Sourdough brownies have a rich chocolate flavor, fudgy texture, and a signature sourdough kick. Whip them up in an afternoon or long ferment them overnight.
This sourdough brownie recipe is one of my favorite ways to utilize sourdough starter discard. (See some of my other sourdough discard recipes in this post.)
When chocolate cravings hit, it is usually sourdough chocolate cake, fresh milled chocolate chip cookies, sourdough chocolate rolls, or these brownies that find their way to my oven.
If you are used to grabbing a box mix for brownies, you have to give this a try. These easy sourdough brownies are so simple and do not require an extra trip to the grocery store. Everything in the recipe is likely in your fridge or pantry already.
Serve with a cold glass of milk, a dollop of whipped cream, or a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream for the perfect treat.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Delicious – Gooey centers with a crackly top, these are classic brownies with a burst of sourdough flavor.
Long Fermented (optional) – Long ferment this recipe it to help break down the phytic acid, reduce the gluten content, and make the nutrients more bioavailable.
Great way to use discard – If you have a brand new starter, this is a great recipe to use up the discard.
Ingredients
Butter – Use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt in the recipe. You can also use a neutral oil, like avocado oil.
Semi-sweet chocolate chips – This gives it a nice balance without making the brownies too sweet.
Vanilla – I use homemade vanilla extract.
Flour – Whole wheat flour, spelt, or all purpose flour will work. You can also check out my brownie recipe using freshly milled flour.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
How To Make Sourdough Brownies
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a 9″ × 9″ pan by lining it with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan over low/medium heat, melt butter. Take off heat and add chocolate chips and vanilla.
Step 2: Stir until all melted together.
Step 3: In a medium or large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir to combine.
Step 4: Pour melted chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients. Add in eggs and sourdough discard. Stir well until there are no clumps.
Step 5: Pour the sourdough brownie batter into prepared pan.
Step 6: Bake for 40 minutes in the prepared 9″ x 9″ pan or until a toothpick comes out clean and the middle is set. Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving. This will help it set up and also develop the flavors.
Tips
- My sourdough starter is at 100% hydration, meaning I feed it with equal parts flour and water.
- Make sure your eggs are room temperature. If you forgot to take your eggs out of the fridge ahead of time, you can bring them up to room temperature by placing them in a bowl of hot water for 5 to10 minutes.
- Allow the brownies to cool totally before cutting. Once they are completely cooled, the flavor will have developed, and the brownies will hold together.
- Long ferment the dough overnight to add more delicious tang from the fermentation of the grains. Combine the flour, sourdough starter, sugar, and half a cup of melted butter the night before. Cover and leave overnight or up to 24 hours. The next day, add the rest of the ingredients.
Recipe FAQ’s
Basically sourdough adds flavor. If you have excess sourdough starter, this is an easy recipe to try! If you long ferment the recipe overnight, you will gain the benefit of easier digestion thanks to the breakdown of phytic acid.
If these are made without long fermenting, then they are basically the same as regular brownies. If long fermented, sourdough helps to make the gluten in the brownies easier to digest.
Fudgy brownies have more fat in them than flour, while cake like brownies have more flour than fat.
Store in an airtight container for up to 2 or 3 days at room temperature or in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. These also freeze well! Freeze for up to three months once completely cooled.
More Sourdough Dessert Recipes
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Sourdough Monster Cookies
- Sourdough Monkey Bread
- Sourdough Discard Double Chocolate Bread
- Sourdough Discard Blondies
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love it if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Fudgy Sourdough Discard Brownies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, 113 grams
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, 170 grams
- 1 tablespoon vanilla, 13 grams
- ¾ cup flour, 105 grams
- 1 ¼ cup sugar, 250 grams
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 50 grams
- ½ teaspoon salt, 2.5 grams
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup sourdough discard, 125 grams
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a 9" × 9" pan by lining with parchment paper.
- In a medium saucepan over low/medium heat, melt butter. Take off heat and add chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir until all melted together.
- In a medium or large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Stir to combine.
- Pour chocolate butter mixture into the dry ingredients.
- Add in eggs and sourdough discard.
- Stir well until there are no clumps.
- Pour into prepared pan.
- Bake 40 minutes in prepared 9″ x 9″ pan or until a toothpick comes out clean and the middle is set.
- Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving. This will help it set up and also develop the flavors.
