Sourdough Discard Brownies
Decadently rich and fudgy with glossy, shiny, and oh-so-slightly-crackly surfaces, these sourdough brownies are my new favorite brownies. I know we have some tough contenders including my reigning champion brownies from scratch or my nutella brownies, but these take the cake (brownie?). Of course the fact that they are fudgy and SUPER chocolatey helps, but the complexity from the sourdough adds such… interesting and wonderful flavor undertones. It’s a subtle taste–not at all sour–but you’ll pick up on it, and it’s divine! It’s also a wonderful way to use up excess sourdough starter you’d otherwise toss, so win-win. This recipe is incredibly simple. It uses only 10 ingredients and takes less than 15 minutes to prepare before baking. Unlike my small batch brownies, you will need two bowls here, but it’s worth the extra dish. We’ll use that second bowl to whip the eggs and sugar together to get those nice, shiny brownie tops 😍.
Why try my recipe:
Flavorful: using 3 types of chocolate, a healthy splash of vanilla, and sourdough means these brownies have incredible flavor. Fast: ready in less than 45 minutes! Reduces food waste: repurposes that discard instead of tossing it.
What You Need
Look at that, only 10 ingredients (9 if you leave out chocolate chips — don’t do that though). I told you this recipe was simple! Here are a few worth noting before we start:
Chocolate bar. You can use either a semisweet chocolate or 60% cacao chocolate bar in this recipe. We’ll chop this up and melt it with the butter to get it nice and warm for our cocoa powder (this will help bloom the cocoa and intensify its flavor!). Chocolate chips would work instead in a pinch, but I prefer the results with a baking bar here. Cocoa powder. I like using Dutch process cocoa in this recipe, but natural will work too. Remember, you can’t always substitute natural cocoa for Dutch process, but in this recipe it is safe to do. Sourdough discard. Have some discard leftover from feeding from your sourdough starter? Perfect! My recipe makes use of the discard instead of just discarding it. Eggs. It’s best if your eggs are at room temperature; this will allow them to incorporate more easily and help you create those crackly brownie tops. If you forget to set yours out ahead of time, you can use my trick for bringing eggs to room temperature quickly. Chocolate chips. You can always make your sourdough brownies without chocolate chips, but I don’t see the harm in adding just a little more chocolate 😉
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Sourdough Brownies
No Mixer? No problem. Just use a whisk to vigorously whisk the eggs and sugar together by hand until well combined. Even if you don’t mix as much as I do, you’ll still have wonderful, tasty sourdough brownies. SAM’S TIP: When checking your sourdough brownies for doneness with a toothpick, make sure you don’t accidentally hit a chocolate chip. If you do, the toothpick will come out chocolatey and can be mistaken for wet/raw batter. I’ve got another sourdough discard recipe coming soon…can you guess what it is? Hint: you’ll need some very ripe bananas to make it 🙃 Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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