Sourdough oatmeal cookies with chocolate and walnuts

It might have been ANZAC Day being around the corner, but out of nowhere I was craving sourdough oatmeal cookies with chocolate and walnuts. These delicious little disks of yum are scrumptious but also gentle on your tummy. The perfect combination for every day snack time.

I love to snack. People have called me a “serial snacker” before and have promised me that I would be the first to get voted off an isolated island if ever stranded there. While I have my snacking habits somewhat under control, adding children to the mix is a whole different ball game. I remember the relief I felt when we finally stopped bottles, thinking I would have all this extra money available now. What I didn’t realise was that after bottle time came berry time. And let me tell you, berry time is insanely expensive!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I want my kids to eat good food at all times. But I needed something more cost effective, that filled them up to serve with all these berries. That’s how I came up with these sourdough oatmeal cookies with chocolate and walnuts. What better combination than tangy sourdough, filling oats and a touch of sweetness?

There’s something so satisfying about wholesome oatmeal. Sprinkled with walnuts and chocolate chips, it makes a perfect breakfast bowl. So let’s take some time and turn it into a cookie.

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour
• Coarse salt like Himalayan
• Baking soda
• Butter, unsalted – melted
• Cinnamon, ground
• Brown sugar
• Caster sugar
• Sunflower oil
• Sourdough discard
• Eggs
• Vanilla extract
• Oats
• Chocolate chips
• Walnuts, chopped

Tools you may need

Large mixing bowl

Kitchen scales

Small sauce pan, to melt butter

Baking sheets

Parchment paper

Wooden spoon

Stand mixer

Table spoons for shaping

Spatula to transfer cookies

Cooling racks

Cake tins

How to make Sourdough oatmeal cookies with chocolate and walnuts from scratch

Baking is all about the heat, so let‘s start by pre-heating our oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit). This recipe makes about 4 trays of cookies, so lay out however many trays you have and line them with parchment paper. Make sure you have enough space to place the hot trays somewhere safe, transfer your cooking onto the cooling rack and loading your trays with fresh cookie dough.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda. If you only have smaller bowls available, make half the recipe in two batches. It‘s absolutely worth it to make lots of these. Whatever isn‘t eater within a day can be frozen and kept for a little longer.

While you are combining your flour mixture, place a small saucepan onto medium heat and melt the butter. If you like a caramelised flavour in cookies, feel free to heat the butter until it starts to brown. While I am very impartial to this, some like the added depth of flavours.

Add the melted butter, cinnamon, sugars, oil and sourdough discard to your flour mixture and combine well. You may want to use a stand mixer for this step, as the dough cane become a little hard to handle in large amounts. Once combined, add the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla.

Lastly, add the oats, chocolate chips and chopped walnuts. Keep mixing the dough until an even mixture of ingredients is visible. This is not the time to rush, as you will otherwise end up with some oat only cookies, while others are basically just a pile of melted chocolate.

Once evenly combined, place a heaped table spoon of cookie dough per cookie onto your prepared baking sheets. Leave some room between each cookie to ensure they have enough room to flatten and spread out while baking. As a guide, I place 3 rows of 4 to 5 cookies per baking tray.

If your oven permits, bake two trays at a time, for about 10 minutes. Rotate your trays half way through to ensure all cookies bake evenly. I like to not only swap my trays over, but also turn them by 180 degrees each. Bake your cookies until they start to brown on the edges.

Once your sourdough oatmeal cookies with chocolate and walnuts are out of the oven, let them cool on the baking tray for about 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. When the cookies come fresh out of the oven they are still quite soft. I have made the mistake of transferring a hot cookie too many times before. It never ends as anything but a crumbled mess.

If you are short on baking trays, ask your partner or a friend to help you transfer the full piece of parchment paper to your cooling rack. Holding all four corners usually gives enough stability to allow for a transfer of hot cookies without major accidents.

Once cooled, store your cookies in an air tight container for a few days. You can also freeze a bunch of cookies for a later snack hour.

Tips and Tricks

• Use an oversized mixing bowl to bring the dough together. If you are struggling for space, prepare half the recipe at a time.
• Rotate your cookie trays half way through the baking process to ensure all cookies to be baked evenly.
• I like to freeze at least a third of the recipe to enjoy another time. To re-heat, simply bake the cookies again until you can start to smell the chocolate.
• If you are not a fan of chocolate or allergic to walnuts, feel free to swap these bits for other ingredients of your liking. Hazelnuts, raisins and carob are all great substitutes.
• Allow your cookies to cool down before transferring them to a cooking rack. If in doubt, ask your partner or a friend to help you transfer the fully loaded parchment paper. Trust me, rushing this part will cause your cookies to crumble.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies so hard?

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies can become hard and crunchy if they are baked for too long. Given oats are individual flakes that don’t naturally stick together, your cookie might still appear quite soft when done baking. Resist the urge to keep your cookies in the oven for longer as you’ll run the risk to over bake them. That’s what will cause your cookies to be hard and dry. Besides the recommended baking times, keeping an eye on the cookies’ edges is usually a good indicator for readiness. Once your cookies start to brown on the edges, it’s time to take them out to cool.

What does discard mean in sourdough?

Sourdough discard is a term used for sourdough starter, after it has reached its peak after feeding. When feeding your starter, you will see it rise and become nice and bubbly for the first few hours. Eventually, it will reach its peak and then start to lose its bubbly-ness, therefore become more dense and flat again. This is when the dough has gone past its peak, which is then called sourdough discard.

What temperature do you cook cookies at?

Cookies are usually baked for a short amount of time (usually between 10 and 15 minutes) at around 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). While this might seem too short or too low for baked goods, it’s important to remember that a cookie is only a very small, thin item. For the heat to reach its core won’t take anywhere near as long as it would take for a cake. For best results, always ensure to pre-heat your oven before starting to bake.

What happens if too much butter is in cookies?

Using too much butter in cookies can cause your cookies to “run” and become very thin, flat and crunchy when you bake them. To ensure your recommended amount is enough, melt your butter before adding it to the cookie dough. This will help to evenly incorporate it into the other cookie ingredients and will prevent you from having a batch of uneven cookies to serve.

Can I use instant oatmeal instead of rolled oats?

Rolled oats add a lot of texture to oatmeal cookies or other oat based products. Should you ever find yourself out of rolled oats though, fear not, any type of oats, including instant oatmeal, is a perfectly good substitute to use. The thing to be aware of when using instant oatmeal instead of rolled oats is the impact on texture and potentially shorter cooking or baking time. Other than that, there is absolutely no harm in substituting.

Have you tried my Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate and Walnuts? Leave a comment to let me know how you liked them!