Chocolate Peppermint Sourdough Cookies

Chocolate paired with peppermint is just about the most classic flavor combination for all winter long! Truthfully though, it’s even great in the summer heat as a cooling flavor (I know, maybe an unpopular opinion). There’s no better way to celebrate the season than to make Chocolate Peppermint Sourdough Cookies! They’re delicious, they help to use up sourdough discard, and they make amazing and beautiful handmade gifts!

Supplies

• Measuring cups and measuring spoons
• Large bowl
• Spatula
• Large cookie dough scoop
• Baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Cooling rack

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed (290g)
• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened for 30-45 minutes at room temperature (113g)
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter discard (stirred down) (150g)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract (5g)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (5g)
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt (3g)
• 3 tbsp. cacao powder (or cocoa powder) (20g)
• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (scooped directly out of flour container and NOT spooned and leveled, or for more accuracy measure by weight!) (210g)
• 1 tsp. baking soda (6g)
• 8oz. chocolate chips of choice (dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate) (225g)
• 4 tbsp. crushed peppermint (or 4 crushed candy canes) (here’s the organic candy canes that I use because they are all natural and have no artificial food dyes or flavors!)

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, peppermint extract, vanilla extract, and salt, and beat well until smooth and thoroughly incorporated.

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

Finally, fold in the chocolate chips (again being careful now to over-mix).

Using a large dough scoop, evenly space 6 scoops of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Be sure to leave space between them for spreading. Top each scoop with crushed peppermint.

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. Enjoy! This recipe will make 12-14 total jumbo cookies.

Substitutions

• 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.
• For the chocolate chips, you can use whatever kind that you want. You could sliver up a chocolate bar, use chocolate chunks, or white chocolate chips.
• You may drizzle melted white or milk chocolate on the baked cookies once they cool down for an even more beautiful treat! These would make a great gift as well.

Can I freeze 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 clump 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 peppermint 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 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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• Sourdough Spiced Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Chocolate Orange Sourdough Cookies