These colorful Sunbutter Oatmeal Cookies are made with sunflower seed butter! They’re a great nut-free alternative to peanut butter cookies.
It’s been well-established on this blog that I am extremely fond of peanut butter.
I like to make it myself. I also like to stir it into oatmeal for breakfast with some chocolate and call it healthy.
It also ends up in a lot of awesome bar recipes.
However, I never put much thought into all those poor, innocent souls who are allergic to peanut butter. I can’t imagine such a tragedy, but did you know that approximately three million people in the U.S. are allergic to peanuts? (Yes, I did just look that up on Wikipedia.)
Now, those people, well, I couldn’t do it. Peanut butter is easily one of my most used kitchen ingredients, next to chocolate. Usually together.
But let’s be real: they don’t have much of a choice. Even I would choose peanut avoidance over anaphylactic shock. At least now though, other nut butters are on the rise.
I do love almond butter, but its texture is less than ideal for baking. Sunbutter, on the other hand, has the same texture as peanut butter!
What is sun butter?
Sunbutter is a nut butter made out of sunflower seeds! It definitely has that earthy sunflower seed taste, and it tastes so good spread onto English muffins, stirred into oatmeal, and oh yeah, baked into cookies.
The people over at Sunbutter don’t know me, this isn’t a sponsored post – it’s just a product I find awesome for people with peanut allergies, and considering all the peanut butter recipes I do around here, I wanted to suggest an alternative.
I know so many schools are peanut-free now, because for some odd reason the amount of kids with peanut allergies is increasing over time (thanks again Wikipedia), so these sunbutter oatmeal cookies are perfect for lunchboxes!
You could definitely sub it in for some of my peanut butter recipes, or for this recipe, if you don’t have allergies (woohoo!) and can’t get your hands on any Sunbutter, you can definitely sub peanut butter in here.
I love the color that comes from the chocolate covered sunflower seeds, which I found at Trader Joe’s, but chocolate chips would work great here!
These sunbutter oatmeal cookies are chewy on the inside, with the slightest crunch around the outside. The flavor of the Sunbutter (or peanut butter, whatever floats your boat) really shines through!
Hope you enjoy!
Sunbutter Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
- ½ cup Sunbutter or creamy peanut butter
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅔ cup old-fashioned oats
- ⅔ cup chocolate-covered sunflower seeds or chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and Sunbutter until smooth. Beat in the egg until well blended.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, oatmeal, and chocolate-covered sunflower seeds; stir into the creamed mixture. Refrigerate for at least two hours or up to five days in a bowl covered in plastic wrap.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Use a cookie scoop to form cookies and place, evenly spaced about 2-inches apart, on a parchment-lined baking sheet; press down slightly.
- Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the outsides are set and the middle is just beginning to set. Don’t over-bake. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. They should be soft. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Sunbutter can be found at most grocery stores or ordered online here. Chocolate covered sunflower seeds were found at Trader Joe’s. They can be replaced with chocolate chips!
- Sunbutter can tend to have a weird reaction with some environments and can turn a slight greenish color if overbaked. Don’t be alarmed! They’ll still taste the same, it’s just something that happens if the Sunbutter oxidizes.
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Hi Rachel! I made these today with homemade sunflower seed butter. My homemade “sunbutter” was probably a little oiler than store-bought, so the cookies were a little on the oily side. Note to others: be sure you follow directions and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes prior to moving to a cooling rack (I got antsy and broke a few cookies). Nevertheless, they taste great! Great creativity! Thanks for the recipe.
So glad that you liked them, and it’s good to know they worked with homemade Sunbutter as well!
I just made these and they came out FABULOUS! I substituted coconut palm sugar for brown sugar,GF Super Flour for flour, Chocolate chips Dairy free semi-sweet and dark for the chocolate covered sunflower seeds and I used a different brand of sunflower seed butter! I love the slight salty taste mixed with the chocolate chips! I am not a huge fan of sunflower seed butter as a spread but it works beautifully in these cookies :)
I also used salted butter because I was out of unsalted which is why they came out slightly sweet&salty but I still love them!
Woohoo! So glad that you liked them, and thanks for commenting to let everyone know that the recipe works well with the changes you made, in case anyone was wondering.
Why can’t I view your recipes anymore? When I look at your site it’s all a jumbled mess. I hope this will be fixed soon. I wanted to make these cookies, but it took forever to ind the candied sunflower seeds…now that I have them I can’t see the recipe :(
Hi Jamie, how odd! I can’t imagine why you can’t view my site anymore. What browser were you using, and what platform (phone, computer, etc.)? If you’d like, I can send you the recipe over email.
I was surprised to see that this page links to peanutfreeplanet on a site for dog treats! Why the weird URL? http://www.peanutfreeplanet.com/Dog_Treat_p/sunbuttercreamy.htm Otherwise, what a great recipe!
How weird! This is an older post, and I have no idea how that happened because that was definitely not the original link. It’s now updated!
I read somewhere that baking soda reacts with sunflower seeds ( namely chlorophyll) and gives out the greenish color. Question is if we leave out the soda, will my cookies be still good? Any other substitutes?
Hi Sandy. Without baking soda, the cookies will probably be a lot flatter since baking soda helps the cookies rise. Nothing is a great substitute for baking soda in cookies. The green color only affects looks, not taste at all. I can’t make any guarantees about how the cookies will turn out without baking soda.
biggest cock tease ever. wait 5 days??????? bullshit. even 2 hours is too long. recipe should state prep time in specs.
Hi Stan. You don’t NEED to refrigerate for 5 days – only two hours, but if you want to prep the dough 5 days ahead of time, you can. You can bake immediately but the cookies will spread more and be thinner because the dough hasn’t had time to firm up.
that was unnecessary. not bakerita’s fault you can’t read
Hello. Would love to bake these cookies. Could you please help confirm how many cookies this recipe makes?
These are fantastic! Quick and easy to make. I have been eating sunflower seed butter for years. I had a recipe for cookies without oatmeal but wanted one with. They make great ice cream sandwiches too.
So glad you’re loving them, Ir! Thanks so much for your feedback :D
Looking forward to baking the dough that is now chilling in my fridge on this Valentine’s during-a-polar-vortex-in-the-middle-of-pandemic Day!!
I’ve looked everywhere in the recipe & can’t find info. about what amount of dough to drop for each cookie, how far apart to drop the dough & how many cookies the recipe will yield. I’m going to wing it this time, but would love to have that info. updated in the recipe for next time. Thx for posting a recipe for peanut allergic folks such as my son & I.
Hi Angela! I will add that info to the recipe :) I hope they turned out well and that you’re staying warm!!
These were awesome! I couldn’t find those sunflower candies so I topped them w sprinkles. I made them with regular peanut butter, soy free earth balance, white rice flour and Egg-replacer. Not sure if it was the ingredients I used, but they cooked better when I didn’t refrigerate the batter, which worked out so we didn’t have to wait to cook and eat them!! Great way to get my kiddo added protein! Thanks!!
Thanks for the feedback, Kelly!