You may recall from my recipe fails post the sunflower seed butter cookies I tried to make last year. The ones that turned green.
Accidental green cookies, no matter how delicious they taste, are a fail. (And those ones didn’t taste that delicious, either.) But I still wanted to make SunButter cookies. Maybe I don’t learn from my mistakes? But maybe I do, because in this case I learned that baking soda was the culprit – it reacts with the chlorophyll in the sunflower seeds to cause that, um, interesting green color.
The solution was obviously to just leave out the baking soda. Enter three-ingredient SunButter cookies!
You are probably familiar with three-ingredient peanut butter cookies. They are pretty much the quickest and easiest cookies in the world: three ingredients, about 15 minutes total to make, and probably less time than that to devour the whole batch. They’re not especially healthy, but you know, these things have to be overlooked sometimes. They’re the perfect recipe for budding bakers to impress everyone with, and the clean-up isn’t too bad either. But best of all (for me and my SunButter cookie craving, that is), baking soda is not among the three ingredients. Cha-ching!
So I did what any reasonable human being with an unreasonable SunButter cookie craving would do: I swapped some Sunbutter in for the peanut butter in that easy recipe. Done! Just like that, I had three-ingredient SunButter cookies.
It probably goes without saying that these are a lot like the peanut butter version, but different. They taste exactly like the ingredients you put in them, so if you don’t love sunflower seed butter… well, stick to the peanut butter version. But if you are a sunflower seed butter fan, and especially if you or someone you’re baking for has a peanut allergy, I can’t recommend these enough! They are just heavenly eaten right off the cooling rack, dipped in a cold glass of almond milk.
Obligatory milk-balancing picture. My milk-balancing skills are apparently not so good, because I lost the first cookie I tried to balance into this glass of milk. Had to eat that one – darn it! Food photography is pretty strenuous.
Three ingredients, two dozen cookies, one satisfied craving, zero green spots in your baked goods. Huge success!
- 1 cup sunflower seed butter (I used natural SunButter)
- 1 cup sugar (I would not recommend substituting this, especially with a liquid sweetener)
- 1 egg
- (optional) sea salt for topping
- Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix sunflower seed butter, sugar, and egg together in a medium bowl. The mixture will be thin at first; stir for about 30 seconds until it thickens up.
- Roll tablespoon-sized spoonfuls of batter into balls. Place several inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. (They should not spread too much while baking.) Use a fork to press a criss-cross pattern into them. Top with sea salt if desired.
- Bake cookies until they puff up slightly, about 10 minutes. They may not turn noticeably golden brown, but they are done nevertheless. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. These cookies are great while still warm, and are best on the day they're made. Enjoy!
Sugar + Sun Butter – I think I could get down with this recipe ;) And, I might just make a few more than one fall into a glass of milk… I mean, you need to make sure they taste good, right?!
Green cookies are not the same thing as green smoothies, so I can definitely see how you’d want to recipe re-make that experience! These cookies look amaaaazing! I’m all about 3 ingredient nut butter cookies, and have been meaning to try sunflower seed butter. I’d probably “practice” my milk-balancing photography until I done et the entire batch. Delicious!
Hi Erica!
First, thanks for such an easy recipe. However, I’m more of an almond butter person and since I just bought some….yummy recipe coming up! :D
But here’s a question: How do you get the cookies to look like they are made with flour when they are baked? I guess I fear the cookies will taste like a hardened clump of nut butter instead of tasting like a cookie with cookie texture.
Also, can I add vanilla extract? And, I have a cinnamon and sugar shaker, since I don’t buy bags of sugar. Could I use the cinnamon and sugar mixture? Thanks!
Hi Terr, I made an almond butter version too, and they were definitely good! You can certainly play around with adding different ingredients like vanilla and cinnamon – I can’t imagine them being bad, but I haven’t tried them myself. These cookies definitely don’t have the same texture as cookies made with flour. They’re more delicate, but not gross and hard or anything. Give them a try and see what you think!
Oh I bet they’re like a macroon in texture. I like that even better! I’m trying this tonight. Matter of fact, I bet I could make an amaretto cookie with this recipe. Yeah, that’s exactly what this sounds like, CAN’T WAIT!
I love sunflower seed butter. These cookies sound perfect. Also, just to let you know I am armed with beets and macadamia nuts. I’m going to attempt beet butter today! I’ll keep you posted…
Yes!! I was just thinking about that yesterday when I made another macadamia nut butter concoction. Hope the beet version turns out well! It is going to be gorgeous in any case!
I’ve never had sunflower seed butter before…just might have to give it a try because these cookies look yummy!
It’s awesome in smoothies! You should definitely give it a try :)
These sound amazing!! I love sunflower seed butter, but never thought to make cookies with it. Plus, a three ingredient cook is always amazing!
i’d love to try these with sunflower butter!
