This easy-to-make sourdough brownie recipe is sure to become a new family favorite! They are rich, fudgy, chocolatey, and a great way to use up excess sourdough starter! Brownies are a great and easy dessert that is sure to always be a bit and these sourdough discard brownies are no exception!
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When I first started my sourdough starter, just a under a year ago, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I knew was sourdough was crazy popular, everyone was using it, I loved sourdough bread, and there were a million sourdough recipes I wanted to try!
Creating a sourdough starter from scratch seemed easy enough in and of itself, and once I was finally around to actually making a starter I soon fell in love with all things sourdough, and finally understood what all the craze was about!
Since then I’ve made sourdough breads, pretzels, pizza crusts, creakers, and of course, brownies! Sourdough has never let me down and I look forward to getting to use it more in the future.
That being said, however, there were a few things about sourdough I wasn’t quite prepared for, namely the discard. Anyone who has or has had a sourdough starter can attest to the fact, sourdough grows like crazy, and if you’re not careful, you’ll soon have a sourdough starter overflowing!
Of course, I had heard this a million times before starting down this road of sourdough, but I never really understood it till it happened, I got out my starter one week( I store mine in the fridge) to make pizza crust and for some reason or another, I kept forgetting or getting too busy to actually make my crust. I was still feeding my starter daily though, and soon enough I had more starter than I knew what to do with.
That was when I realized I had to find some quick and easy way to use up my extra sourdough discard, and thus this recipe was born!
These easy sourdough brownies are great to use with any extra sourdough starter/discard you have, they are super easy to make, use mostly ingredients you likely already have on hand, and use 1/2 cup of sourdough discard per batch!
Before we get into the recipe though, I will say, sourdough brownies, are a little different from regular ones. Unlike traditional brownies, the texture of sourdough brownies tends to be thicker, and denser. I often refer to them as being more cake-like than the normal brownie, at the same time though they are a lot denser.
And since I believe a good brownie should be as rich and chocolatey as possible, these brownies are quite sweet and very rich. But don’t worry you can always cut down on the amount of chocolate and sugar used in the recipe to make them more palatable to you!
sourdough discard brownies
ingredients.
- Unsalted butter
- Bittersweet chocolate (you can also use semi-sweet chocolate)
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Vanilla extract
- Eggs
- Sourdough starter discard (I don’t feed mine before making brownies, but I still try to let it warm up to room temperature)
- White Sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Sea salt
How to Make Sourdough Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Line an 8-inch baking dish or cake pan with parchment paper. You can also grease the pan or spray it with nonstick spray, but I never do.
In a saucepan over low heat, melt together the butter sugar, and chocolate, stirring often. Continue to stir/whisk until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Be sure to keep a close eye on it to make sure the chocolate doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
Add the vanilla and sourdough discard to the chocolate mixture and whisk well. Then add the eggs one at a time, making sure that each egg is completely mixed in before adding the next one.
Finally, pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture and gently fold until combined. Your brownie batter should be wet and fairly thick.
Pour the finished batter into the prepared pan, be sure to scrape out as much batter as possible with a rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the brownies pass the toothpick test. (a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean.)
Remove the pan from the oven and allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting. Cooled brownies can be topped with powdered sugar, sea salt flakes, or served plain.
Notes
Leftover brownies can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap for 2-3 days.
You can also add your favorite mix-ins to these delicious brownies. Things like M&Ms, semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter, fresh raspberries, and Oreo cookies are all great options!
Looking for more great deserts? Check out these sourdough discard recipes
Sourdough chocolate chip cookies
Sourdough discard brownies (rich and fudgy)
Ingredients
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 oz *bittersweet chocolate chopped
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup sourdough discard I don't feed mine before making brownies, but I still try to let it warm up to room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line an 8-inch baking dish or cake pan with parchment paper. You can also grease the pan or spray it with nonstick spray, but I never do.
- In a saucepan over low heat, melt together the butter sugar, and chocolate, stirring often. Continue to stir/whisk until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Be sure to keep a close eye on it to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
- Add the vanilla and sourdough discard to the chocolate mixture and whisk well. Then add the eggs one at a time, making sure that each egg is completely mixed in before adding the next one.
- Finally, pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture and gently fold until combined. Your brownie batter should be wet and fairly thick.
- Pour the finished batter into the prepared pan, be sure to scrape out as much batter as possible with a rubber spatula.
- lace the pan in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the brownies pass the toothpick test. (a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean.)
- Remove the pan from the oven and allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting. Cooled brownies can be topped with powdered sugar, and sea salt flakes, or served plain.
Judy Williams
What Amount of sugar? Not on ingredient’s list
anexpressionoffood
Hi Judy! So sorry about that, it’s 1 cup of white sugar, I just fixed the recipe card as well so everything should be listed now. Thank you for pointing that out!