You are going to love these sourdough discard peanut butter cookies! They're soft and chewy in the middle with lightly crisp, crackly edges, perfectly sweet and salty thanks to a generous cup of peanut butter and a final roll in granulated sugar.
They're a holiday-cookie-tin staple, but honestly good enough to make year-round. If you love baking with peanut butter and discard, try my sourdough chocolate peanut butter swirl cookies next, or work through more starter with my fudgy sourdough discard brownies or go all out with a sourdough discard funfetti layer cake.
Quick Look: Sourdough Discard Peanut Butter Cookies
⏱️ Ready In: 25 minutes
🔥 Bake Time: 8–10 minutes
🍽️ Serves: 30 cookies
✨ Calories: 146 per cookie
🥄 Main Ingredients: peanut butter, sourdough discard, butter, brown sugar
🌿 Dietary: Vegetarian
💛 Why You'll Love It: chewy, sweet-and-salty, and a genuinely good use for your discard
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
Soft, chewy, and a little crackly. A mix of butter and shortening gives you the best of both worlds — rich flavor from the butter, and a soft, chewy structure that holds its shape from the shortening.
A real use for your discard. Like my sourdough snickerdoodle cookies, this recipe turns the starter you'd otherwise toss into something worth baking, with a subtle tang that balances the sweetness.
That sweet-and-salty thing. A full cup of peanut butter plus a roll in granulated sugar hits the salty-sweet note that makes these impossible to stop at one.
Quick from start to finish. No chilling required — these go from bowl to oven in about 15 minutes, faster than my chewy brown butter sourdough chocolate chip cookies.
They get better with time. The flavor and chew actually improve a day or two in — perfect for making ahead for a cookie tin or bake sale.
Jump to:
- Quick Look: Sourdough Discard Peanut Butter Cookies
- Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Ingredients
- Easy Substitutions & Variations
- How to Make Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
- Expert Tips
- What Makes This Recipe Special?
- Sourdough Discard Peanut Butter Cookie FAQs
- Peanut Butter Cookie Troubleshooting Guide
- Storage
- Other Sourdough Discard Recipes to Consider
- Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- Butter — softened; brings rich flavor to the dough.
- Shortening — the secret to a cookie that holds its shape and stays soft and chewy.
- Brown and white sugar — brown for chew and a little molasses depth, white for crisp edges and the sugar roll.
- Vanilla extract — rounds out the flavor.
- Egg and egg yolk — the extra yolk adds richness and chew.
- Sourdough discard — room temperature; adds a subtle tang and a touch of tenderness. Peanut butter — a generous cup; use a no-stir conventional brand for the most reliable texture.
- All-purpose flour — the structure; spoon and level, or better, weigh it.
- Baking soda and salt — for lift and to sharpen that sweet-and-salty balance.
- Granulated sugar, for rolling — gives the cookies their signature sparkly, crackly coating.
See the recipe card below for quantities.
Easy Substitutions & Variations
Dairy-free: Use a non-dairy stick butter (like Country Crock's plant butter) in place of the regular butter.
No shortening? Substitute more butter at a 1:1 ratio. Shortening is ideal because it helps the cookies hold their shape and stay soft, but all-butter cookies will still be delicious — just a touch flatter.
Add chocolate chips: Fold in ½ to 1 cup of chocolate chips for a peanut-butter-cup vibe. If you love that combo, you'll also love my sourdough chocolate peanut butter swirl cookies and easy double chocolate filled cookies.
Add a nutty twist: Fold in a handful of chopped peanuts for crunch, or — if you're after a richer, nuttier cookie — try my brown butter coconut pecan cookies.
Make them kid-friendly: These are already a hit with little ones, much like my sourdough breakfast cookies — let the kids do the fork crosshatch.
How to Make Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
Note: I bake by weight for accuracy. Cup measurements are approximate and may vary depending on how you scoop.
Step 1: Cream the butter, shortening, and sugars. Preheat the oven to 375°F. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, shortening, vanilla, brown sugar, and white sugar until light and fluffy, about 5–10 minutes. Don't shortcut this — it's where the cookies get their texture.
Step 2: Add the discard, peanut butter, and eggs. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the sourdough discard, peanut butter, egg, and egg yolk, and mix until just combined.
Step 3: Add the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. This is what the final dough should look like — soft but scoopable.
Step 4: Scoop and roll in sugar. Using a cookie scoop, drop balls of dough into a small bowl of granulated sugar and roll until fully coated.
Step 5: Flatten and bake. Place the sugar-coated dough balls on a prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Use a fork to gently flatten each one with the classic crosshatch. Bake at 375°F for 8–10 minutes, until the tops look just set.
Step 6: Cool. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes — they'll finish cooking from residual heat — then move to a cooling rack.
Weigh your ingredients! Using a kitchen scale ensures your measurements are accurate, which is key for getting consistent results in baking. It takes the guesswork out of measuring and helps your recipes turn out exactly as intended every time.
