Spokane sourdough bakery bakes chocolate chip and s'mores cookies on KREM 2

A jar of sourdough discard can do more than wait for the next loaf. In Delaney Carr’s hands, it became chocolate chip cookies and s’mores cookies in the KREM 2 Kitchen, a smart dessert move that lets starter bring chew, subtle tang and deeper browning without demanding a full bread schedule.

KREM 2’s Love Local Baking Special put The Bughouse Bakery in the spotlight as Carr, owner of the Spokane microbakery, baked alongside Laura Papetti and Vincent Saglimbeni. The segment fit the bakery’s own identity exactly. The Bughouse Bakery describes itself as a sourdough micro bakery in Spokane, Washington, serving artisan bread and tasty cookies, and the cookie focus made that promise feel real instead of decorative.

Carr is a Gonzaga University student who received the Environmental Studies and Sciences Environmental Stewardship Award, and Gonzaga has said she started the project in August 2021. That background matters because The Bughouse Bakery is not a side hobby trying to mimic a full-scale shop. It is a homegrown operation built inside Washington state’s cottage food framework, which has allowed residents since 2011 to make and sell nonpotentially hazardous baked goods from a primary residential kitchen for direct sale to consumers.

For home bakers, the practical lesson is simple: sourdough discard belongs in cookies. King Arthur Baking says discard can be used in recipes like cookies instead of being thrown away, and that is exactly why this kind of bake works so well. Younger, fresher discard usually reads milder and cleaner; older discard tends to push more acidity and a stronger sourdough note. Wetter starter can loosen the dough, while a stiffer discard will behave more like a classic mix-in. That means the same base recipe can be tuned up or down depending on how tangy, cakey or chewy you want the final cookie to be.

That flexibility is the point of the story. A Spokane microbakery got a dedicated TV cooking segment, a recognizable local baker got to show a sweeter side of sourdough, and viewers got a reminder that starter does not have to be chained to boule production. In the right cookie dough, it becomes flavor, texture and a little browning insurance all at once, which is why discard baking keeps earning a place in the modern sourdough kitchen.