Best Chewy Sourdough Monster Cookies
Chewy in the middle, generously chunky, and loaded with mix-ins, these sourdough monster cookies are completely irresistible. They have great peanut butter flavor, use sourdough discard for moisture, and old fashioned oats for chew. Chopped dark chocolate, M&M's, and butterscotch chips give you something delicious in every bite. A no-fuss recipe.
Yield: 18 cookies
Ingredients
- 100 grams softened unsalted butter
- 160 grams light brown sugar
- 75 grams sourdough discard, preferably at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 80 grams creamy salted Jif or Skippy peanut butter (not the natural, drippy kind)*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 100 grams old fashioned oats
- 80 grams all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 110 grams chopped chocolate* (I prefer a semisweet to dark chocolate, around 60 to 70%)
- 100 grams M & M chocolate candies
- 70 grams butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Cream butter for 1 minute on medium high. Stop and scrape down sides of bowl. Then add brown sugar; 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 sourdough discard, egg, peanut butter, vanilla, and honey and mix on medium for about 45 seconds, scraping down the sides once, until the mixture is mostly homogenous. It doesn't have to be perfect. We don't want to overmix.
- Add oats, mix on low just to combine.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. Whisk to combine.
- Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients on stand mixer and mix on low for 30 to 40 seconds. You want some of the flour to be mixed in, but some dry streaks can remain. We are avoiding overmixing.
- Take bowl off of your stand mixer and add the chopped chocolate, M&M's, and butterscotch chips. Use a spatula and incorporate by hand, making sure to scrape everything off the bottom of bowl, until just combined and distributed. Refrigerate dough, covered, for 1 hour, up to 24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Scoop dough 55 gram dough balls. Place 8 dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet with room in between.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, until they are just set in the middle but slightly underbaked when you pull them out of oven to ensure chewiness. (Start checking at 12 minutes, your oven's temperature may run different than mine). Remove cookies from oven and and let cool on pan 5 minutes before transfer to cooling rack.
Notes
* 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 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 and chewy center.
*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.
