These chocolate chunk cookies are not only gluten-free, but they harness the power of sourdough fermentation to produce a nutrient-rich delicious dessert! These light and fluffy cookies are sure to be a hit with anyone who is missing the "real" deal or anyone who enjoys a good cookie.
QUICK REFERENCE
Why This Recipe Works
These gluten-free sourdough chocolate chunk cookies are awesome. The quick cookie version is a really great quick and easy way to use up that sourdough starter or discard. The long ferment version also uses up sourdough starter or discard, while also liberating the nutritional value of the grains and reducing the anti-nutrient and sugar content of the grains.
You can mix in anything you want. You don't have to stick with boring old chocolate chunks. You can also add nuts or seeds, dried fruit, or even experiment with different types of chips. Maybe butterscotch, peanut butter, white chocolate, or a combo. This recipe would make a fantastic white chocolate macadamia nut cookie.
Ingredient Notes
Really? You've never thought to use a sourdough starter or discard in a cookie recipe? You should totally try it, it makes the cookies so light and fluffy!
- Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter: You can easily make your own by capturing the wild yeast in the air by mixing gluten-free flour into a thick pancake batter consistency, adding a breathable cover, and leaving it on the countertop. I use a commercial gluten-free sourdough starter culture from Cultures for Life.
- Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour: I love Pamela's brand Gluten-Free All Purpose Artisan Flour Blend. The ingredients are clean, with no weirdness, and it performs exceedingly well in all things gluten-free baking.
- Vanilla Extract: I make my own from Bourbon and vanilla beans. I have found this to be the cheapest way to get a good quality pure vanilla extract. It lasts forever and is delicious.
- Brown Sugar: I don't bother to stock brown sugar. We don't eat real sugar all that often and it's incredibly easy to make your own brown sugar. So I stock white sugar (mostly for the hummingbirds in the garden) and molasses. When I need brown sugar, I simply mix up a batch. Light brown sugar is a ratio of 1 cup of sugar to 2 teaspoons of molasses. Dark brown sugar is a ratio of 1 cup of sugar to 1 tablespoon of molasses.
- Chocolate: I'm all about high-quality ingredients and chocolate is no exception. Splurge for the good stuff and use an Alter Eco chocolate bar or two!
Step-by-Step Instructions
You can make these gluten-free sourdough chocolate chunk cookies on demand like a typical cookie, or you can ferment the dough for 8-24 hours to maximize the health benefits of the sourdough process by increasing the nutritive value of the grains and reducing the carbohydrate content.
Quick Variation
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or using a hand mixer, cream butter, and sugar together for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and mix until well incorporated.
- Add vanilla and sourdough starter and mix until just combined.
- In a separate bowl, mix salt, baking soda, baking powder, and gluten-free flour together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients about ⅓ at a time, and mix until just incorporated.
- Gently fold in chocolate chunks until combined.
- Place on an oiled or parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
Long Ferment Variation
- The night before, mix together melted butter, sourdough starter, and flour in a stand mixer bowl or a mixing bowl using a hand mixer and cover. Allow the grains to ferment for 8-24 hours.
- Add egg and vanilla to the sourdough starter mixture, and mix well.
- Sprinkle sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder into the bowl and stir.
- Fold in chocolate chunks.
- For best results, refrigerate the dough for at least one hour prior to baking.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.
Tips and Tricks
- Be careful to not over-bake or over-mix. You may end up with a tough or more dense cake-like cookie.
- Add in any additional mixins you would like such as nuts, seeds, different flavored chips, coconut, or dried fruit.
- These are delicate cookies and can be a bit crumbly due to the lack of gluten. If you bake them for a little longer, they may hold together better. Just watch them closely so they don't get too dark!
Recipe FAQs
Yes. I recommend monk fruit, erythritol, allulose, or stevia. You'll need to experiment with blends to figure out the correct amounts of each. Erythritol or monk fruit should be a straight swap for the sugar.
You can absolutely create your own blend or use another all-purpose blend. Lots of folks like the King Arthur brand as it's less expensive.
No, this recipe is definitely high in carbohydrates. So if you're dealing with a chronic illness, this one is probably not a good idea for you at this time.
Yes! You can use either.
This cookie is surprisingly light and fluffy but still holds together pretty well for being gluten-free. Sourdough starter is a fantastic addition to any cookie recipe. Especially, gluten-free cookie recipes. Gluten-free cookies tend to be on the dry side and the addition of the sourdough starter turns that dryness into a soft pillowing flake that's just awesome.
More Gluten-Free Cookie Recipes You'll Love
Have you tried this Gluten-Free Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookie or any of my other recipes? I'd love to know how they turned out in the comments below, and please leave a star rating too!
Recipe
Gluten-Free Sourdough Chocolate Chunk Cookie
Equipment
- 1 Mixer Stand mixer or hand mixer
- 1 Cookie Sheet
Ingredients
- 2 Sticks Butter Softened
- ½ Cup Organic Pure Cane Sugar or Sugar Replacement of Choice
- ½ Cup Organic Brown Pure Cane Sugar or Brown Sugar Replacement of Choice
- 1 Egg
- ¾ Cup Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
- 2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 Cups Pamela's Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Redmond Real Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 Cups Chocolate Chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a stand mixer with paddle attachment or using a hand mixer, cream butter and sugar together for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and mix until well incorporated.
- Add vanilla and sourdough starter and mix until just combined.
- In a separate bowl, mix salt, baking soda, baking powder, and gluten-free flour together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients about ⅓ at a time, and mix until just incorporated.
- Gently fold in chocolate chocolate chunks until combined.
- Place on an oiled or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden.
Long Ferment Instructions
- The night before, mix together melted butter, sourdough starter and flour in a stand mixer bowl or a mixing bowl using a hand mixer and cover. Allow the grains to ferment for 8-24 hours.
- Add egg and vanilla to the sourdough starter mixture, and mix well.
- Sprinkle sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder into the bowl and stir.
- Fold in chocolate chunks.
- For best results, refrigerate dough for at least one hour prior to baking.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the edges start to turn golden brown.
Video
Notes
- Be careful to not over-bake or over-mix. You may end up with a tough or more cake-like cookie.
- Add in any additional mixins you would like such as nuts, seeds, different flavored chips, or dried fruit.
- These are delicate cookies and can be a bit crumbly due to the lack of gluten.
Heather says
My husband absolutely loved these. He said they were super light and fluffy. I didn't put enough chocolate chunks in them, so that was his only complaint. Next time I'll add more, but he's loving them! He misses a lot of baked goods since gluten doesn't agree with him, so it's really nice to have an alternative recipe that we can make at home for him to enjoy.
JP says
Where do I find sourdough starter? Never used it so am unsure how to make it work for me. I tend to like crunchie cookies so can I use half sourdough starter?
Heather Cooan, MBA, NTP, FDN-P, ONC says
You can purchase a starter on Amazon or Etsy. You'll have to follow the instructions to get the starter going, it can take a week or more depending on conditions to get it going. YouTube is an excellent resource for how-to videos for both making your own as well as using a dehydrated starter that you purchase. I'm not sure what you mean by half starter, I haven't tried reducing the amount of starter in the recipe. This is not really a crunchy cookie recipe.