Expert Tips
1. Pull them early. Take the cookies out when the tops look just set; they won't look fully baked, but they'll finish on the hot pan. Overbaking is the #1 way these go from chewy to dry. Nine minutes is my sweet spot.
2. Bake a test cookie. Every oven runs a little differently. Bake one cookie first to dial in your exact time before committing a whole sheet.
3. Don't skip the long creaming. Five to ten minutes of beating the butter and sugars builds the structure that keeps these soft and chewy.
4. Measure flour carefully. Too much flour makes for dense, dry cookies. Spoon and level, or weigh it (240g) for the most reliable dough.
5. Store airtight, right away. These can dry out fast. As soon as they're cool, get them into an airtight container to lock in that chew.
What Makes This Recipe Special?
Plenty of peanut butter cookies are good — but the combination here is what sets these apart. The butter-and-shortening blend means you don't have to choose between flavor and texture; you get rich, buttery taste and a soft, chewy cookie that holds its shape instead of spreading thin. The extra egg yolk piles on even more chew.
Then there's the discard. A quarter cup folded into the dough adds a quiet tang that cuts the sweetness and keeps these from tasting flat, the same trick that makes desserts like my sourdough discard coffee cake and sourdough chocolate chip muffins so crave-worthy. It's a small amount, but it's the difference between a fine peanut butter cookie and one people ask you to make again.
Sourdough Discard Peanut Butter Cookie FAQs
Yes! You'll just need to add more flour to make up for the moisture. Add an extra ⅛ to ¼ cup of flour, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough looks like the photos above.
I love Nutiva Organic Red Palm & Coconut Shortening — it works great and I feel good using it. You can also just use more butter.
This usually means the flour was slightly under-measured. Spoon and level (or weigh) your flour, and if the dough still feels too soft to roll, add flour 1–2 tablespoons at a time until it holds a ball. Don't overdo it, or the cookies will turn out thick and dense.
A conventional no-stir peanut butter gives the most consistent results. Natural, oily peanut butters can make the dough greasy and unpredictable.
Absolutely. Roll the dough into balls (skip the sugar coating until baking day), freeze on a tray, then transfer to a bag. Roll in sugar and bake from frozen, adding a minute or two.
Peanut Butter Cookie Troubleshooting Guide
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies came out dry | Overbaked | Pull them when tops look just set; aim for ~9 minutes |
| Dough too wet to roll | Flour under-measured | Add flour 1–2 tablespoon at a time until it holds a ball |
| Cookies spread too thin | All butter, no shortening, or dough too warm | Use shortening as written, or chill the dough 20 minutes |
| Cookies too thick or dense | Too much flour added | Measure by weight (240g); add extra flour sparingly |
| Greasy dough | Natural/oily peanut butter | Switch to a conventional no-stir peanut butter |
Storage
Room temperature: Store in an airtight container for 4–7 days. These actually get better after day two!
Freezer: Freeze baked cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 6 months. You can also freeze the unbaked dough balls and bake straight from frozen.
Other Sourdough Discard Recipes to Consider
Did you make this recipe?
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Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer (or a hand mixer and mixing bowl)
- Cookie sheet
- Parchment paper or baking mat
- Cookie scoop
- Small bowl for rolling in sugar
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
- 113 g butter softened (½ cup)
- 48 g shortening ¼ cup
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 160 g brown sugar ¾ cup
- 100 g white sugar ½ cup
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 60 g sourdough discard ¼ cup
- 256 g peanut butter 1 cup
- 240 g all-purpose flour 2 cups
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Granulated sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, beat the butter, shortening, vanilla, and sugars until light and fluffy, about 5–10 minutes.113 g butter, 48 g shortening, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 160 g brown sugar, 100 g white sugar
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg, egg yolk, peanut butter, and sourdough discard, and mix until just combined.1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 60 g sourdough discard, 256 g peanut butter
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt.240 g all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until fully combined.
- Using a cookie scoop (2-3 tbsp), roll balls of dough in a small bowl of granulated sugar until fully coated.Granulated sugar
- Place the dough balls on a prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Gently flatten each with a fork.
- Bake at 375°F for 8–10 minutes, until the tops look just set. Cool on the baking sheet at least 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
Nancy A Burke says
These cookies were amazing. Followed the recipe to the T, and everything was spot on. Thumbs up from everyone I shared them with. Thanks for the Recipe.
Audrey says
What a compliment! Thank you, Nancy!
Kayla eskins says
Why is my dough so wet and sticky and not forming balls ?
Audrey says
Thanks so much for trying the recipe! If the dough feels too sticky to roll, it’s usually due to slightly under-measuring the flour. I recommend double-checking that the flour was measured correctly (spooned and leveled, or weighed if possible). You can add 1-2 tablespoons of flour to the dough at a time until it reaches your desired texture. Just don't add too much or they will be thick and dense!