gluten free chocolate bliss
Double Chocolate Chunk Sun butter Cookies
From Naturally Nourished by Sarah Britton
So I unexpectedly got to meet Sarah on a yoga retreat in Mexico last month. It was so cool to run into her! I came home wanting to make all the recipes from her two books. Glancing through her second book, I cam across this recipe and decided to try it. I am not normally a fan of sun butter but thought I would give these cookies a go as they looked so yummy in the book. And to my surprise, they were amazing. Thank you Sarah! I used a natural sun butter that I bought from my local grocery store but any brand would work (or home-made). Just make sure you like the taste of your sun butter as you can definitely taste the ‘sun butter’ in the cookie.
Makes 20 cookies
Ingredients
2 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup / 250ml Sunflower Seed Butter (recipe follows), or use store bought
1⁄2 cup / 125ml pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1⁄2 cup / 45g cocoa powder
3 ½ oz. / 100g dark chocolate (70% or higher), roughly chopped
1 ¼ cups / 170g raw, unsalted, shelled sunflower seeds
Creating the Magic!
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F / 160°C. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Add the seed butter and mix thoroughly. Add the maple syrup, baking soda, and salt and fold together. Sift in the cocoa powder and stir to incorporate. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
3. Place the sunflower seeds in a separate bowl. Wet your hands slightly with water. Spoon the dough into about 20 portions and roll each into a rough ball (the dough will be very wet, but this is normal!).
4. Drop the dough balls into the bowl of seeds and roll to coat them in the seeds. Flatten the balls out slightly and place them on the prepared baking sheet about 2 inches / 5cm apart (they spread a lot!). I used hazelnuts instead if sunflower seeds and it worked great.
5. Bake the cookies for 10 to 13 minutes. Let them cool slightly before serving. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. The cookies were really good just after coming out of the oven…think melt in your mouth!
Sunflower Seed Butter
Makes about 1 ½ cups
Ingredients:
3 cups / 400g raw, unsalted, shelled sunflower seeds
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.
2. Place the sunflower seeds in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet and toast until golden and fragrant, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let cool.
3. Place the cooled sunflower seeds in a food processor and blend, occasionally scraping down the sides, until smooth and creamy (this process can take 10 minutes or more, so be patient). If the seeds are not releasing their oil, add a little olive oil to help the process. Once the mixture is creamy, transfer to a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, and store in the fridge for up to 1 month.