Cookies make you popular everywhere you go. These chocolate sourdough treats are almost cookie shaped brownies. Do not despair if you’re not a sourdough baker – there is a substitute in the recipe below. There are a couple of nifty tricks to make these cookies Instagram worthy as well as delicious. The recipe is quick but requires some time to chill the dough.

If you don’t have sourdough starter – there is a substitute below.

The cocoa powder and the chocolate chips are the stars here, use the best quality you can.

Let’s get straight to the recipe. As written, it makes 60 moderate cookies, 40 plus sized cookies.

Ingredients

• 240 grams plain white flour ( 2 cups)
• 80 grams cocoa powder (1 cup)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 150 grams of unsalted butter (2/3 cup)
• 75 grams milk chocolate or white chocolate chips (1/2 cup)
• 75 grams dark chocolate chips (1/2 cup)
• 200 grams granulated sugar (1 cup)
• 400 grams light brown sugar (2 cups)
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 170 grams of sourdough starter discard (or 85 grams of lukewarm water, 85 grams of plain flour = beaten well together). (2/3 cup)

Method

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add the sugars. Mix well.
2. Place the butter and about 1/4 of the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir. Return to microwave for 15 second intervals, stirring after each until the chocolate chips are dissolved.
3. Start the stand mixer with the dry ingredients in the bowl. Pour in the melted butter and chocolate. Beat until creamy.
4. Break the eggs into a separate bowl. Add vanilla and beat lightly.
5. Pour into the stand mixer and mix well. Do not over beat from this point because you’ll beat the eggs to death. Well combined but no more.
6. Add the sourdough discard or flour/water mixture.
7. Stir in the chocolate chips.
8. Chill the batter in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
9. Preheat oven to 190C (170C fan). Prep baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment. You must line the baking sheets or you’ll end up with a sticky mess. I use parchment for this recipe because I lift the sheets off the baking trays (intact) to help the cookies cool.
10. Scoop batter onto prepared baking sheets. I use my smaller trigger scoop ( size of a cake pop) to get moderate sized cookies. Use the golf ball sized scoop to get larger cookies. Adjust the spacing on the baking sheets accordingly. The cookies will spread – no need to flatten.
11. Keep an eye on the cookies, 8 to 10 minutes depending on your oven.
12. If I’m doing ‘Instagram worthy’ cookies, I put the batter back in the fridge in between prepping baking trays. Otherwise, just get them all ready and cycle through the oven.
13. Remove the cookies from the oven – cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet then lift the liner off the baking sheets with the cookies on it to cool altogether.
14. These cookies benefit from a longer cooling period. They do tend to stick to the parchment so I flip the sheet over and peel it off the bottom of the cookies.

I find these keep well for a week or more (if there are any left) in a airtight container but make sure they are well cooled first.

Thank you for reading the blog and trying the recipes. Feedback much appreciated and tag me @mamadolson on Instagram and Twitter if you’re posting photos.

What’s best thing to do with excess ripe bananas? Make banana bread! My recipe is based on this original from Hannah at Make it Dough. I’ve made some adjustments to use whole wheat flour and brown sugar and reduced the amount of sugar as well. That made my version a bit heavier so I went with a traditional loaf shape. It’s the Davinator’s new top snack – combines 3 of his favourites: bananas, peanut butter and chocolate.

I pounced on this recipe because I was ‘long’ on bananas and on peanut butter. I don’t really like the texture of bananas but this bread has a great banana taste, seemingly enhanced by the peanut butter. We try and eat healthy but like our treats, so this recipe is a good compromise.

You can use sourdough discard in this recipe or there is an easy alternative if you’re not a sourdough fanatic.

Let’s get baking.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 95 grams all purpose flour (not self rising)
• 95 grams whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda – SODA not powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 85 grams peanut butter of your choice (chunky or smooth)
• 55 grams unsalted butter – melted and slightly cooled
• 180 grams brown sugar (any type)
• 50 grams sourdough discard or 25 grams flour and 25 grams of water)
• 25 grams of milk (whole or semi-skimmed)
• 2 eggs
• 225 grams of mashed banana (2 large or 3 medium bananas)
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• Handful of chocolate chips or chopped nuts of your preference

