I was at the post office when one of the clerks asked me if I’d ever made sunflower seed butter cookies instead of peanut butter. He said that his daughter was allergic to peanuts, so he was wondering about whether the sunflower seed butter would work if you baked using it.
I hadn’t done a sunflower butter recipe before, but cookies are pretty simple, so I decided to try it out.
I found some at the store and tested it out, and the cookies are GOOD! It’s weird, though, because I used two varieties, and the final cookies baked differently. Read on to see what the difference was.
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SunButter and the recipe.
SunButter is a brand that has a range of flavors of sunflower seed butters, and it was readily available in the peanut butter aisle. I bought two types based on the ingredients in them, which all avoided the allregens I was trying not to use.
There are no SunButter recipes in my cookbooks, but that’s no big deal…I started with an old recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook and subbed out the peanut butter for SunButter sunflower seed butter. I also changed the balance for some of the other ingredients to make up for the consistency of the sunflower butter since it wasn’t as thick as the commercial peanut butter that you can buy.
I used two types of SunButter (you can see all of the ones that are available here on Amazon: SunButter sunflower seed butter)
I had never had SunButter before, but it does taste similar to peanut butter. The chocolate version tasted a little chocolately in the jar, but after baking the chocolate didn’t really come through at all. So think of it as a light chocolate flavor overall.
These are vegan since they don’t have any animal products in them, so you can use them to bake vegan cookies and other recipes.
This specific recipe isn’t vegan because it has eggs in it, but you can substitute out an egg replacer if you want to do that.
The two butters are pretty basic in ingredients and avoid most of the common allergens. The chocolate version has cocoa powder and some other flavorings in it, but the plain unsweetened is just sunflower seeds and salt.
As far as the nutrition of the two, the chocolate has less fat in it because of the proportion of sunflowers and cocoa, but other than that they’re pretty similar. The cocoa version had more sugar but a little less sodium. Both have no saturated fat and the same amount of fiber.
These were the consistency of natural peanut butter, and the plain had a good amount of oil on the top, which I just poured off. The chocolate didn’t have the same amount of oil, but there was a definite layer on the top of the jar that was looser than the rest of it.
If you pour off the extra oil after you open the jar and then stir it, it will end up being spreadable but not super thick. You would be able to spread this on bread in a thin layer and it would work fine, but you’re not going to get it to form a half inch thick layer, it’s too soft for that!
For some no-bake sunbutter treats, click here.
Sunflower nut butter cookies might turn green!
Just something to be aware of…Because the chemicals in the Sunbutter react with baking soda and baking powder, they might turn green inside when the cookies cool off.
I didn’t see that happen in mine, but it’s possible, it’s normal, and it’s not harmful.
So if you notice that your cookies are green, don’t worry about it, it’s a natural side effect and it’s nothing to worry about.
Equipment list for the cookies.
These are some of the things you’ll need to make the cookies, and the ones that I like on Amazon:
For a classic molasses cookie recipe, click here.
Sunflower Seed Butter Cookies
Equipment
- stand mixer or hand mixer
- set of measuring cups
- set of measuring spoons
- rubber spatula
- #40 ice cream scoop
- 2 insulated cookie sheets
- Parchment paper
- cooling rack
- spatula
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening (not butter or margarine)
- 1/2 cup Sunflower seed butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit.
- Mix the sugars. shortening, sunflower seed butter, and eggs in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix well.
- (optional) If the dough seems very soft, you can cover the bowl and refrigerate it for three hours. If it isn't too soft it can be baked right away.
- Line two insulated cake pans with parchment paper.
- Scoop the dough into balls and place on the cookie sheets about 2" apart.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. At ten minutes the finished cookies will be soft, at 12 minutes they'll be crispier inside after baking.
- Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and slide the parchment off onto the cooking racks.
- Let the cookies cool off for about 5 minutes, then remove them from the parchment using a spatula and let them cook directly on the rack.
- When the cookies are completely cooled off, store the cookies in an airtight container.
Tips for making these cookies.
1. Use a #40 scoop to make evenly-sized cookie dough balls. You can use a smaller scoop if you want more cookies. A #40 will give you 20 large-ish cookies.
2. The plain SunButter baked flatter than the chocolate, and it might have been because I added a little extra flour, or because the chocolate has less fat than the plain version.
3. If you bake the cookies for 10 minutes they end up staying very soft inside, almost like uncooked cookie dough. I like them this way, but if you want to go to 11 or 12 minutes they’ll end up being crispier when they cool off.
4. If you have an egg allergy, you can use an egg replacer instead of the eggs, then beat the batter a little longer to develop the gluten more.
5. When you’re baking for someone with a food allergy, you need to make sure that there isn’t any cross-contamination from the ingredients or the mixer. If there’s ANY concern at all, triple-wash the mixer bowl, beaters, and also clean off the mixer itself. It’s best to avoid allergens completely, but if it isn’t possible, make every effort to be safe.
6. I use insulated cookie sheets because they keep the bottoms of the cookies from browning too fast. They can also slow down the baking process a little, though, so keep an eye on the cookies and extend the baking time if you need to. Remember that the cookies will bake a little more from the residual heat after they’ve been removed from the oven, though, so don’t bake them until they look really brown and “done.” They’ll end up too dry when they cool off.
7. Don’t substitute butter for the shortening. If you insist on doing that, you shouldn’t skip the refrigeration step, since it will prevent the cookies from spreading as fast on the sheets while baking.
