Chewy Sourdough White Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Cookies from Heart Beet Kitchen

Chewy Sourdough White Chocolate Coconut Macadamia Cookies - made dough June 4, 2025, modified from Heart Beet Kitchen

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup, 1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, browned and cooled

160 grams brown sugar

140 grams granulated sugar

1 large egg

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

80 grams sourdough discard, room temperature

235 grams all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 1/2 ounces white chocolate chips or chunks

3 1/2 ounces macadamia nuts, lightly toasted, roughly chopped

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted

1. Whisk together cooled browned butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined.
2. Add sourdough starter and whisk to combine. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating until well combined.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
4. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, mixing to combine.
5. Fold in white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts and toasted coconut until evenly disbursed.
6. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls on each baking sheet. Bake 12-13 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw or shiny. Let rest on baking sheets for several minutes before transferring cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

I modified the original recipe to add toasted coconut to the cookie dough. You can leave it out and keep this as just a coconut macadamia cookie but if you're a coconut lover, I recommend adding it in. Toast the coconut first to add more texture to the cookie and let it cool before adding to the dough.

Overall, this was a good cookie. The flavors blend well together, the cookie didn't spread much during baking and the texture was just right with crisp edges and chewy middles. As with all the sourdough discard recipes I've tried so far, I'm not sure what the discard actually adds or doesn't add. I couldn't taste it and there was no particular tang in the flavor. Either my starter isn't that "sour" or I haven't been letting the flavor develop in the starter between uses of the discard. But that's fine as the cookies are still good and I didn't waste any starter. Which is the point.

Crumbl Copycat Butter Cake from Cookies and Cups

Crumbl Copycat Butter Cake - made May 19, 2025 from Cookies and Cups 

1 cup salted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar plus more for coating the ramekins

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare 6-ounce ramekins by spraying with nonstick cooking spray, lining the bottoms with a parchment round and coating with large sugar granules.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and 1 cup granulated sugar on medium speed for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl to keep mixture even textured. 
3. Add the vanilla extract, baking powder and salt; mix for 30 seconds.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each addition. On low speed add the flour and buttermilk in alternating additions, beginning and ending with the flour, until just combined and smooth.
5. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared ramekins, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out with a few moist crumbs.

It's no secret that I love Crumbl's Butter Cake. And although I haven't gone to Crumbl in weeks (I know, I know, who am I?), I always make it a point to go when the Butter Cake or the Caramel Butter Toffee Cake are on the menu. So I was glad to find this copycat recipe to try out, especially since it's from Cookies and Cups, who reliably has very good recipes.

This one was good too, as a butter cake. I don't know that I quite consider it a copycat though. One of the reasons I like Crumbl's version so much is the denseness of the cake and this one was a bit lighter. That doesn't make it bad, just not quite an exact replica of the original. The other reason I like Crumbl's are the sugar crystals on the outside which give the cake a bit of crunch. I didn't have large sugar crystals but I did have larger-than-granulated-sugar crystals that I coated the ramekins with. In hindsight, I should have been more generous with the coating as the sugar crystals seemed to melt more into the cake rather than stayed intact to provide the crunch. Or else I need larger sugar crystals.

So, ultimately, this was a great, very buttery cake. But I will still be going to Crumbl's for theirs and am still looking for more copycat recipes to try.

Coconut Buttermilk Cake from Gonna Want Seconds

Coconut Buttermilk Cake - made May 17, 2025 from Gonna Want Seconds

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract

3 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/4 cups sweetened shredded coconut

Topping

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons buttermilk

1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed for 8 minutes, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
4. Add vanilla and coconut extract and mix briefly. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
5. On low speed, add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk in 2 additions. Beat until incorporated. 
6. Fold in 1 1/4 cups coconut. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and let cake cool in pan set on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cake cool completely.
7. Topping: spread the remaining 1/4 cup coconut in a single layer on a baking sheet. Place in 350-degree oven for 5-10 minutes, stirring often or until coconut is golden. Remove from oven and cool.
8. In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons buttermilk. Add the additional 1/2 tablespoon buttermilk, drop by drop until you reach a thick pourable consistency.
9. Drizzle glaze over completely cooled cake and top with toasted coconut.

