Last week I made no peanut squares using sunflower seed butter. For that recipe I used purchased sunflower butter. What surprised me later when I was reading the fine fine print on the jar was that there was a warning about possible peanuts in processing. Are you kidding me? Why would you have a no peanut type product that has been possibly exposed to peanuts?
That label really irritated me and the thought that an innocent person could be seriously hurt if I had taken those bars out to a public location was not okay. Thank goodness I could read the small print on the label, but what about others who are not so diligent? What about those people who assume that sunflower seed butter as an alternative to peanut butter would be safe to serve?
Can you tell this really got my goat?
Well it did.
Today I picked up organic raw sunflower seeds at my local organic grocery store and set about to make some peanut free sunflower seed butter. Being that I am very sensitive to gluten, I really do clean my baking products very well and felt that this butter would be peanut free.
I did a lot of research on sunflower seed butter on the internet and the recipes out there seemed all the same. Some had more oil and sugar then I would care to use, so I varied the amounts to what I like.
Gluten-Free Vegan Sunflower Seed Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups sunflower seeds (organic and raw is what I used)
- 5-6 tbsp canola oil
- Pinch maldon sea salt
- 2 tbsp Agave syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spread sunflower seeds onto a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
- Watch closely and stir every 5 minutes.
- Let seeds cool for a few minutes.
- Add sunflower seeds to food processor and process seeds until chunky paste forms.
- While food processor is running add 1 Tbsp of canola oil at a time until mixture becomes creamy.
- For me it was 6 Tbsp of oil.
- Stream in 1 Tbsp of agave at a time.
- Again for me I used 2 Tbsp.
- I also added a pinch of maldon sea salt to the butter.
- Transfer butter to a jar and store in fridge.
I ended up making 2 batches of the sunflower seed butter. I knew this week I was going to make sunflower seed butter cookies and did not want to run out. The taste of this butter is so good. I hope you give it a try, for it is really easy to make. And again, you know exactly what ingredients are in the foods that you serve your family.
Sunflower seed butter is also fairly inexpensive to make, the whole 2 batches cost me $5.00
