Save your sourdough discard and make soft and chewy sourdough peanut butter cookies. Fast and easy with no chilling or mixer required! Recipe includes a how-to video!
Sourdough Discard Peanut Butter Cookies
Sourdough bakers, here’s another recipe for using up your sourdough discard! These sourdough peanut butter cookies incorporate sourdough discard into my classic peanut butter cookie recipe. They are distinctly peanut buttery and have perfectly chewy (not cakey!) texture.
If you haven’t yet started your sourdough journey, check out my post on how to make a sourdough starter to get started. Baking with sourdough is a lot of fun, and you’re rewarded with tasty (and nutritious!) sourdough bread, sourdough pretzels, and more!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Repurposes sourdough discard instead of wasting it. I love when I can incorporate my sourdough discard into recipes; not only does it reduce food waste, but it also adds depth of flavor too!
- NOT cakey. Sourdough discard contains a lot of water, which can make for cakey cookies (also a big issue when making pumpkin cookies!). We carefully counteract this so our cookies turn out perfectly tender and chewy.
- No chilling! The dough can be baked right after making it, which means this recipe is perfect for days when need a sweet treat but are short on time.
- No mixer needed. Since we’re using melted butter instead of softened, you can easily mix this dough together by hand. I’m all for saving dishes when I can!
Ingredients
- Sourdough discard. Don’t use discard that’s too old or seems watery. I don’t use discard more than a day or two old (if stored at room temperature) or a week old (if stored in the refrigerator).
- Peanut butter. I prefer creamy peanut butter, but I suppose you could use crunchy if you like a little texture. I have not tested this recipe (yet) with natural peanut butter (but hope to try it with my homemade peanut butter soon).
- Butter. We’ll start with plain old melted butter, which yields more flavorful and chewy cookies compared to cookies made with softened butter. While you may be tempted to use browned butter (like I do in my sourdough chocolate chip cookies), I actually don’t recommend it. I tested this recipe with browned butter, and it just wasn’t a hit. The flavor struggled to shine against the peanut butter and it wasn’t worth the extra effort.
- Egg yolks. We’re skipping the egg whites today to accommodate for our sourdough discard, which has lots of water. If you don’t want to waste your egg whites, use them to make coconut macaroons, sea foam, brownie bark, or blueberry cream cheese muffins.
- Light brown sugar. If you have it on hand, you use do a half cup of dark brown sugar and a half cup of light brown sugar instead of all light brown. This is actually my preference, it adds a bit more depth and richness (without being over the top, like all dark brown sugar would be).
SAM’S TIP: Sprinkle coarse sugar on top of your cookies before baking for a bit of flavor and texture! I like to use organic cane sugar for this (because it’s coarser), but regular granulated sugar would work too.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Them
Make the dough
Make sure your butter has cooled completely and is no longer warm to the touch before you get started, otherwise you will melt the sugars and your dough will be greasy. Add the sugars and peanut butter and stir well before adding the remaining wet ingredients.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then stir them into the wet ingredients in 3-4 parts. Adding them this way (as opposed to dumping them all in at once) allows them to fully absorb and makes the dough much easier to work with.
Roll & bake
Scoop your cookie dough and roll between your palms until smooth (optional, but makes for much prettier cookies). Before baking, lightly sprinkle the top of each cookie with sugar if desired (I don’t care to roll the whole cookie in sugar, just a little sprinkle on top is perfect). Flatten each cookie slightly with the tines of a fork, but don’t smash them too much, or they won’t stay as moist, soft and chewy as they ought to on the inside.
A note of caution: Over-baking is one of the worst things you can do with these cookies! They’ll seem dry, flavorless, crumbly or bland if over-baked. I actually prefer to very slightly underbake these cookies and let them finish baking outside the oven on the hot cookie sheets; this guarantees that soft and chewy texture we’re aiming for.
Bake and let cool completely on the baking sheet before moving–the cookies are very fragile when warm.
SAM’S TIP: If your first batch of cookies spreads too much, double-check that you didn’t flatten them too much and/or stick your dough in the fridge for 15-30 minutes. This usually means your butter (or your kitchen) got a bit too warm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Just make sure to cover it well and store in the fridge (it’ll keep for 3-4 days before baking). The dough can be tough to scoop after a long bout of chilling, just let it sit (covered) at room temperature for 20-30 minutes or until soft enough to scoop.
These cookies will be dry if you flatten them too much before baking OR if you over-bake them. Over-baking will also affect the flavor of these cookies, making them bland when they should be perfectly peanut buttery.
I typically avoid using natural peanut butter (or homemade peanut butter) in baked recipes, as the results can be inconsistent. Unfortunately, sometimes the cookies can end up extra dry if made with natural peanut butter. I haven’t tested this recipe with it yet, but hope to soon.
If you need more sourdough discard recipes, try my sourdough banana bread, sourdough crackers, or sourdough pancakes!
Enjoy!
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Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled until no longer warm to the touch
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar firmly packed
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (280 g) creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup (110 g) sourdough discard
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
- Coarse sugar for sprinkling see note
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, sugars, and peanut butter and stir well.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar, 1 cup (280 g) creamy peanut butter
- Add sourdough discard, egg yolks, and vanilla extract and stir until mixture is uniform.½ cup (110 g) sourdough discard, 2 large egg yolks, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.2 ½ cups (315 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon table salt
- Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet and stir until thoroughly combined. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to ensure all ingredients are combined.
- Scoop dough by 2 Tablespoon-sized scoops (38g) and roll gently between your palms to create a smooth ball. Place on prepared baking sheet, spacing cookies at least 2” (5cm) apart. Sprinkle lightly with coarse sugar and use the tines of a fork to slightly press down on the surface of the cookie to make a criss-cross pattern (don’t smash the cookies down too far or they’ll be prone to being more dry and crumbly).Coarse sugar for sprinkling
- Transfer to center rack of 350F (175C) preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will still look slightly underbaked in the center when done. Allow them to cool completely on the baking sheet before removing and enjoying. Be careful to not overbake or they will be be dry.
Notes
Coarse sugar
I like to use a coarser sugar like organic sugar but regular granulated sugar will also work just fine here.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Sally
could I brown the butter instead of just melt it?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Sally! We actually tested this recipe with browned butter and found it wasn’t worth the extra effort. The flavor fell flat against the peanut butter ☹️
Brian B
Delicious! Soft, peanut buttery goodness!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Brian! 🙂
stacey
Would coconut sugar or another sweetener work for a diabetic?
Also, what about trying with a whole wheat flour?
Sam
Hi Stacey! Coconut sugar could potentially work, but just know it will change the cookies a bit. They should still turn out though. Whole wheat flour would take some experimentation as it is much “thirstier” and likely wouldn’t be a 1 for 1 substitution.
Darlene
what is discard sourdough
Sam
Hi Darlene! You need to have an active sourdough starter and you discard some of that and use that. 🙂