Sourdough Discard Peanut Butter Cookies [chewy with crispy edges] (2024)

Sourdough discard peanut butter cookies are a delicious and easy-to-make treat that takes advantage of your sourdough starter's discard. These cookies are rich and peanut buttery, with a chewy texture that makes them irresistible ... perfect to go with a cold glass of milk! They just have tons of amazing peanut butter flavor!

The sourdough starter discard adds a subtle tang to the peanut butter cookies that complements the nutty flavor of the peanut butter ... oh that salty-sweet crunch is just too good!

If you love making sourdough discard cookies, then you might also enjoy sourdough sugar cookies, sourdough chocolate chip cookies, sourdough cowboy cookies or these sourdough snickerdoodles. They can be a fun way to use your sourdough discard when you're not baking sourdough bread.

How To Make Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

These chewy peanut butter cookies are really easy to pull together. You just need 100g of sourdough discard and a few other pantry ingredients for this great recipe. It's best to weigh all of the ingredients using a kitchen scale. This will give you the best cookies!

I've made these in a bowl with a fork to mix everything togther. This gives a very rustic looking cookie (but less washing up!). You can use a stand mixer to cream the butter and sugar if you prefer.

1. Preheat your oven to 350F/175C.
   
2. Add the brown sugar and white sugar to a bowl with the butter and mash them together with a fork.
   
3. Add the peanut butter and mix until well combined (if the peanut butter is a little hard, soften it in the microwave).
   
4. Add the egg, vanilla extract and sourdough starter to the bowl and mix together until well combined.
   
5. Now, add the all purpose flour and baking powder to the bowl and bring it together to a stiff dough.
   
6. You can chill the dough in the fridge for up to 2 days at this point. It gives the cookies a much better flavor and texture, but you can bake immediately too if you prefer.
   
7. When you're ready to bake the sourdough discard peanut butter cookies, take the dough out of the fridge and allow to sit at room temperature for around 10 minutes.
   
8. Roll the dough into small balls (I've done 20g balls). A cookie scoop is handy for this.
   
9. Place the balls onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Use a fork to press the top of each dough ball down with a criss cross pattern. For thinner, crispier cookies, flatten the dough out a bit more. For soft, chewy cookies leave the dough a little thicker.
   
10. Bake the sourdough peanut butter cookies for 10 to 12 minutes at 350F/175C or until they are golden brown. You want them to be soft in the centre still.
    
11. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking tray before transferring them to a cooling rack or glass jar.

Ingredient Notes

Peanut Butter - you can choose to use smooth or crunchy peanut butter. I've used crunchy when making this recipe because I love the added texture that the crunchy peanut butter gives.

Butter - it doesn't matter whether you use salted butter or unsalted butter, it won't make too much difference.

Nut Free Butters - nut free butters like sunflower seed butter works well for these sourdough cookies.

Chocolate Chips - feel free to add chocolate chips to your peanut butter sourdough cookies - I love adding 100g of milk chocolate chips so you end up with peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

How To Store + Freeze Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies

These sourdough peanut butter cookies are best stored in a glass jar or cookie tin. While plastic containers are airtight, they tend to make the crunchy edges of these cookies too soft.

To freeze these sourdough cookies, freeze the cookie dough balls on a baking tray before transferring them to a ziploc bag.

When you're ready to bake them, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, allow them to soften enough to press them down with a fork.

Frequently Asked Questions