Sourdough Chocolate Cut Out Cookies
These chocolate cut out cookies made with sourdough discard are a great no-spread recipe with great chocolate flavor for all your cookie baking needs!
Cut out cookies are so fun to make for holidays or special events! I love my regular sourdough cut out sugar cookies, but I wanted to make chocolate ones, too!
These are rich in chocolate flavor and are the perfect combination of soft but still firm enough to hold their shape and handle some decoration.
Adding sourdough discard to cookies is one of my favorite ways to use sourdough starter.
Adding discard to cookies creates such a wonderful treat – not only does it help improve the texture of the dough (thanks wild yeast!) but it also helps to deepen the flavors of the cookie. It is such a simple way to take a cookie from “good” to “WOW!”.
Making chocolate cut out cookies with sourdough discard
This is a brief overview of how to make this recipe. For the full set of directions, please make sure to scroll down to the recipe card below.
- Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.
- Add in the eggs and mix until just combined.
- Mix in the cocoa powder, sourdough discard and vanilla until combined. The mixture will be lumpy, but it will smooth out as you continue mixing.
- Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and combine until just mixed. Do not overmix. The dough will be soft.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and flatten into a disc. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare baking sheets with either parchment paper or a silpat.
- Working with 1/3 of the dough at a time, roll to 1/4″ thickness. The dough is very soft, so flour the counter and rolling pin well, ensuring the dough does not stick to the counter as you work.
- Cut into desired shapes, and place shapes on prepared pans 2″ apart. You do not need to chill the dough again, but if your shapes are really intricate, you can.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies are firm in the center and just starting to turn golden on the edges.
- Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Decorate as desired.
If you don’t have a sourdough starter yet and want one, my post on how to make a sourdough starter is broken down into the exact steps day by day you need to know, and I also have a guide on using sourdough for beginners that you should check out as well.
Decorating these cookies
You can decorate these cookies any way you want! they are perfect for any holiday (spring, Halloween, Christmas, birthdays, whatever your imagination comes up with! I am not at all an expert in decorating cookies, I usually just let my kids go to town with bowls of icing and all the sprinkles.
Note: I know these cookies and my sourdough sugar cookies are beautifully decorated. I did not do that, haha. My assistant Kathleen did the decorating for both these recipes, aren’t they absolutely amazing! Everyone tell Kathleen how awesome she is! I can promise you they would not look this nice if I did them, haha.
Storing decorated cookies
The best way to store these cookies is to make sure the frosting is 100% dry before trying to put them away. They really do best if they are boxed up in a single layer, but you can place a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper in between layers if you need to.
Interested in even more sourdough cookies? Check out my book with 25 sourdough discard cookie recipes!
Sourdough is better when shared
If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment and rating below.
Love and links are always appreciated! If you’d like to share this recipe, please link to the post directly for the recipe, please do not copy and paste or screenshot. Thank you so much for supporting me. XOXO – Jenni
Sourdough Chocolate Cut Out Cookies
These chocolate cut out sugar cookies are made with sourdough discard. Perfect for any cut out shape and any way you want to decorate them!
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 41 minutes
- Yield: 32 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup sourdough discard
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cream sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add in the eggs and mix until just combined.
- Mix in the cocoa powder, sourdough discard and vanilla until combined. The mixture will be lumpy, but it will smooth out as you continue mixing.
- Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and combine until just mixed. Do not overmix. The dough will be soft.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and flatten into a disc. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and prepare baking sheets with either parchment paper or a silpat.
- Working with 1/3 of the dough at a time, roll to 1/4″ thickness. The dough is very soft, so flour the counter and rolling pin well, ensuring the dough does not stick to the counter as you work.
- Cut into desired shapes, and place shapes on prepared pans 2″ apart.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the cookies are firm in the center and just starting to turn golden on the edges.
- Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Decorate as desired.
Notes
The amount of cookies you get depends on the size and shape of cookies you create. If you make bigger sized cookies you will get less, and if you create smaller sized cookies you will get more. Store cooled, dry cookies in an airtight container with parchment paper or waxed paper in between them.
