at no cost to you if you make a purchase through the link.As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.