Sourdough Brownies – A Great Way to Use Sourdough Discard
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here.
These easy to make sourdough brownies are a great way to use sourdough discard. With one bowl, one pan, and about 30 minutes, you have rich, fudgy brownies.
Your final product will vary based on how active your starter is, choice of sweetener, and choice of flour.
Ingredient notes:
- Use granulated sugar, sucanat, rapadura, honey or maple syrup. Increase up to 1 cup for a sweeter brownie.
- Use semiweet baking chocolate, chocolate chips (1/2 cup), or a combination of 1/4 cup cocoa powder + 2 1/2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil +1/4 cup sugar. I like the results with melted semisweet baking chocolate best.
- This is a great way to use up sourdough discard, because less active starter works best for this recipe. These sourdough brownies work great with a wheat flour or rye flour starter.
Make sure to blend the batter well. Some readers have had their brownies separate into layers. I’ve never had that happen, but the only thing that comes to mind is uneven mixing.
I like to use 9 inch or 10 inch glass pie plate, but you can use a 9 inch square baking dish. With an active starter, a little more room is good, because the brownies dome during baking.
Sourdough Brownie Recipe
My husband said that the texture of these brownies reminded him of the cookie portion of an old fashioned ice cream sandwich. They are rich and cakey, with yummy dark chocolate flavor.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 4 eggs
- 4 ounces melted chocolate
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup butter or coconut oil (room temperature or melted)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- crispy nuts (optional)
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease your baking dish.
In a blender, food processor, or medium sized bowl, add sourdough starter and the rest of the ingredients (except nuts).
Blend (or whisk) chocolate mixture until smooth.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired.
Would you like to save this?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Place in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes,until toothpick inserted in the center tests done. The edges should be set but the center should still look a little soft. Don’t bake too long or the brownie will get tough and dry.
Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy with a glass of cold milk, or ice cream or whipped cream if you want to get fancy.
These brownies freeze well and keep in a covered container in the fridge for one week – if they last that long…
Sourdough A-Z eBook and eCourse
These amazing sourdough brownies are based on the “Impossible Brownie Pie” recipe from Sourdough A-Z by Wardee Harmon.
Brownies are only one of the sourdough baked goods in Sourdough A to Z.
You will also find:
- Chocolate and Spice Cakes
- Pancakes and Waffles
- Crepes
- Cinnamon Rolls
- English Muffins
- Crackers
- Pizza
- Pocket Bread
- Donuts
- Scones
- Biscuits
- Pasta
- Cookies
- and much more
They also provide instructions for adapting recipes, capturing your own sourdough starter, tending your starter, and storing your starter.
Visit Traditional Cooking School to order your copy of the Sourdough A to Z e-book or online sourdough course.
They are good people with good information, and I’m proud to be an affiliate. Your purchase helps support this site.
Printable Recipe for Sourdough Brownies
PrintEasy Sourdough Brownies
These easy to make sourdough brownies are a great way to use sourdough discard. With one bowl, one pan, and about 30 minutes, you have rich, fudgy brownies.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 12 servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sourdough starter
- 4 eggs
- 4 ounces melted chocolate
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup butter or coconut oil (room temperature or melted)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- crispy nuts (optional)
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease your baking dish.
In a blender, food processor, or medium sized bowl, add sourdough starter and the rest of the ingredients (except nuts).
Blend (or whisk) chocolate mixture until smooth.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired.
Place in oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes,until toothpick inserted in the center tests done. The edges should be set but the center should still look a little soft. Don’t bake too long or the brownie will get tough and dry.
Let rest for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy with a glass of cold milk, or ice cream or whipped cream if you want to get fancy.
These brownies freeze well and keep in a covered container in the fridge for one week.
Notes
Use granulated sugar, sucanat, rapadura, honey or maple syrup. Increase up to 1 cup for a sweeter brownie.
Use chocolate chips (1/2 cup), semiweet baking chocolate or a combination of 1/4 cup cocoa powder + 2 1/2 tablespoons butter or coconut oil +1/4 cup sugar
This is a great way to use up sourdough discard, because your starter doesn’t need to be active for this recipe. These sourdough brownies work great with a wheat flour or rye flour starter.
More Made From Scratch Recipes
Don’t forget to check out the Common Sense Recipes and Kitchen Tips page, with over 100 recipes (sorted by category), including:
- Cheesy Garlic Sourdough Crackers
- Easy Sourdough Bread
- Chestnut Flour Brownies (Gluten Free)
- Sourdough cookies
Originally posted in 2013, last updated in 2020.
I really appreciate all the work you took to come up with this recipe, it’s not easy. It was just a little too eggie for me, I guess I was looking more for a out of the box from the grocery store taste and consistency. I would make this recipe and eat it again, but my wife is very picky, so I tweaked it for her on a second try and was able to come up with a “like store bought mix” recipe for her and the others on this thread that thought it was too eggie. I don’t normally keep chocolate around the house because it gets eaten right away, so your melted chocolate recipe was perfect! I used that with coconut oil (not butter). Here are the ingredients I tweaked:
1 cup (non fed)sourdough starter (to make up for the loss of eggs)
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar,
1/3 cup vegitable oil (you can use coconut oil, once again, though, my wife is very picky)
1/2 tsp. Pure vanilla
1/8 tsp. sea salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda (the reason for more is to counter the larger amount of Sourdough)
We didn’t add nuts (because we don’t like them), but we did add a handful of milk chocolate chips (cause that’s all we had left) and some Hershey’s chocolate syrup on top just before putting it in the oven.
Hope this can help a little.
Thanks for sharing your adjustments, Phil. There’s so much variation in starters and in flavor preferences that having options is a big help.
