Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup organic cane sugar, plus more for rolling
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 large egg yolks, cold
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 3/4 cup sourdough starter discard, cold
Make the Cookie Dough
First, you’ll need to brown the butter. Melt it in a small saucepan over medium heat. It will start to foam and sputter for a few minutes. Keep whisking it often until it quiets down, smells nutty, and turns a deep golden brown – this should take about 7-10 minutes.
Immediately pour the hot brown butter into a large bowl, making sure to scrape in all the browned bits from the pan. Let the butter cool for about 5 minutes.
While the butter is cooling, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, and nutmeg in a medium bowl.
Once the butter has cooled a bit, add the sugars and whisk them together for about a minute. The sugar won’t completely dissolve, and that’s okay.
Beat in the cold egg yolks and vanilla bean paste until everything is well-combined. Then, scrape down the bowl and beat in the cold sourdough discard until the dough is smooth.
Fold in the flour mixture with a spatula until it’s just combined. Let the dough rest at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
Bake the Cookies
While the dough is resting, get your oven preheating to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Fill a small bowl with some more cane sugar for rolling.
Use a cookie scoop to portion out the dough – about 2 tablespoons for each cookie. Roll each portion into a ball, then roll it in the cane sugar to coat it.
Place the cookie balls on one of your prepared sheet pans, leaving about 2 inches of space between them.
Bake for ~13-16 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the cookies are golden at the edges and just set in the center.
While the first batch is baking, you can scoop and roll the next batch.
Let the baked cookies cool on the sheet pan for about 5 minutes before you move them to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way.
Sourdough Starter Discard Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup organic cane sugar plus more for rolling
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 2 large egg yolks cold
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 3/4 cup sourdough starter discard cold
Instructions
- Brown butter in saucepan over medium heat until deep golden and nutty, 7-10 minutes.
- Pour browned butter into large bowl with browned bits, cool 5 minutes.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in separate bowl.
- Mix cooled butter with both sugars for 1 minute.
- Beat in egg yolks and vanilla paste until combined.
- Mix in cold sourdough discard until smooth.
- Fold in flour mixture just until combined.
- Rest dough 10 minutes at room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment.
- Scoop 2 tablespoon portions, roll into balls, coat in sugar.
- Place on baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Bake 13-16 minutes until golden at edges and set in center, rotating halfway.
- Cool on pan 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack.
Notes
