Chocolate Dipped Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

These chocolate dipped Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies are a twist on a classic recipe using sourdough discard. The cookies are soft, chewy, and are a perfect balance of salty and sweet.

This recipe is easy to make and comes together quickly with basic pantry ingredients. Depending on your preference, you can make these cookies with smooth or crunchy peanut butter.

In the recipe guide below, you’ll find lots of tips to help you make these sourdough discard peanut butter cookies and learn how to get perfect crisscrosses on top without using a fork!

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Can use smooth or crunchy peanut butter depending on what you prefer.
• Easy sourdough discard recipe with lots of peanut butter flavor.
• Excellent balance of salty and sweet.
• Can dip in chocolate for a gourmet Reese’s flavor.
• Soft and chewy cookies that keep well for days.

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🔍 Tips for Making Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

• You can use natural or processed peanut butter for these cookies, but if you’re using natural, be sure to stir up it up well! Personally, I prefer processed peanut butter (i.e. Jif, Skippy, Peter Pan, etc.) for creamy cookies that don’t spread as much.
• Let peanut butter cookies cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour to fully hydrate the flour, meld the flavors, and harden the soft dough so scooping is easier.
• After rolling the cookies into balls, flatten them slightly with the palm of your hand before using the tines of a fork or dowels to make criss crosses on top of the cookies. This helps them bake evenly since they’re denser and don’t spread as much as other types of cookies.
• For perfect crisscrosses that are elegant and even, use four small wooden dowels instead of the tines of a fork! They won’t crack as much and the bumps in the cookies will look more uniform.

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🛠 Tools Needed

You don’t need any fancy equipment to make sourdough peanut butter cookies, but I do list my tool recommendations below so you’ll have the most success!

• Baking scale
  • Ingredients like flour and sourdough starter weigh differently from person to person when measured by volume. For the best results, I recommend using a baking or kitchen scale.
• Stand mixer (recommended but optional)
  • Helps mix the batter easily, but you can use a hand mixer too.
• 2 TBS cookie scoop (#24 cookie scoop)
  • Optional, but helpful. A cookie scoop will help you portion out even-sized cookies. This recipe makes about 2 dozen 34g cookies. You can use a large spoon as well and weigh out the dough too.
• Half sheet pans lined with parchment paper

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

See below for my ingredient recommendations and possible substitutions. All of the ingredients are simple pantry ingredients that you probably already have at home!

Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

• All-purpose flour
  • For more wheaty flavor, substitute about ½ cup of flour with whole wheat flour.
• Baking soda and baking powder
  • A small amount of baking soda and powder adds a bit of leavening to the cookies so they’re still tender, spread slightly, and brown.
• Salt
  • Most store-bought peanut butter is already salted, so the recipe only uses a ¼ tsp of salt. If you’re using unsalted peanut butter, increase to ½ tsp of salt.
• Peanut butter
  • You can use creamy or crunchy peanut butter in this recipe. Similarly, you can use natural, processed, or homemade peanut butter.
  • I prefer creamy, processed peanut butter for cookies that don’t spread as much such as Jif or Skippy.
• Egg
• Unsalted butter, room temperature
  • Use softened butter to easily combine your wet ingredients together.
• Light brown sugar
  • Contributes to the color, moisture, sweetness, acidity, and texture of the cookies.
• Granulated sugar
  • For sweetness and for rolling the cookies in before baking.
• Sourdough discard (or active starter)
  • Sourdough discard is unfed sourdough starter that you can use in sourdough discard recipes. When I feed my starter, I store the discard in the refrigerator so there’s no waste. Learn how to make sourdough starter from scratch and my top sourdough starter tips.
• Vanilla extract
  • Vanilla brings out more depth in these cookies so the peanut butter shines even more!

Chocolate Dip

The chocolate dip for these cookies couldn’t be easier!

All you need is some melted coconut oil (refined) and melted chocolate bars or chips. I prefer using semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, but you can also use milk chocolate.