I’ve never tasted sunbutter, but these cookies look simple and delicious – putting them on my to-make list:)
hi,,
may i know what is sunflower seed butter,,cos in singapore we are
unable to get,,any subsitute, i would like
to try this cookis for comin chinese new year,
hope u can share by rtn mail,,thanks’;
xinxin–sg
Hi Xinxin, you can use peanut butter or any other nut butter in these cookies. Enjoy!
I’ve also never tried sunbutter, but I LOVE sunflower seeds, so I think I must. and obviously, I love cookies…. so these I REALLY must try! love that they’re so simple.
These cookies look amazing! I love how simple they are. And I love the addition of salt, of course!
Pinned.
These looks delicious – I don’t know that I have ever tried sun butter, but I obviously should buy some just to make these cookies!
Ummm these are genius! I can’t believe they’re only 3 ingredients! My roomie & I use sunflower seed oil, but I have never tried sunbutter. I’ve never met a nut/seed butter I didn’t like, so I’m sure I’d dig these ;)
Erica! These look amazing!!!!! Your photos are beautiful! And those cookies – they look so very impressive I’d never guess they only had 3 ingredients in them! So absolutely perfect! You’re sooo smart!
Have you ever tried making the butter from the sunflower seeds? My husband bought a 7438 pound (ok, not really, but it’s big!) bag of sunflower seeds that will take me YEARS to get through – I’m wondering if a quick whir in the food processor would do the trick??
Thanks Gretchen! No, I’ve never tried that, but but I’m sure it would be totally easy… as long as they’re pre-hulled sunflower kernels! Here are the ingredients in the Sunbutter brand I use – looks like you might want to add some salt and sweetener. And toast the sunflower seeds first! Let me know how it works out :)
These look great. Do you think they would be okay with a flax replacement for egg? Need a vegan replacement for the added egg…any thoughts?
Hi Kris, I’d be hesitant to use a flax egg because there are so few ingredients, but I haven’t tried it myself. You could search around to see if there are other bloggers who have!
Thanks for the reply.
Oh wow! I had no idea about the baking soda thing! I’m not much of a baker, but I AM a lover of sunflower seed butter just about any way I can get it so I will definitely be adding that to my little memory bank just in case! Love the pictures! I think you have that cookie balance thing totally down now! ;)
Just made these with my seven year old son. We love them! My oldest has a peanut allergy, so these were a perfect replacement ( for me).
Thanks for this easy recipe! I try to eat sun flower seeds often to up my magnesium (which really helps with hormonal mood issues), but I get so sick of plain old seeds or sun butter on toast. These are great! I also added dark chocolate chips to mine, couldn’t resist ;)
I loved these cookies and so did my 2 and 4 yr old. We are nut free and gluten free so these are perfect! They are also delicious with jam spread on top.
So glad you enjoyed them, Marilyn!
hi there, that’s great recipe. My DS , age 3, has peanut allergy. I see you used 1 egg , his allergic to eggs too. Do you think recipe would work with and egg substitute ? Like apple sauce, vinegar EnerG egg replacer?
This is the same recipe I use for peanut butter cookies. I’ll have to give this a try. I’m sure it’s delicious!
Wayyyyyy too sweet.
I was recently diagnosed with a peanut allergy as an adult, so I’ve been looking for a good peanut butter cookie substitute, and these hit the spot!
Thanks for sharing :)
Saw this and had to try. my son’s school is very health aware and some kids do have nut allergy’s. Only thing I was concerned about was the mixture seemed clumpy to me and oily from the sunflower seed butter I used MaraNath all natural. Is the batter suppose to be like that before you bake them?
I thought it was funny that you mentioned baking for those with a nut allergy and then said to dip the cookie in almond milk.. lol. But I love the recipe! Thanks
I was frantically searching for a last-minute gluten-free cookie recipe for a picnic with my gluten-free sister & family. I had all the ingredients so I went for it! Added about 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips. Super delicious keeper of a recipe! They were a hit all around. Thank you so much!
I love this recipe – an interesting side note, today I ran out of sunbutter and subbed in half a cup of wow butter. The cookies turned out flatter and more reminiscent in appearance to peanut butter cookies.
I just made these with SunButter (registered name) and didn’t realize until I was scooping out the SunButter that it is sweetened. (I’ve been buying unsweetened nut butters for two decades, but I received the SunButter in a gift basket recently and was looking for a way to use it). When I realized that, I decided to use coconut sugar rather than regular sugar (coconut sugar is less sweet). But the cookies were still too sweet. They would NOT be too sweet if the nut butter was pure nut butter or you just cut out some of the sugar (or both — which is what I would do if I make it again) so I’m giving the recipe 4 stars because 1) it’s redeemable and 2) regardless of the sweetness, I’ve managed to eat 4 small cookies quite happily. FYI – you don’t need parchment paper. They are self-greasing of the pan. However you do need to watch the time and oven temp like a hawk. the bottoms would have burned if left more than 10 min