No sourdough discard in this one but I did have buttermilk to use up as well as coconut plus I've had this recipe on my pinterest board for awhile.

The directions say to make this in a loaf pan but I held back a little batter to make a small round cake so I could have a taste test without having to cut up the whole loaf.

I loved this cake. It was dense like a good pound cake but just a tad bit lighter and it was packed with coconut. The flavor was excellent and I love coconut because of the flavor and texture it adds to the cake.

Don't skimp on either the coconut or the vanilla. I used the recommended amount of vanilla extract in the recipe then added a generous teaspoon of vanilla bean paste as well. 

The only thing I didn't care for was the buttermilk glaze. I tried it on the taste test small cake and the taste was fine to add sweetness and anchor the toasted coconut on top. But I didn't care for the buttermilk smell as I ate it. Milk would've been better to make the glaze. It would provide the sweetness for the glaze without the smell or tang from buttermilk.

So I opted to leave the loaf cake unglazed and it was just fine. This also freezes well and slices well. If you want to make it ahead, wrap the loaf in foil or parchment, put in a gallon freezer bag and freeze whole. Before serving, let it thaw to room temperature then slice.

Sourdough Sweet Potato Biscuits from Sourdough Brandon

Sourdough Sweet Potato Biscuits - made May 20, 2025 from Sourdough Brandon

280 grams all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

113 grams (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes

232 grams mashed sweet potatoes

1 tablespoon brown sugar

100 grams sourdough discard

61 grams (1/4 cup) buttermilk plus more for brushing tops

1. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3. In another mixing bowl, mix sweet potatoes, brown sugar, sourdough discard and buttermilk until combined.
4. Toss the cold, cubed butter into the dry ingredients and cut into the flour until the butter is in pea-sized pieces.
5. Add the wet ingredients to bowl and use a fork to mix until clumps form and the mixture is distributed throughout. Drizzle more buttermilk if needed into the mixture. The mixture may still be quite dry but will come together in the next step. 
6. Sprinkle work surface with a generous dusting of flour. Dump the dough onto the work surface and pat into a rectangle about 3/4 inch thick. Use a bench scraper to divide into four equal pieces. Stack them on top of each other and use your hands to press down and pat back into a rectangle. Repeat two more times to further laminate the dough and create flaky layers.
7. After the last stacking, pat the dough into a 1-inch thick square. Use the bench scraper to cut 9 equal-sized squares. Freeze the biscuits for at least 15 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Evenly space the frozen biscuits on the prepared baking sheet and brush the tops with buttermilk.
9. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm with butter.

how the "dough" looked when it was first turned out of the bowl

First off, I'm going to say this was a laughable failure on my part. I say my part as I'm sure others have made this recipe just fine, as evidenced by the original blog post from Sourdough Brandon. I'm not a dab hand at making biscuits as I rarely make them so my ineptitude at biscuit making probably contributed to the failure.

I also say laughable because I really did have to laugh at how terribly the process went for me. The dough as mixed according to the directions was too dry. I ended up doubling the amount of buttermilk and it was still too dry. I tried the directions of cutting the dough into 4 pieces to stack for the lamination and the floury mass I can't really call dough fell apart and was not amenable to being stacked.

I squished the dough together and had a half-assed attempt at cutting it out into biscuits. 

You can see below how much flour dust was still left after cutting out the biscuits. And even then, the ones above barely held together.

I think I went wrong in a couple of places. I used Japanese or murasaki sweet potatoes and they just weren't as moist as regular yellow sweet potatoes. My sourdough starter also seemed a bit more dry and doughy rather than a wet starter. Plus, I probably should've just kept adding buttermilk until the dough at least held together and was shaggy rather than dry flour.

Given all my issues with the dough, this definitely was not flaky or laminated. It was, not surprisingly, rather doughy and dense, even after baking it more than 15 minutes than the prescribed time. 

