Soft and sweet, these soft Sourdough Sugar Cookies are easy to make and perfect to cut with your favorite cookie cutters! Don't waste your sourdough starter discard, make sugar cookies with it!
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There is nothing better than a good sugar cookie! They are so versatile! You can bake them for any holiday and decorate them with royal icing or your favorite sprinkles.
This recipe is great to get the kids involved! Let them roll out the dough and stamp the cookie cutters into the dough. Then enjoy cleaning up all those sprinkles and all that flour that is everywhere!
Baking with sourdough discard is one of my favorite things to do! You can make baked sourdough donuts, sourdough scones, sourdough discard banana bread, sourdough discard pancakes, sourdough discard waffles, sourdough chocolate chip muffins, and even sourdough crackers with herbs and olive oil crackers!
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Ingredients For Sourdough Sugar Cookies
- Sourdough Discard
- All Purpose Flour
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
What is Sourdough Discard?
Sourdough discard is the portion of your sourdough starter that you are not feeding. When you are "feeding" your starter to make bread with, you add equal parts flour, water, and starter to a mason jar and let it rise.
You can't feed your entire starter, as it doubles and sometimes triples in size, and that's a lot of sourdough starter to have on hand! If you are new to sourdough, be sure to check out this post all about how to keep your sourdough starter happy.
Equipment To Gather
- Stand Mixer
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Rolling Pin
- Silicone Mat or Parchment Paper
- Baking Sheet
- Wire Cooling Rack
Do These Cookies Taste Sour?
No! The sourdough discard adds a bit of a tang to the cookies, but they do not taste sour. The sourdough discard adds a bit of rise to the cookies and is a great balance for the sweetness of the sugar. Since we are not adding baking soda or baking powder to these cookies, the starter adds just a little bit of rise to the cookies to make them soft and chewy.
If you want to up the sour flavor, chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator for a few hours, or overnight. That will enhance the sour flavor of these cookies.
How To Make Sourdough Sugar Cookies
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add the egg, vanilla extract, and sourdough discard. Mix again for 1 minute.
Carefully add the flour to the stand mixer. Mix for 1 minute until the dough comes together into a ball.
Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and make the dough ball into a disc. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour, or up to overnight.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly flour your countertop and place the dough on the flour lined counter. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough out so the thickness of the dough is about ¼ inch thick.
With your favorite cookie cutters, cut the dough, and place the cut outs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. If you are adding sprinkles to the cookies, now is the time to add them. Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies.
When they are baked, allow them to cool on a wire cooling rack and then decorate with royal icing.
Step By Step Photos
Tips and Tricks
- Cookie cutters are just one way to utilize this dough. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of rolling out the dough and cutting cookie cutters into the dough, simply roll the dough into a log. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate. When you are ready to bake the dough, cut the dough into circles and sprinkle with more sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven temperature.
- Thinner cookies will take less time to cook than thicker cookies. Watch the oven closely to make sure the cookies do not burn if they are thin.
- You can decorate these cookies with your favorite sprinkles, or with a royal icing. My favorite is this one from Sally's Baking Addiction. I make it every holiday!
Recipe FAQs
Yes! You will get a little bit more of a rise with active starter than you will with inactive starter. Make sure to refrigerate the dough after you cut out the dough with cookie cutters if you are using active starter.
Yes! You can freeze the dough or the cookies. To freeze the cookie dough, make the dough completely and then shape them into a log. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. To freeze the baked cookies, place the cooled cookies in a Ziploc bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
Yes! You can freeze the dough in plastic wrap and a Ziploc bag for up to 3 months. You can also keep the dough in the refrigerator up to 24 hours before you bake it.
Other Recipes To Try!
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📖 Recipe
Perfect Cut Out Sourdough Sugar Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup Butter Room Temperature, 1 stick
- 1 ¼ cup Sugar
- 1 Egg
- ½ cup Sourdough Discard Inactive, Unfed
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla extract, and sourdough discard. Mix again for 1 minute.
- Carefully add the flour and salt to the stand mixer. Mix for 1 minute until the dough comes together into a ball.
- Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and make the dough ball into a disc. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour, or up to overnight.
- When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Lightly flour your countertop and place the dough on the flour lined counter. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough out so the thickness of the dough is about ¼ inch thick.
- With your favorite cookie cutters, cut the dough, and place the cut outs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. If you are adding sprinkles to the cookies, now is the time to add them. Bake for 8-12 minutes depending on the thickness of your cookies.
- When they are baked, allow them to cool on a wire cooling rack and then decorate with royal icing.
Notes
- Cookie cutters are just one way to utilize this dough. If you don't want to deal with the hassle of rolling out the dough and cutting cookie cutters into the dough, simply roll the dough into a log. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate. When you are ready to bake the dough, cut the dough into circles and sprinkle with more sugar. Bake for 8-10 minutes depending on your oven temperature.
- Thinner cookies will take less time to cook than thicker cookies. Watch the oven closely to make sure the cookies do not burn if they are thin.
Ellen
Do you the recipe in grams? I'm looking forward to trying this. Thank you!
lynnswayoflife
Hi! Yes! If you click on the "metric" it will convert the recipe. I hope you enjoy!
laura
Another tasty way to enjoy my sourdough!! YUM!!
Sherry
What a great cookie recipe!! I love the awesome sourdough flavor and how easy it was to make! My family devoured them in no time! Your cut out sourdough sugar cookies are the best!
Claire
I love having ways to use up my sourdough starter disguard!!
And these cookies were quite delicious!
I was feeling lazy so I used your top of just rolling the dough into a log and then cut off disks. They were the perfect little round cookie for afternoon tea!
Mandy Applegate
Oh my goodness these sourdough cookies turned out so good - thank you!
Donna
I would never have thought to use my sourdough discard in cookies, but now I don't think I ever won't use it! These were so good, I love the flavor the sourdough discard gave them!