This was such a helpful base recipe to help me use my sourdough discard in prep for its next feeding! I did make a few changes, and everyone loved it served with some whipped cream and fruit. It came out nicely moist and dense. This is what I did for my adaptation, I hope you will not mind me sharing!
1/2 cup sourdough starter
2 eggs
4 oz. melted 100% dark chocolate
1/2 cup sugar (I used xylitol, but close enough), powdered in coffee grinder
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter, divided
4 – 5 Tbsp. cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour pan. Melt chocolate and 1/4 cup butter together in double boiler on stove top. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, combine sourdough, eggs, powdered sugar/sweetener, cocoa, vanilla, salt, and baking soda until well combined. Pour in melted chocolate and stir or whisk until fully incorporated. Using a handheld electric mixer, beat in remaining 1/4 cup softened butter until thoroughly combined. (Texture should be like cake frosting.) Spread evenly into pan with a spatula and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
P. S. I keep a rye starter, so depending on the type of grain/flour with which one feeds their starter, as well as percentage of hydration, the results will probably vary. But mine came out very well!
Thank you so much for sharing your adaptation. Starters vary so much that it’s great to have different options.
Did you use baking soda or powder? In your video you said 1/2 tsp baking powder and the recipe says baking soda.
Thanks
Sorry about that. Print recipe is correct.
Quick and delicious! Everyone loved it in my house!
Glad it worked well for you.
If you see this and have a moment, could you let me know what type of starter you used (thick or thin, wheat or rye) and if you mixed by hand or machine?
I have 100% hydration wheat starter and I made it in my food processor.
Thanks! Trying to figure out the mystery of why some end up with eggy brownies.
Like some other bakers my brownies also separated. I was lazy and beat everything by hand so maybe using the food processor is the key to avoiding separation. I also used cocoa powder. The batter was much runnier than the brownies I usually make. Despite the esthetics, they still tasted good
What type of starter did you use, and was it thin or fairly thick?
The starter is fairly thin and is half whole wheat and half all purpose flour
I wonder if it’s the thinner starters that are causing separation? We usually keep ours fairly thick. Thank you for taking time to let me know.
Yummy, we’re vegan so I used chia eggs. I added a bit more flour just because of that substitution. They are nice and moist and chocolatety.
Glad that it worked out well for you. What type of starter did you use? (I’m trying to pinpoint what’s causing trouble for those who’ve ended up with eggy brownies by eliminating options that work.)
Did not work for me! I was shocked that these didn’t need extra flour, but decided to try it anyway. It was like a chocolate omlet. ? My starter is pretty new and is white flour and water (not potato flakes). Id skip this one unless you have a more mature starter and are willing to take the risk! ?
Hmmmm… the photos in the post were made with a starter that was less than a week old.(I started one up to update posts on the website.)
I use Gold N White whole wheat flour and water in my starter, no potato flakes or other ingredients.
When the starter was more active, it made more of a cake texture and less brownie texture, but no chocolate scrambled eggs.
I’m stumped.
I made this today to use some starter. Came out good, but not fudgy, which I knew from the comments. I used half honey and half agave. May add some flour next time to make them fudgy. I did not get an eggy layer, as I beat well with the food processor. Thank you for a good recipe to use starter, before it takes over the house 🙂
I’m glad they worked out for you. Let me know how it turns out if you try adding extra flour. We like the recipe, but they are definitely more cakey.
I’ve made these twice now, I bake less time than it says and its always still a fluffy cake rather than fudgy brownies….. what can I do different?? Otherwise delicious.
These tend to be more cakey than fudgey by nature. You might try adding an egg yolk for richness, or mixing in some additional flour.
Wonderful! I am a new Sourdough person and these Sourdough Children are taking over the refrigerator, the freezer, and the house! My husband loved the brownies and the sponge cake texture. He wonders if you could make as a Vanilla Cake. Going to look around your site. Thanks again these are now the go -to-brownie.
Glad you enjoyed it. I haven’t tried a vanilla option, but I’d drop the cocoa and double the vanilla extract.
What is your sourdough starter recipe? I would love to try this, but don’t have any starter.
There are instructions for making a starter are in the sourdough bread recipe post.
These were more cakey than I like for a brownie. I did use starter that had been fed and sat out all day. I used 2 duck eggs.
This recipe is glorious. I’ve made it several times now and its my go to brownie recipe now. I just made it again for my sister’s birthday. So rich and gooey. The last batch I did, I added a cream cheese swirl and I almost wept when I took my first bite, it was so perfect. I use a good ol’ bread flour fed starter, semi sweet melting chocolates, plus dark chocolate chips. As for sweetener I have tried half maple syrup and half coconut sugar, and I have tried all coconut sugar and I definitely prefer the half and half. Definitely try this out if you have some sourdough discard.
Thanks, Mitchel. Glad it worked well for you.
These were really good. The only thing that I changed was instead of using sugar I used a little maple syrup and some black raspberry simply fruit preserves. I also added a tsp. of cinnamon and only used 3 eggs because mine were jumbo. I will definitely make these again.
Glad they worked out well, and the raspberry preserves sound yummy. How much did you add?
Wow What a surprise. We used spelt flour starter that was not very bubbly.The mix was stirred ready waiting for the choc to melt (we used Cadbury Turkish delight flavour and no sugar)Than added the choc and popped into oven. What a beautiful surprise because i must say it did look rather watery to start with.Thankyou. We have just began our journey with sour dough.
I’m so glad it worked well for you. It’s always been a simple, reliable recipe for me.
Delicious! Texture was sponge-y, but I loved it. Perfect recipe for chocolate btw!
Glad it worked out well for you.