Using sunflower seed butter

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Janet H

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I have a newly acquired jar of toasted sunflower seed butter. Other than slathering on toast... does anyone have any good ideas about how to use this?
 
Mix it in a salad dressing that you make to substitute for the oil. Strawberries, lemon, sunflower butter, black pepper. Any tomato based dressing, or herb dressing.



In cooking you could bake with it, in cookies to substitute for the butter or oil, cookies, quick breads. You can make uncooked, raw, cookie balls.
An example: https://pieceofplants.com/delightful-danish-gingerbread-balls/ I make these without oil butter tahini or sunbutter, but they would be good with it in them because it is mild flavored, especially if you are trying to put on a little weight.
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blissful Those balls reminded me of a type of laddu that I made, with sunflower butter, dates for the sweet, a pinch of cardamom, and a little toasted besan, to make up for the oiliness of the sunflower butter. And spices can be added, as desired. Or some toasted nuts at the end, to add texture. Super-simple to make, and delicious.


Laddu

1 c pitted dates
3/4 c sunflower, or other nut butter (I made it with toasted seeds)
about 5 tb toasted besan (can be bought toasted, but I made my own by toasting channa dal, and grinding it)
1/8 to 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1-2 tsp honey, optional, if not quite sweet enough

Grind up everything in the food processor, adding 4 tb besan, adding little more, if too oily, and the honey, if not sweet enough. Roll into 1" balls, and place on a serving platter, or in a storage container.
 
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Pepper, I appreciate your recipe. I keep besan on hand, I'll give it a try.
Janet, those cookies look really neat, who would think the baking soda would turn the sunflower butter, green on the inside of the cookie.
 
Janet Those cookies look really good, and interesting, with the green color! I saved it - I'll have to make more sunbutter, to try them out!
 
Update - I made these cookies and can report that:

1. They turn green as advertised
2. They are dreadful

The cookie texture was fine - a nice soft cookie but the flavor was completely flat. This cookie needs a flavor make over. Using brown sugar instead of maple syrup might help, adding vanilla and maybe some lemon zest or ginger. Nice party trick but not good eating.
 
Update - I made these cookies and can report that:

1. They turn green as advertised
2. They are dreadful

The cookie texture was fine - a nice soft cookie but the flavor was completely flat. This cookie needs a flavor make over. Using brown sugar instead of maple syrup might help, adding vanilla and maybe some lemon zest or ginger. Nice party trick but not good eating.


It's good to hear your experience with it. Something to brighten the flavor like lemon zest or ginger may help. We stopped using refined or brown sugar to sweeten a couple years ago, and to our taste buds they are too sweet now. Maple syrup, date paste, or honey, sit just right for us. We all grow new taste buds every 11 days, so what you are used to can change. I'm glad to hear the texture was fine.
 
Maple syrup, date paste, or honey, sit just right for us. We all grow new taste buds every 11 days, so what you are used to can change. I'm glad to hear the texture was fine.

The sweetness level was acceptable. Not especially sweet but still a cookie... The lack of flavor was the big issue. Date paste is a nice idea and has flavor as well. Any maple flavor got lost in the the sunbutter flavor and so imo was a waste of nice maple syrup. The green interior is a fun surprise and I would be willing to try these again, if I can figure out how to improve the flavor.
 
I have a newly acquired jar of toasted sunflower seed butter. Other than slathering on toast... does anyone have any good ideas about how to use this?

As far as I know, it's often used by people who have allergies to replace peanut butter... so basically any recipe that calls for peanut butter can be used for sunflower butter too :)
 
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