Even though I lived through the Great Sourdough Explosion of 2020, it took me a long time to get aboard this trend. Many jars of starter have missed out on their ultimate calling, only to become sad slime at the back of the fridge. This summer though, my friend M gave me the most durable sourdough starter that may have ever oozed across this Earth, and it is still alive and well.

When you have a pet sourdough, every time you feed it you are left with something called the “discard”. Despite the name, you must not throw it in the garbage. It is great in pancakes, muffins, and in this case, chocolate chip cookies!

Makes: About 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size

Ingredients:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg (cold)
• 100g sourdough starter discard
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees f
2. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or a silicone baking mat
3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour (2 cups), salt (1 tsp), baking soda (1/4 tsp) and baking powder (1/4 tsp)
4. In a stand mixer, cream together butter (1/2 cup), brown sugar (1/2 cup) and white sugar (1/2 cup)
5. To the butter mixture, add egg, sourdough discard (100g) and vanilla and mix together – don’t worry if the butter is a little bit curdled from the cold egg, this is what gives cookies their crisp texture
6. Add the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips (1 cup) and mix just to combine
7. Drop cookie dough by the tablespoon-full onto the prepared cookie sheets
8. Bake for about 7-10 minutes, watch them carefully and remove when they start to brown around the edges
9. Let cool before eating (or at least fan them a bit and be careful of the molten chocolate chips)

Notes:

• This cookie dough will wait patiently in your fridge for at least a few days until you are ready to bake the cookies, so you can prepare them in smaller batches if you want. I find that it lasts about 2-3 days, after that the container just gets strangely empty. Just me?