Sourdough Sugar Cookies

It’s hard to beat a good sugar cookie! While many sugar cookie recipes read as simply sweet, these chewy Sourdough Sugar Cookies strike the perfect balance of sweetness and tang. Plus, they’re easy to make and packed with more flavor than your traditional sugar cookie!

To elevate the sourdough discard sugar cookies to the next level, you can toast the sugar for added depth. Toasted sugar introduces a subtle caramelized depth that enhances the cookie’s overall sweetness, making every bite more complex and satisfying.

The sourdough discard and cornstarch combination ensures these cookies stay soft and chewy. Add the pan-banging technique, and you’ll get irresistibly wavy, crinkled edges that bring extra texture and charm to this classic treat.

The detailed recipe walks through how to make these easy and chewy sugar cookies with all of my ingredient recommendations, baking tips, FAQs, and photos of each step.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Optional toasted sugar adds a slight caramel flavor to the cookies.
• Stay soft and chewy for days.
• Wavy, crinkled edges.
• You can make them in a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer.
• Easy sourdough Christmas cookies for holiday cookie boxes.
• You can make the cookie dough ahead and rest it in the refrigerator to bake later (you can even freeze them!).
• Store well and keep for a week.

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🔍 Tips for Making Sourdough Sugar Cookies

• Let the cookie dough rest and chill for at least an hour before baking. This allows the dough to hydrate, lets the flavors meld, and ensures the cookies don’t spread too much. I do this in many sourdough dessert recipes and cookies to increase flavor.
• You can toast the sugar in the oven before mixing in to add a subtle caramelized flavor to the cookies.
• For crinkly edges and more texture, I pan-bang or slam the cookie pan 3x during baking. It helps the cookies spread and gives them a wavy outside like in my Sourdough Snickerdoodle Cookies.
• Finally, when you mix the cookie dough, only mix until the flour is hydrated and no more. Overmixing will lead to more gluten development and a less tender cookie. Gluten is great for making sourdough breads, but not soft cookies or pastry like Sourdough Pie Crust or rough puff pastry in Sourdough Pop Tarts.

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🛠 Tools Needed

You probably have all of the tools at home to make these sourdough sugar cookies! No rolling pin, cookie cutters, or decorating required to make these festive cookies.

• 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 or electric hand mixer
  • The first step is to cream the butter and sugar in the recipe, just like in my Sourdough Linzer Cookies. A stand mixer or electric hand mixer will help combine the butter and sugar and whip air into it.
• Large cookie scoop (3 TBS, #20 cookie scoop)
  • Optional, but helpful. A cookie scoop will help you portion out even-sized cookies. This recipe makes about 18-20 45g cookies. Alternatively, you can use a large spoon and weigh out the dough.
• Sheet pans lined with parchment paper

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

These sugar cookies are made with simple pantry ingredients that highlight the flavor of butter and sugar.

However, you can turn the cookies up a notch with a couple of special techniques and high-quality ingredients! See below for my ingredient recommendations and possible substitutions to make the best sourdough sugar cookies.

• All-purpose flour
  • Lower protein/gluten flours tend to be best for most cookie recipes for a more tender cookie. Cake or pastry flour would be good to use in this recipe too.
  • If you want to add whole wheat flour, the cookies may not spread as much, but they will be heartier.
• Cornstarch
  • The cornstarch inhibits gluten development and lends to a more tender and chewier cookie.
  • Substitute with a ½ tsp of cream of tartar.
• Baking soda
  • Helps the cookies spread and interacts with the acidity in the sourdough starter.
  • There’s no baking powder in this recipe as the soda helps with spreading, browning, and interacts with the acdicity of the sourdough.
• Salt
• Egg Yolks
  • Since sourdough discard has water in it, I reduce the liquid in the recipe by only using egg yolks instead of whole eggs. The yolks add richness, color, and some protein structure.
• Unsalted butter, softened
  • Room-temperature butter works best in this recipe for creaming the butter and sugar together.
  • No need to splurge on expensive butter for this recipe, like making Sourdough Croissants or Sourdough Pie Crust.
• Toasted granulated sugar (or use plain sugar)
  • Add complexity and subtle caramel flavor to these cookies by toasting the sugar! It’s a simple step that raises the bar.
  • You can toast a big batch of sugar to have on hand or toast just enough for this recipe. To do so, toast an even ¼ inch layer of sugar in a large stainless steel pan in a 350ºF oven for 30-40 minutes until lightly golden and very small clumps starts to form (but before it melts!).
  • While delicious, honey, maple syrup, and other liquid sweeteners won’t work in this recipe. They’ll spread too much. Instead, you could use coconut, maple, date or another dry sugar.
• 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
  • Since there are no spices in this recipe, vanilla is one of the key flavors that shines! I recommend using a high quality vanilla for the best flavor in sugar cookies.
  • A ¼ teaspoon almond extract is a nice optional flavor you could add too.