The coconut oil helps the chocolate set as it cools, so you can still get a shiny, chocolate glaze without needing to temper it.

Variations and Other Inclusions

• Chocolate chips: Add ½ cup of chocolate chips or morsels to the cookies (about 90g).
• Roasted peanuts: For even more crunch, add ½ cup of chopped, roasted peanuts to the cookies!
• Peanut butter kiss or blossom cookies: Add a single chocolate Hershey Kiss to the top of the cookies instead of makig the crisscrosses.
• Peanut butter paprika cookies: Paprika is a unique and decidedly slightly savory addition to these cookies! Add a ½ tsp of paprika to the dough and sprinkle more on top before baking.
• Peanut butter jelly cookies: After smooshing the cookies with the palm of your hand, add a couple of teaspoons of jam or jelly on top. Grape is always good for a classic pairing!

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🥜 How to Make Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

Follow this visual recipe guide as you make chocolate-dipped sourdough discard peanut butter cookies. It includes additional tips and photos to help you throughout the process.

1. Mix the Dry Ingredients

In a small mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.

Set aside as you mix your wet ingredients.

2. Mix the Cookie Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using an electric hand mixer), combine the softened butter, light brown sugar, granulated sugar, and peanut butter.

Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure all the butter is incorporated.

Then, pour in the egg, sourdough discard, and vanilla extract and mix until the batter is pale brown and creamy, a minute or two.

Finally, dump in the bowl of dry ingredients and mix just until the flour is combined. Don’t overmix or your cookies will be dry.

3. Chill the Dough

At this point, the batter is too soft and wet to roll out.

Chilling the batter for at least an hour will allow the flour to further hydrate, let the flavors meld, make portioning easier, and allow you bake on your own schedule.

Cover and transfer the bowl of dough to the refrigerator to chill at least an hour and up to a couple of days in the refrigerator.

4. Portion and Make Criss-Crosses

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Use a 2 TBS cookie scoop (#24) or spoon to portion out about 24-26 cookies and place them on the baking sheets with a couple of inches in between each. They usually weigh in at about 34g for me if you want to get exact!

Use the palm of your hand to press down on them slightly before using the tines of a fork or small wooden dowels to make crisscross or hash patterns on top of the cookies.

While the tines of a fork work perfectly fine to smush the cookies and looks more rustic, wooden dowels create more defined lines and a pattern that holds up better while baking.

5. Bake

Before baking, you can sprinkle the tops with flaky salt or raw sugar. Can’t go wrong with either here!

Bake one sheet at a time in the middle rack for 15-17 minutes, or until the cookies spread slightly and the edges are very light golden brown.

Cool on the pan for five minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

6. Dip in Chocolate (optional)

Place chocolate chips or chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl with the melted coconut oil. Heat in 10-second intervals and stir in between to melt the chocolate completely. Chocolate burns easily, so only do short intervals in the microwave!

Alternatively, you can melt the chocolate in a bowl over a hot water bath (bain marie) to gently warm it, stirring constantly.

Finally, dip the cooled cookies in the chocolate and place on a wire rack until the chocolate solidifies. Top with more flaky salt or sugar if you like before enjoying!

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How to Store

Homemade sourdough peanut butter cookies store very well due to the high-fat content of the butter and peanut butter and fermented qualities of sourdough discard.

The cookies store well in an airtight container for 4-5 days. If dipped in chocolate, keep in a cool location to prevent melting and don’t layer the cookies on top of each other or the chocolate may melt on the cookies.

For freezing, I recommend freezing the dough before baking for up to a few months. Then, thawing overnight in the refrigerator and baking them following the same instructions above.

These make excellent Christmas cookies that you could serve in a cookie box with other sourdough cookies such as Sourdough Graham Crackers, Chocolate Raspberry Sourdough Biscotti, Brown Butter Sourdough Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, or Sourdough Snickerdoodle Cookies.

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❓ FAQs:

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Other Sourdough Dessert Recipes You May Enjoy:

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