Sourdough Rolled Chocolate Cookies

Sourdough rolled chocolate cookies are a smart way to use sourdough starter discard. Half a cup of starter goes into a chocolate oat dough that tastes more interesting than your standard chocolate cookie, the natural acid in the starter sharpens the chocolate and balances the sweetness.

Melted unsweetened chocolate does the heavy work for flavor here, giving deep cocoa notes without the cloying edge of chocolate chips. The rum is doing two jobs at once, contributing a faint molasses-like warmth and helping draw out the chocolate aroma.

The oats are unusual in a rolled cookie. They add texture and chew, making these eat more like a cross between a chocolate icebox cookie and a brownie. The dough chills for an hour so it’s firm enough to roll out to ⅛ inch and cut cleanly with cookie cutters.

Bake just until the edges set, the centers will look slightly underdone. They firm up as they cool and stay soft for days.

Chef Tips

• Use room-temperature starter, not cold from the fridge. Cold starter seizes the shortening and makes the dough crumbly.
• Chill the dough a full hour. Underchilled dough sticks to the rolling pin and the cookies spread too much.
• Re-roll scraps only once. Twice-rolled dough develops too much gluten and bakes tough.
• Use sharp-edged metal cookie cutters dipped in flour for clean cuts. Dull plastic cutters drag the dough.

Variations

• Sub bourbon or whiskey for the rum for a different boozy note.
• Sandwich cooled cookies with vanilla buttercream or chocolate ganache for stuffed cookies.
• Dust with powdered sugar after baking for a snow-cookie look.