Notes
- Make sure your eggs are room temperature. If you forgot to take your eggs out of the fridge ahead of time, you can bring them up to room temperature by placing them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes.
- Allow the brownies to cool totally before cutting. Once they are completely cooled, the flavor will have developed, and the brownies will hold together.
- Long ferment the dough overnight to add more delicious tang from the fermentation of the grains. Combine the flour, sourdough starter discard, sugar, and a half a cup of melted butter the night before. Cover and leave overnight or up to 24 hours. When ready to bake, add the rest of the ingredients to the batter.
- If long fermenting, use a double boiler to melt the chocolate before adding to the fermented batter.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Lisa , first THANK you for helping me become successful in creating an active starter!!! I now always have starter to work with and have been able to share with friends. I have incorporated sour dough into my recipes and am enjoying it. BUT these sourdough brownies are amazing. They are thick and a tittle chewy and the fudge flavor is big. I am going to make another batch. 👍
I honestly wasn’t expecting to love these brownies but I do! They came out so light and chocolatey that it was love at first bite. I was looking for recipes to use up my discarded sourdough starter, what a pleasant surprise. Thank you!
How wonderful! Happy you enjoyed them so much.
Thank you for the amazing recipe! I love your sourdough recipes.
So happy you enjoy them!
Hi. I was wondering why you have been changing some of your “healthier” recipes to adding more sugar. I noticed you also changed the banana bread recipe ro using sugar. Im so glad i printed the original. I was delicious and better in my opinion with the maple syrup. Just curious though why the changes. It was something i liked about your website.
It would be helpful if you gave weight measurements either along with, or in place of your volume measures. A cup (or fraction of) of any flour is the most inefficient way of measure. I have a tendency to bypass recipes with only volume measures. Thanks for reading my rant.
Very true, I’ve been trying to add more weight measurements to my recipes, especially breads. I do have a post on measurement conversions that work for my recipes.
Thank you for ALL your sourdough recipes!!!
So glad you enjoy them!
I love this brownie, I made this twice already. The problem I had (which I totally forgot to adjust) it became cake’y. I think because of too much flour, mind that there’s flour in the sourdough discard/starter. So next time I make this, again, I will adjust the flour measurement to maybe just 1/3c….still a delicious treat…thank you, Lisa for all your wonderful recipes.
Let me know how that works for you! Glad you enjoy the recipe.
What happened to the recipe with the tahini?
I updated the recipe. Here is the original: 1⁄2 cup flour- whole grain, spelt, or all purpose
1⁄2 tsp sea salt
1⁄3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2⁄3 cup chocolate chips
1 and 1/4 cup melted butter
8 ounces semi sweet baker’s chocolate
2 large eggs plus one yolk (room temperature)
1 cup coconut sugar
1⁄4 cup maple syrup
1⁄2 cup sourdough starter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tbsp coffee
Tahini Swirl (optional)
6 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp maple syrup
Pinch of salt
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare a 9×13 pan by lining with parchment paper.
Stir together flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, and salt.
In a medium saucepan, melt butter and baker’s chocolate together. After it has melted, place it on the side to cool.
In a medium bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together. Once combined, stir in maple syrup, sourdough starter, vanilla extract, coffee, and add in the melted butter (slightly cooled) and chocolate.
Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients; stir until no dry clumps remain, then gently stir in chocolate chips.
Pour brownie batter into the prepared 9×13 pan.
(Optional) In a small bowl, stir together tahini, maple syrup, and a pinch of salt.
Drop six equally-placed dollops of the tahini mixture on the brownie batter, and use a chopstick or thin utensil to create a beautiful swirl pattern.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the middle is set.
Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving. This will help it set up and also develop the flavors.
Who doesn’t love brownies? And adding sourdough is brilliant. Can’t wait to try this recipe! Thanks for so many great sourdough recipes, Lisa!
These are amazing! I didn’t have time for the swirl so I just sprinkled a few chocolate chips on top. And I left out the 2/3 cup of chips mixed in because I was too lazy to go downstairs to get more. I tried the long ferment but only from 9am to 3pm because that’s what time allowed. I didn’t notice any change in the mixture, it was just a pretty thick blob the whole time but it mixed in well. I will definitely make these again but try to follow the exact recipe next time. We love all things sourdough and I haven’t met a recipe yet that I don’t like from this blog. Thanks for all the sourdough recipes!