Method

1. Preheat the oven 170C (160C fan) or 350F. Prepare a loaf pan (standard 2 pound or 800 gram pan). I line my pans with paper but you can grease and flour instead.
2. Whisk together the flours, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl.
3. Combine the peanut butter, cooled melted butter and the sugar in your mixer bowl. Beat until mixture appears very well combined.
4. Incorporate the eggs one at time, beating until well integrated.
5. Add the mashed banana, sourdough discard (or flour and water mixture) and the vanilla to the mixer bowl and beat until well combined.
6. Using a dough whisk or a spatula, fold in half the flour mixture. Add the milk and the remaining flour. Like any quick bread – resist the temptation to over beat at this stage. Scrape up all the dry bits from the bottom.
7. Sprinkle your chocolate chips or nuts on the top. I pressed down gently to encourage them to sink into the top. They still form a sort of chocolate topping, which we loved.
8. Pour into your pan and transfer to the oven. Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Keep an eye on the top and cover loosely with foil if over browning. Test with a temperate probe – it should be over 90C in the centre or a toothpick should come out clean.

Enjoy! We topped ours with cream cheese or a couple of spoonfuls of Greek yogurt.

Thanks for reading the blog, cooking the recipes and sending in your requests.

I’ve been working on my sourdough bread recently and try to strengthen my starter (named Liz by the way after a baker and teacher who has inspired me. I also like to take a treat for the team and clients at Smartworks where I volunteer on Wednesday. These two things came together and resulted in some of the best cookies I’ve ever made.

When you’re trying to strengthen your sourdough starter, you feed your starter everyday. This means you have discard. On the one hand, it’s only flour and water, on the other hand, I don’t like to throw stuff away. I was searching for things to make with the discard and found the basis for this recipe. I did misread the quantity in the original – it said ‘makes 20 cookies’. Accurate but those would be 20 giant American cookies, not cookies sized for normal humans. Even too big for the Davinator.

In my test bake, I rashly doubled the recipe and so I had enough dough for 40 giant cookies. I recalibrated the size (made them smaller) but of course that meant we had a lot of cookies. It rained cookies on friends and family.

The recipe below is adjusted to make 40 cookies for ordinary humans. You might not be a sourdough baker today. But these cookies are so good it’s worth making sourdough starter just for these bad boys.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 113 grams plain white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda (4 grams)
• 1 tsp salt (6 grams)
• 55 grams unsalted butter, melted
• 86 grams vegetable oil (corn or sunflower)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 175 grams brown sugar (any type)
• 110 grams caster sugar
• 70 grams sourdough starter discard (can be straight from the fridge)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 280 grams rolled oats (not instant oatmeal)
• 60 grams dried cranberries or raisins
• 100 grams chopped walnuts
• 100 grams good quality chocolate chips (any variety – milk, dark, white as you like)

Method

Preheat your oven to 190C (170C fan). Cover several baking sheets with parchment paper.

1. Whisk flour, salt and baking soda (SODA) together in a bowl set to one side.
2. Chop your walnuts. You make want to rough chop your dried fruit as well depending on the size. Combine with the chocolate chips and set aside.
3. Melt the butter (microwave works well) and allow to cool for a few minutes. (Make a cup of tea or play a round of Angry Birds).
4. Stir the cinnamon into the butter. Follow with the brown sugar, caster sugar and oil – whisk until well combined. The mixture should be close to room temperature by now.
5. Add the sourdough starter, the egg, the yolk and the vanilla – whisk again until well combined.
6. Using a wooden spoon, spatula or a dough whisk (see photo below) stir in the flour mixture.
7. Follow by folding in the oats, fruit, nuts and chocolate. The mixture should be thick and stiff. Resist the temptation to eat it raw immediately. It looks yummy but it’s even better after baking.
8. Measure out your dough balls. I use a small trigger scoop (see photo below). You want about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons by volume for each dough ball.
9. Drop the dough on to the baking sheets, leaving about 5 cms between each cookie. Flatten slightly with your fingers or a spoon. The cookies will spread when baking.
10. Bake one sheet at a time for 8 to 10 minutes. The centre should be soft but not wet and the edges crisp and starting to brown.
11. Cool on cookie sheet for five minutes then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Let them cool please, don’t burn your mouth like someone I know did. These cookies keep well for five days or more in the fridge. I stored mine in a cardboard box with parchment paper. Avoid a sealed ziplock or a plastic container as the cookies are very moist and will get soggy, I think.

Happy baking. Please comment, share and send requests and photos of your baking.