Chocolate Orange Sourdough Cookies

Chocolate orange sourdough cookies are quite possibly my favorite sourdough cookie recipe to date. They strike the perfect balance between sweet citrus oranges, tangy sourdough, warm brown sugar, and slightly bitter dark chocolate. This combination is an absolute must all year around!

Supplies

• Measuring cups and spoons
• Large bowl or stand mixer
• Spatula
• Large cookie scoop
• Baking sheet and parchment paper
• Cooling rack
• Zester or grater

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed (290g)
• 1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature (113g)
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter, stirred down (active or discard) (150g)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (5g)
• 2 tsp. orange extract (or sub for extra orange zest in a pinch) (10g)
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt (3g)
• 2 tbsp. cacao powder (or sub for cocoa powder) (12g)
• Zest from one orange (plus more for topping)
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (scooped directly out of the flour container and not spooned and leveled, or for more accuracy measure it by weight!) (210g)
• 1 tsp. baking soda (6g)
• 8 oz. chocolate chips of choice (I prefer dark chocolate chunks) (225g)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl or bowl of your stand mixer, cream the brown sugar and soft butter together for a couple of minutes until well combined. Add the sourdough starter discard, egg yolks, vanilla extract, orange extract, and salt, and beat well until smooth.

Add the cacao powder and orange zest, and mix to incorporate. Add the all-purpose flour, and slowly mix until almost combined. Sprinkle in the baking soda, and stir just until combined (be careful not to over-mix the dough).

Add the chocolate chips, and stir to distribute, again being careful not to over-mix.

Use a large dough scoop to evenly space 6 scoops of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Be sure to leave space between them for spreading. This recipe makes about 12-14 jumbo cookies.

Optionally top each scoop with a few more chocolate chips.

Bake for 12-16 minutes, or until the edges are slightly crisp and the center is baked but still soft. You may choose to bake a little longer for a crunchier cookie.

Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for about 7 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Top with additional fresh orange zest, and enjoy!

Substitutions

• If you don’t have orange extract, you can substitute for extra orange zest. I prefer a strong but balanced orange presence in these cookies, so I use 2 tsp. orange extract. However, if you’d like the orange flavor to take a back seat, you can decrease it to 1 tsp.
• If you want a chocolate orange sourdough cookie that has less chocolate, you can swap the 2 tbsp. cacao powder for 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour. This will yield an orange cookie with chocolate chips, rather than a chocolate orange cookie with chocolate chips.
• You can substitute dark brown sugar for the light brown sugar if that is what you have on hand.
• If you only have unsalted butter, you can use it in place of the salted butter, and then just add 1/4 tsp. additional salt to the recipe.
• If all you have is active sourdough starter, you can use it in the recipe! Just make sure to stir it down before measuring.

Can I put Terry’s chocolate oranges in cookies?

Yes, you can use Terry’s Chocolate Oranges in place of chocolate chips in this cookie recipe! I typically avoid consuming some of the ingredients found in Terry’s chocolate oranges, but I do indulge from time to time, especially around the holidays or for special occasions.

To use the chocolate oranges in this chocolate orange sourdough cookies recipe, simply swap some or all of the chocolate chips for roughly chopped chocolate oranges. You will need about 1 1/2 chocolate oranges to replace all 8oz. of chocolate chips.

If you swap all of the chocolate chips for chocolate oranges, you may want to decrease the orange extract and orange zest so that the orange flavor is not overpowering.

Can I freeze sourdough cookie dough?

Absolutely! To freeze, you can scoop the cookie dough balls into a gallon freezer ziplock bag. Be sure to leave enough space between each ball so they do not smush together. You can freeze the dough for up to a couple of months! If you are going to bake directly from frozen, be sure to add 1-3 minutes to the baking time. Or, you can allow dough to sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes so that the texture is most similar to freshly made dough.

In fact, do your future self a favor and double the recipe when you make it so that you can intentionally freeze a batch for baking later in a snap! Then later when you want chocolate orange sourdough cookies, you can bake as many dough balls from the freezer as you’d like. I sometimes bake just 2 at a time to have a no-prep, clean-ingredient desert in a pinch when that sweet tooth hits!

How to Make Long-Fermented Chocolate Orange Sourdough Cookies

In order to make long-fermented cookies, you will need to make the dough in advance. Simply follow the directions to make the dough, but then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-4 days. This allows enough time for the sourdough starter to ferment the dough, providing both flavor and health benefits!

When it comes time to bake the cookies, you have two options. You can either bake the dough from cold straight out of the fridge (resulting in a thicker and more cake-like cookie), or you can let the dough sit at room temperature for about an hour before baking (resulting in a chewier cookie, similar to baking right after making the dough).

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