Despite the baked goods recipes you see on this blog, would you believe I don’t have a huge sweet tooth? I just haven’t quite nailed the workflow of cooking and photographing my more savory meals yet. Sure, I could do it on weekends but there is always so much work to do in the garden, in the yard, or around the house, so elaborate photoshoots are the first thing to go from my endless to-do list. My current workflow is baking on weeknights while winding down with some trashy TV, namely anything on Bravo. And so were born these sourdough chocolate chip cookies loaded with toasted pecans and butterscotch chips!
Recipe here, and more information after the jump. I’ve been on the internet long enough to know that the most common gripe with food blogs is that the blogger rambles on for too long before sharing the recipe. But if you happen to enjoy rambles, there will be some below!
Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies with Butterscotch Chips & Toasted Pecans
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 12 Tbsp softened butter
- 1 cup brown sugar light or dark
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup butterscotch chips
- 1 cup lightly toasted pecans toast whole then chop
- ½ cup 100% hydration sourdough starter discard
- Maldon flaky sea salt to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and arrange parchment paper on two cookie trays.
- To toast pecans, place whole pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. You’re going for deep golden brown and nutty fragrance. Set aside to cool and chop into small pieces, not super fine but not super chunky. Think ¼” size pieces-ish!
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine softened butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium speed until creamed together, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add vanilla, whole egg, and egg yolk, mixing on medium until just incorporated.
- Add ½ cup sourdough discard to the bowl of the stand mixer and mix for 30 seconds to fully combine.
- Gradually add the bowl of flour mixture, being careful not to overmix. Scrape down sides periodically to ensure all flour is blended into dough.
- Add chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and toasted pecan pieces, mixing just enough to fully incorporate, about 30 seconds.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 30 minutes or longer, depending on your patience levels! Mine are very, very low.
- Once chilled, eyeball ¼ cup sized balls of dough and roll between your hands to form a ball. Place balls 2” apart on prepared cookie sheets, spinkle with flaky sea salt, then bake for 12-16 minutes depending on your preference for cookie texture. I took mine out at 13 minutes because I like them chewy and not at all crispy.
- Remove from oven, cool on cookie sheets for 10 minutes and transfer to wire wrack to continue cooling.
- Sourdough chocolate chip butterscotch cookies with and toasted pecans
This recipe is adapted from the Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe in my favorite America’s Test Kitchen cookbook.
My kitchen kink is using sourdough discard in pretty much any baked good imaginable. Cookies, crackers, pancakes, waffles, fritters, donuts, you name it, I’ve tried it. And if I haven’t, I plan on trying it. Until I get chickens (someday!), my sourdough discard either ends up going into all manner of baked goods, only occasionally into the compost, and never into the trash. Food waste physically pains me. One time I accidentally accosted a friend of a friend because I saw she was dumping egg yolks down the sink while using the egg whites to make whiskey sours. I couldn’t help it! It was like word vomit.
And I know I shouldn’t say vomit in a recipe post but oops, I did it again. Did you think of Britney Spears? Will that song be stuck in your head for the rest of the day? Same and same.
But back to these sourdough chocolate chip cookies! I have a hard time simply resting at the end of the day, so I’ve decided that I won’t shame myself for watching reality TV if I’m doing something productive while watching it. I know it’s twisted and probably unhealthy but that’s a problem for Later Amy to unpack. These are kind of a wonderful kitchen sink cookie. Don’t have pecans? Toast some walnuts. Hate butterscotch? Maybe take some white chocolate chips for a spin.
Also, if it’s a crime to sprinkle flaky sea salt on every cookie, then arrest me, officer! I can’t help it. I think it goes back to me not having much of a sweet tooth so I need to balance the sweetness of cookies with a smidgen of flaky sea salt. It’s just perfect! And I love limiting the salt in the dough itself and instead having the flaky salt shine from its throne atop the cookies.
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