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👨‍🍳 How to Make Sourdough Sugar Cookies

Follow this visual recipe guide as you make these chewy sourdough discard sugar cookies. It includes additional tips and photos to help you throughout the process.

I adapted this recipe for sourdough discard from The Kitchn.

1. Toast the Sugar (optional)

Toasting sugar is easy, but adds a subtle caramelized flavor to these cookies that makes them stand out. It’s an optional step (you can just use regular granulated sugar), but I think you’ll love the difference it makes! Plus, you can toast the sugar in large batches any time in advance.

To toast a small batch of sugar, preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC) and spread granulated sugar in a ¼ inch even layer in a large stainless steel skillet. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the sugar is very lightly golden, starts to smell like caramel, and small clumps form. Don’t let it melt!

Then, cool and store indefinitely in your pantry. You can do this any time in advance!

For large batches of toasted sugar, follow this technique by Stella Parks, which can take a few hours but lets you have plenty for all of your baking.

2. Mix the Dry Ingredients

Combine the all-purpose flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a medium mixing bowl.

Set aside.

3. Cream the Butter and Sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream the room temperature butter and sugar until light, fluffy, and pale in color.

4. Mix the Sugar Cookie Dough

On low speed, add the egg yolks and vanilla extract until combined. Then, pour in the sourdough discard.

Continuing to mix on low speed, slowly dump in the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Turn off the mixer, scrape the sides of the bowl if needed, and finish mixing the thick cookie dough with a spatula so no floury spots remain.

Don’t overmix, or you’ll get a tougher and denser cookie.

5. Chill the Dough

At this point, the batter is too wet to roll out and will spread too much if you bake immediately.

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

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

6. Portion and Roll in Sugar

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC) with a rack in the middle.

Add more toasted sugar or granulated sugar to a small bowl and set aside.

Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

Using a large cookie scoop or spoon, portion out 18-20 large cookies (about 3 TBS or 45g each).

Then, roll the cookie balls in the bowl of sugar and space them a few inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. I can fit 8 on a large baking sheet as they do spread quite a bit.

At this point, you can freeze rolled sugar cookies and store for 3 months in the freezer.

7. Bake

Bake the cookies one pan at a time in the center rack of the oven for 8 minutes. Then, slam the pan on a counter.

Bake another 2 more minutes, pan bang, and bake another 2 more minutes, finished by another bang when they come out of the oven. This is a total of 12 minutes in the oven.

At the end of baking, the edges should be slightly wavy, just set starting to caramelize, and the centers should look a little puffy and underbaked. This is what gives you a chewy cookie!

For perfectly round cookies, use a large round cookie cutter that’s bigger than the cookies to swirl around the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. This will help round out the edges and get circular cookies if any are irregular.

If you prefer crispier cookies, let them bake an additional couple of minutes.

Finally, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with additional toasted sugar before serving.

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How to Store

Homemade sourdough sugar cookies store very well and stay chewy for days because of the sourdough discard and cornstarch. It makes them perfect for gifting in Christmas or holiday cookie boxes!

Store the sourdough discard sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.

The cookies are excellent for freezing, so you can always make the cookie dough ahead of time and bake them straight from frozen. Baking them straight from frozen may add a few more minutes to the cooking time and they may not spread as much.

To freeze, portion the cookie dough in a single layer on a baking sheet with parchment paper until frozen solid. Then, transfer the balls to a freezer-safe bag for 3-4 months.

You can choose to thaw overnight in the refrigerator (recommended) or bake straight from frozen.

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❓ FAQs:

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Other Sourdough Winter Recipes You May Enjoy:

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