Sunflower Seed Butter Cookies

“Don’t leave me alone!!!!!!!” Clingy batter…geddit? Okay, I’ll stop.

Did you miss yours truly reader of my highest esteem? Of course you did. Or, if you haven’t come from the Sun Butter page, you’re just confused and a trifle intrigued. I said I had two recipes: I’ve taken my Peanut Butter Cookie recipe, ditched the Baking Soda because of the discolouring problem that occurs when you mix Sun Butter and Baking Soda. This works as well as the peanut butter does, the batter formed quickly, there’s a nice crumb. The outside is a little bit different, a trifle more…glossy perhaps? Nothing bad, don’t mistake me. If you enjoy the taste of sun butter or if you can’t tolerate nuts then this is a really handy recipe, that isn’t too sweet. You might even be able to cut the sugar down more if you wanted too.

Decorate them as you see fit, no!, I said decorate not desecrate.

They take a little longer to bake. They turn a lovely golden brown colour, no green when there’s no baking soda. Thankfully the egg does give them a lightness, you might still be okay with an egg-replacer, but I can’t say for certain. I used toasted seeds left over from the other recipes as I wasn’t sure how fast they’d toast atop the cookies, you can use raw sunflower seeds if you’d prefer. These taste as you’d expect a nice bit of sweetness and a hit of sunflower seed. A pretty handy cookie if you’re nut intolerant or just feel like something different. Sunflower seeds are rather good for you if I’m not mistaken. Mind you any seed is probably going to be good for you. Eat up and enjoy. I’ll be back soon.

“And he was never heard from again….” Just kidding, I’m probably in the garden.

Ingredients

175g Sunflower Seed Butter
1 Egg
60g Sugar
Dash Vanilla Extract

Makes 12 Cookies.

Optional: Top with Toasted Sunflower Seeds before baking.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175c (Fan).

2. Put everything into a bowl and mix, with an electric mixer, until a thick clingy batter is formed.

3. Form into 1 Tbsp sized balls and flatten onto Greaseproof Paper using a wet fork or spoon and bake for 12-15 minutes. Then remove from Oven and rest on tray for a further 10 minutes. Then let cool completely on a wire-rack.

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Sunflower Seed Butter

Yesterday: Giant hailstones. Today: Sun splitting the rocks.

If I wasn’t prepared from last year this weather would make a gibbering mess out of me. As it goes, I’m hanging in there, no gibbering yet, just some whimpering. I have not one, but two recipes for you today gourmand reader. There has been a slight drought of new recipes so hopefully this will quench your thirst for culinary adventures. First up is one you’ve probably seen on countless other sites, but it never hurts to have everything in one place. I just went by my own experiences with nut butters and thankfully everything went just tickety-boo, I’m being jolly befuddled reader because the sun is shining and my squash is starting. Yes! Jack is in his element, three Golden Nugget and one Harlequin squash to be precise. Fun, fun fun, onto today’s recipe.

Wonder if I could plant these….”No! Jack.”…Darn.

Kidding, I have sunflowers already growing. Yes prescient reader it’s: Sunflower Seed Butter or Sun Butter if you’d prefer. This one is a bit more involved than the Hazelnut recipe, it will require additional oil, I opted for coconut as it’s tasteless. Not a great deal to say about this, the seeds can be easily identified as toasted when they turn a lovely brown colour, don’t let the over-toast, keep them stirred and keep and eye on them and you’ll be fine. They aren’t as fragrant as the hazelnuts, but they drastically change colour so it’s not hard to tell when to pull them out. It’s a lot cheaper than buying it from the store, for me at least.

It looks like, yeah. Let’s not say what it looks like.

This takes a bit more processing than the Hazelnuts. You can just add oil as needed, you’ll know when to stop as the mixture will just stop looking dry and will start to smooth out. Just take your time and you’ll be rolling in Sun Butter or whatever else you’d like to do with it. I’m not one to judge. You could add salt, sweetener or anything, I just left this plain as that’s the way I like my seed and nut butters. It tastes like the seeds do, so if you like them you’ll probably like this. I’m not able to eat too much of this and I’m not that wildly enamoured with the taste. It’s fine, but I can eat nuts and prefer those. If you can’t I think this would work in quite a lot of peanut butter recipes. I gotta look after my nut-free brothers and sisters, we’ve gotta look after one another, right? Naturally pumpkin butter is looming on the horizon, all things in time impetuous reader. Okay, that’s it, onto another post.

Firmer than the hazelnut, but still smooth and glossy.

Ingredients

250g Sunflower Seeds
2-4 Tbsp Coconut Oil, Melted or Other Mild Tasting Oil

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 175c (Fan) and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Spread the Sunflower Seeds out and then bake for 10-15 minutes, stirring to prevent burning as needed, until somewhat fragrant and they have turned a light brown colour.

3. Add the Sunflower Seeds to a food processor, while still warm, and blend until a smooth glossy paste has been formed. Add Oil as needed to facilitate blending and stop every fe minutes to prevent food processor over-heating. Store it in the fridge.