Best Chewy Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

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I’m very particular about peanut butter cookies. I know the crisp, cross-hatched versions are quite nostalgic (grandma’s everywhere make these, right?). But if I’m being honest; they’re dry and gritty… and well, I’ll pass.

Instead, I want a bakery style peanut butter cookie that has rippled, buttery edges and a super chewy center that I can sink my teeth into, just like my Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies. And these Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies are all of that and MORE. They’re incredibly easy to make with sourdough discard and tasty as heck, with a salty sweetness that can’t be beat.

• These are intensely chewy with buttery edges and a rich, dense center.
• Just look at that beautiful crackled top!
• They don’t skimp on the peanut butter flavor.
• Perfectly salted with a hint of vanilla.
• Brown sugar gives them a lovely caramel note that pairs so well with peanut butter.

Key Ingredients to My Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies:

• A not-natural peanut butter, like Jif or Skippy
  • I love natural peanut butter for toast, but it’s a no-go for these cookies. Its lack of stabilizers causes oil separation, leading to greasy, crumbly results. Instead, the creamy conventional peanut butter results in the perfect spread, chewy center, and flavor.
• Sourdough discard
  • Use room temperature discard so that it easily incorporates into the wet ingredients. Sourdough discard provides moisture and adds a developed flavor to the cookies. Since it is fermented, the gluten structure is weakened so baking soda and baking powder are used here as leaveners. It doesn’t make the cookies sour.
• Both granulated and brown sugars
  • By using both types of sugar, you’re creating the best cookie. Besides their role of sweetening, white sugar gives the cookies buttery, crisp edges and brown sugar results in the soft chewiness, as well as giving them a more complex flavor.

How to Get a Beautiful, Crackled Cookie

Sarah Kieffer is known for being an exceptional baker, introducing us to incredible recipes and ways of baking, including her viral pan-banging cookie technique. This recipe uses that technique, which simply means that 10 minutes into baking, you lift the corner of the cookie sheet up about 4 inches and drop it onto the rack, making wrinkly, rippled edges on the cookies as the puffiness from the leavener is disrupted. You do this 1 more time, which results in crisp, buttery, rippled edges and chewy, gooey centers. It’s what makes these gluten-free pan-banging chocolate chip cookies and big, chewy gluten-free ginger molasses cookies so good, too!

What is Sourdough Discard?

In order to keep an active sourdough starter for making favorites like Rye Sourdough Bread and Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls, you have to feed your starter to keep it alive. 

As a sourdough starter rises and falls it expresses acids and alcohol, that if not used or left in the jar, can negatively affect the balance of your starter. So, before feeding your starter, you remove and “discard” a portion of it each time to refresh the acidity levels. “Discard is not bad”, it just can’t make a loaf of bread rise anymore because it doesn’t have any energy left to produce CO2.

Sourdough discard is an amazing ingredient that can be used in many delicious recipes like my sourdough discard flaky biscuits, pancakes, or banana bread!

How Long Does Sourdough Discard Last in the Fridge?

You can keep sourdough discard in your refrigerator for about 10 days. The discard will become more sour the longer it stays in the fridge.  For that reason, when I’m making something sweet like these cookies, pumpkin scones or sourdough discard rhubarb cake, where I don’t want the sourness to come through, I use discard that is less than 5 days old.

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Best Chewy Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

These sourdough discard peanut butter cookies are intensely chewy with the most beautiful crackled top, buttery edges, and extra nutty flavor. They're perfectly salted with a hint of vanilla, and brown sugar gives them a lovely caramel note that pairs so well with peanut butter. The rich, dense center is everything! Easy to make and there is an option to refrigerate the dough overnight if you want a longer fermentation.

4.97 from 58 votes

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Prep Time :10 minutes minutes

Cook Time :13 minutes minutes

Yield: 15 to 16 cookies

Author: Amanda Paa

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Equipment

• Half Sheet Pan

Ingredients

• 95 grams unsalted butter, softened
• 240 grams granulated sugar (plus a little extra for rolling the dough in)
• 40 grams brown sugar
• 125 grams creamy peanut butter (NOT the natural kind, should be like Jif or Skippy)
• 75 grams sourdough discard
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 185 grams all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon + extra pinch fine salt

Instructions 

• Cream butter for 1 minute on medium high. Stop and scrape down sides of bowl. Then add sugars; cream for at least 2 more more minutes, until light in color and fluffy. Scrape down sides a few times during mixing, as needed.
• Add peanut butter and sourdough discard, and mix on medium for about 45 seconds, until the mixture is mostly homogenous. It doesn't have to be perfect. Add egg and vanilla, and mix on low for 45 seconds to combine, scraping down sides.
• In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. Whisk to combine.
• Add dry mixture in two increments to the wet ingredients, with stand mixer on speed 2, low. Turn up speed to medium for 30ish seconds to fully combine, just until no flour streaks are left. Don't overmix. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours* (up to 24 hours) to allow dough to rest and absorb liquids.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Scoop dough 55 gram dough balls. Roll in granulated sugar. Place 6 dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet with room in between.
• Bake for 9 minutes, then use pan-banging technique; lift one corner of the cookie sheet a few inches and let drop onto rack. Then do the same thing to one other corner. Let cookies bake for another 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (you'll see their centers will puff up), repeat the banging. Let cookies bake for another 1 to 2 minutes until they are set in the middle but slightly underbaked when you pull them out of oven to ensure chewiness. Remove cookies from oven and drop pan on counter once more, and let cool on pan 5 minutes before transfer to cooling rack.

Notes

*The longer they are in the fridge, the more you will be REWARDED with a more intensified the flavor and elite texture. Same goes for these delicious Chewy Gooey Sourdough White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies. :)

* Do NOT decrease the amount of sugar; they are not too sweet. The amount of sugar used makes them perfectly salty sweet and allows them to achieve the superbly chewy texture.

*I highly recommend using an inexpensive oven thermometer when you are baking, as no oven is calibrated exactly precise, even one that is brand new. Your other likely runs hotter or cooler than it actually reads, and this can determine how much your cookies spread or do not spread and if they will look and taste like the recipe was written for. Using an oven thermometer allows you to slightly adjust the temperature to make it correct.