Sourdough Cookie Bars
These sourdough cookie bars are thick and chewy made with browned butter and lots of chocolate. They taste like these sourdough chocolate chip cookies, but you can skip the individual rolling!
Don’t skip the step of browning the butter for these cookie bars – firstly you need to do it for the structure of the cookies (browning the butter will remove around 20% water), but most importantly for the flavor browned butter brings! The cookie dough is baked in an 8×8-inch (20x20cm) baking pan, or you could use a 9×9 inch pan too and adjust the baking time. I use a sourdough discard starter at 100% hydration that hasn’t been fed in a while but if you’ve got leftover active starter you can use that too!
Recipe Update Note: I’ve had great feedback for the most part on these cookie bars, but for a few the cookie bars have been to oily. This is due to the butter not emulsifying with the rest of the ingredients properly. I’ve made a small tweak to fix this. Instead of mixing melted brown butter, chill it first until soft but solidified, and then cream it with sugar before adding the rest of the ingredients. It makes a cohesive cookie dough that bakes up great and not oily. For those that want to stick to the original recipe, I’ve put that in the notes of the recipe card. 😊
I finish the baked cookie bars off with a sprinkle of flaky salt – it balances the sweetness beautifully. For more sourdough discard recipes check out this sourdough red velvet cake and sourdough cheese scones.
Ingredients
The ingredient amounts are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. Here is a rundown of what you will need.
- Unsalted butter. This will be turned into brown butter, which makes the best chocolate chip cookies.
- Sourdough starter – Leftover sourdough starter is used. You can save your extra sourdough starter discard in the back of your fridge, separate from your active starter. This way, you can keep adding to it each time you discard some, and it is ready to use in discard recipes.
- Large egg
- Soft brown sugar – This can be light or dark brown sugar. It keeps the cookies moist and gives a more chewy texture.
- Granulated white sugar – gives crisp edges
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda – This is what will react with the acid in the sourdough starter and create the cookie leavening and texture.
- Dark chocolate or milk chocolate chunks – You can use regular chocolate chips, or my favorite is to cut up a good quality chocolate bar into chunks.
Method
- Begin by browning the butter so it has time to cool.
- Pour into a heatproof mixing bowl and let it cool to room temperature, then place in the fridge until it has solidified but it’s still soft so you can press a finger into it.
- Add the brown and white sugar and cream it for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the egg, vanilla and sourdough discard starter and mix until combined.
- Add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix until almost combined with a few dry streaks remaining, then add in the chocolate.
- Spread the dough into a lined pan.
- Bake until golden brown. Sprinkle with flaky salt. Let the cookie bars for a few hours before removing from the pan.
Slice and enjoy!
Storing
These store really well at room temperature for up to a week. The baked cookies or the cookie dough can be frozen, wrapped tightly for up to 3 months.
Related recipes
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Sourdough Pumpkin Pancakes
- Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies
- Frosted Sourdough Sugar Cookie Bars
Sourdough Cookie Bars
Ingredients
- 140 g unsalted butter
- 100 g soft brown sugar
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 100 g discard sourdough starter
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 190 g all-purpose flour
- 170 g semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Flaky salt to serve
Instructions
- Let the butter melt in a saucepan. Once melted, let it cook further for around 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally until the milk solids have caramelized and the butter smells nutty. 140 g unsalted butter
- Pour the browned butter and all the browned bits, into a large heat-proof bowl. Allow it to cool at room temperature for about 10 minutes, then refrigerate until solidified but still soft enough to press a finger into it.** It will be about 112-115g of browned butter.
- Once the brown butter has solidified, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar and cream with an electric mixer for around 2 minutes until light and fluffy. 100 g soft brown sugar, 100 g granulated sugar
- Next, mix in the sourdough starter, egg, and vanilla and mix well. Stir in the baking soda and salt until well combined. 100 g discard sourdough starter, 1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 3/4 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- Add the flour and mix until almost combined, with a few dry streaks remaining. Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine. 190 g all-purpose flour, 170 g semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a 8×8-inch (20x20cm) baking pan with parchment paper.
- Scoop the cookie dough into the lined pan. Smooth it out with the back of a spoon or offset spatula
- Bake it right away, or cover and chill in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Bake the cookie bars for around 30 minutes until the top is set and golden brown.
- Let the cookie bar cool in the tin for an hour before removing and letting it cool completely on a wire rack. The cookies will be pretty soft while still warm but will firm up as they cool to room temperature.
- To serve, slice the cookies into individual cookies with a sharp knife. Slice four rows horizontally and four rows vertically to create 16 pieces.
Can I bake in a glass baking pan?
Yup but they might bake a bit faster in a glass pan
Made these Cookie Bars twice now… delish!
Browned butter is a perfect twist over similar bars!
Added chopped pecans to 2nd batch!
Thank you!!!
Thank you so much! So happy you loved them
These are excellent! Brown butter makes all the difference. This will be my 3rd time making them this week. The kids (and I) can’t get enough. So GOOD!
Yay so happy to read this! Thank you!!
If I wanted to triple this recipe, what size pan should I bake it in?
Hey Patty I’m not sure for tripling it. I can only suggest doubling it and using a 9×13-inch pan, anything larger than that I’ve not done before!
Can honey be substituted for sugar?
Hey Wanda, I’ve not tried that myself so I am not sure sorry!
I started my sourdough starter on Monday and Wednesday I was already able to bake bread. In the last 4 days I’ve made sourdough bread, pasta, pancakes and now these bars. In the past, it took 7-12 days for my starter to get up and going. My husband will be excited when he sees these out of the oven. Thanks!
Thank you so much for making them!!
How long do I bake a double batch in 9×13 pan? Currently chilling in the fridge…. I can’t wait!
Hey Becca I’m not sure of the baking time, i’ve not done a double batch! I would just check at about 30-35 minutes to see how it’s going. Bake until the center is slightly puffed up and no longer looks wet
stays chewy for days, so good
So happy you loved them!
The flavor is wonderful, but it came out very oily/buttery for me. The middle appears almost raw while the outside is nicely browned and certainly didn’t need to bake any longer. I measured everything by weight with a digital kitchen scale, so not sure what I did wrong. Could I reduce the butter to 8tbsp? Or increase the flour a little?
Hey I am not sure if you’ll see this comment, but I have made a tweak to the recipe to stop it from being too oily. Instead of mixing melted browned butter directly into the dough which can cause it to not emulsify properly, I now chill the browned butter first until it’s solid but still soft enough to cream smoothly with sugar. If you try it again with this method I think you’ll have better results 🙂
Absolutely delicious! My new favorite blondie. And it uses some of my sourdough discard…win-win!
Hi! These are my favorite! I was just wondering if you knew how to adjust the recipe to not include the sourdough? Sometimes i just don’t have enough discard left but I still love this recipe.
Hey! So happy you love them! Here is my non-sourdough version 🙂
Hi there,
Am I able to cut the sugar portions in half to make low sugar, or do you have a good alternative for this?
Thank you from a gestational diabetes mumma.
Hey 🙂 I haven’t tried reducing the sugar in this one so I can’t say for sure, sorry! You could try halving it, but it might change the texture a bit.