Faux Sourdough Chocolate Cookies
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Last year for National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day I posted this Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. This recipe is great, IF you have sourdough starter lying around. But what do you do, a friend asked me, if you don’t? Can you recreate a similar flavor profile and texture to those cookies without it?
Yes you can and the secret is yogurt! Yogurt gives a nice tang to the recipe and, according to Matt and Lentil over on Grown & Gathered, also helps break down the grains to make them easier to digest. How awesome is that!
Now I am going to come right out now and say that if you want the digestive benefits, this recipe takes time. Not a lot of focused time, but a lot of down time. This is because, like the starter, the yogurt needs time to break down the grains. In my previous Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from last year I only allowed the starter to work with the flour for 30 minutes. I thought it was sour enough from this short of a time. I did not however, looking back, think about how much it broke down the grains. If I wanted an easier to digest cookie I should have left the starter and flours together overnight.
For this recipe I leave the amount of time you let the flour, oats, and yogurt rest together up to you. I am guessing, and I could be wrong because I can’t find any research on it and don’t have the ability to do the research on it myself (no way to tell how broken down the grains are without a lab!), the longer it sits (to a point) the easier the grains will be to digest. Do what you have time for though. Want the cookies ready same day? Don’t rest the dough. Planning ahead? Rest the dough the night before.1Don’t rest it too long out of the fridge though. The yogurt will go bad. Lady and Pups did a Cheater’s Sourdough Loaf and tested it and seemed to think resting it more than 20 hours wasn’t delicious.
Oh and I decided to make these chocolate cookies but they are even easier to make into chocolate chip cookies. They are exactly the same only you don’t have to melt the chocolate.
Faux Sourdough Chocolate Cookies
Makes 24 smaller cookies
½ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar (packed)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup rolled oats (ground)
¼ cup rolled oats (whole)
½ cup whole milk plain yogurt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chunks (chips work fine, I just love chunks especially for melting. I feel they melt better.)
- The night before you want the cookies combine yogurt, flour, ground and whole oats (as to why I use both ground and whole see my explanation on the original recipe). Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit on the counter overnight.
- The next morning beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy and smooth. Add in egg and vanilla extract and beat on low until just combined.
- Add salt and baking soda to the flour mixture. Stir together then add to the butter mixture. Beat on low speed until incorporated.
- If you are making these chocolate cookies melt the chocolate chunks on a double boiler or in the microwave. Once the chocolate is melted slowly add to the dough a little at a time mixing as you go. If you are making these chocolate chip cookies then add in chocolate chips and mix dough only until incorporated.
- Cover the dough again with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Leave in the fridge for at least an hour to cool.2
- Preheat oven to 350° F (365 if you live at altitude like me). Coat two cookie sheets with oil, parchment paper, or Silpat (which I now no longer bake without and highly recommend).
- Remove dough from the fridge and place a heaping tablespoon, at least 1 inch apart, onto the coated baking sheets. Flatten slightly. Bake cookies about 15 minutes total, half way through rotating the location of the baking sheets.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool 5 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