The flavor of the murasaki sweet potatoes also wasn't very pronounced. The biscuits weren't horrible and the taste test biscuit went down just fine, warm and slathered with butter. But next time, I would definitely use regular sweet potatoes and add enough buttermilk to make that shaggy dough.

Browned Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking It Beautiful

Browned Butter Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 17, 2025 from Baking It Beautiful 

1 cup butter, melted, browned and cooled slightly

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup sourdough starter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cooled brown butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined.
2. Add the egg yolks, vanilla extract and sourdough starter, mixing until combined.
3. Add remaining dry ingredients until just combined and no floury streaks remain. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Cover dough and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Portion into dough balls, cover and chill again for at least 8 hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake 7-9 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet for several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

My next few posts are going to be recipes that make use of sourdough discard. Once I fell down that rabbit hole on pinterest, I discovered a plethora of recipes that use up sourdough discard. 

So of course I felt compelled to try them, especially since I found 2 dozen eggs at Costco for $4.89. In these times of high prices, that was little short of a miracle. Long live Costco.

In any case, I also had a book club meeting coming up so it was the perfect time to try out this recipe so I had cookies to bring to the meeting.

To cut to the chase, these were excellent cookies. A bit crisp at the edges and not as soft as I normally like in my chocolate chip cookies but still had a nice crunch. I don't know if that was due to the browned butter or the sourdough discard. Or both. And in all honesty, I couldn't taste the discard at all. Not sure if I was supposed to or if it's just there to impact the texture rather than the flavor.

Still, this is both a good recipe for chocolate chip cookies and a good way to use up discard. Now that I've found there seems to be a cottage industry of sourdough discard recipes, I may or may not be feeding my starter just to have enough discard to try out more recipes.

Sourdough (Discard) Skillet from Farmhouse on Boone

Sourdough (Discard) Skillet - made May 15, 2025, modified from Farmhouse on Boone

1 1/2 cups sourdough starter

3 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon basil

3 tablespoons butter or coconut oil

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 pound ground turkey

4 cups mixed veggies - I used spinach and Japanese sweet potatoes

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, optional

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Saute the ground turkey in a cast iron skillet on the stove. After it's completely cooked, place on a plate and set aside.
3. Peel 3 medium-sized Japanese sweet potatoes, peel and cut into chunks. Parboil in salted boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain. 
4. Thoroughly wash spinach.
5. In the cast iron skillet, stir together the spinach, potato chunks and cilantro until spinach has cooked down. Add the ground turkey back in.
6. In a medium bowl, mix together the sourdough starter, eggs, salt, basil, butter and baking powder. Spread the sourdough mixture evenly over the top of the ground turkey and veggies. Sprinkle with the 1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until bread is cooked through and golden.

As anyone who's ever nurtured and fed a sourdough starter, you have to keep it alive and active through regular feedings of water and flour. But whenever you feed it and it grows, you also have to discard some of the starter to make room for the new growth.

I hate to waste anything, even or particularly, ingredients that could be used to make new (or even familiar) dishes. It turns out I'm not alone as there are a lot of recipes using up sourdough discard. Who knew?? (Probably many other people)

I had never heard of sourdough discard skillet but I was happy to find this recipe where it seemed so flexible that I could use anything, most notably, the ingredients I either had on hand or was easy to buy. For this particular version, I used ground turkey, spinach and Japanese sweet potatoes, also know as Murasaki sweet potatoes, available at Trader Joe's.

I slightly underestimated how much discard I had and used up almost all of it, leaving just enough to have the new feeding of water and flour to work with to grow more starter.

As advertised, this couldn't be easier to make. I did parboil the sweet potatoes briefly, just to make sure they cooked through. And I could probably have added more spinach given how much spinach cooks down. But for my first effort, it turned out pretty well.

For the more creative cooks among you (of which I am not one), there's so much flexibility to this type of recipe. Throw together whatever ingredients suit you and cover it with the sourdough discard mixture and cheese and voila, easy dinner dish. Bonus that I got to use my cast iron pan which had been gathering dust for awhile. Next time I wouldn't hesitate to use more spices either to jazz up the dish. I just need to grow more starter.