Sourdough is the epitome of a dichotomy.
Delicate yet hearty.
Sour but also savory.
Pungent and still tasty.
And, it’s also a lot of work.
I suppose I have a lot in common with this magical beast.
And adding a touch of sweetness (chocolate, of course) and plenty of saltiness, these cookies and I are quite the pair!
This recipe takes two days to make but it’s totally worth it! You begin by making a fake-out sourdough starter to give the cookies that sourdough tanginess. A little white vinegar is added into the dough just to reinforce the pungent flavor and give the cookies a little lift and a soft texture.
Recipe adapted from Grant Melton.
And, be sure to use whole chocolate bars for your chunks chopped, because:
Chocolate discs and chopped bars, on the other hand, have a higher percentage of cocoa butter, which means that when they’re exposed to heat, they melt down into gooey choco pockets. They’re the Jo—a little sloppy, a little messy, but absolutely the life of the party.
In situations where you want to bite into a self-contained nugget of chocolate—double chocolate brownies, banana bread, scones (a very Meg baked good)—chips are the answer. Were you to use discs or chopped bars instead of chips in a pancake batter, you’d end up with a melty pool of chocolate in the frying pan rather than distinct pieces of chocolate speckled throughout your stack.
But when melty is the goal, reach for discs or bars. “If you use chopped-up discs or bars in these cookies, when you break them in half, you’ll get a chocolate river,” says Sarah. A chocolate river. If you substitute chips for discs, instead of an unctuous puddle of molten chocolate adorning the top of every cookie, you’ll get…Smurf hats.
MacKenzie Fegan
Salty Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. vinegar
2 tsp. buttermilk
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chunks
flaky sea salt, for topping
Combine the warm water and buckwheat flour into a large glass jar. Mix well to create a dough ball. Loosely place a lid on top of the jar but do not tighten. Leave the jar in a cool, dark place with a fairly constant temperature for two days. After day one, the mixture will look fairly similar what it looked like on the previous day. By day two, the dough should nearly double in size, have many large bubbles throughout and a pungent, sour scent. The “starter” is ready.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the starter and butter and beat on low speed until well combined.
Add the egg, sugar, and salt and beat again until very well combines. Stir the flour and baking soda. Once well mixed, drizzle in the vinegar and buttermilk.
Finally, fold in the chocolate chunks.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and bake 1″ sized scoops for about 12 minutes. Immediately sprinkle the hot cookies with flaky salt and then allow to cool completely.
Enjoy with a giant glass of buttermilk, right?
