The words “healthy” and “cookies” seem to be 2 words that should not pair up together but I decided that I wanted to take up that challenge and develop a recipe that would ally them and that I could have as breakfast or as a mid morning snack.

When I was looking for inspiration of healthier version of biscuits, cookies and cakes, a lot came out with bananas, oats, peanut butter and/or nuts which was not ideal given my allergy to most nuts and my boyfriend being allergic to bananas…

This is when I started experimenting with my latest food discovery: seed butter. A colleague of mine told me about it when I said to her that I was missing the flavor of peanut butter and she told me: “why don’t you try seed butter instead?”. Indeed, why didn’t I!?

After that discussion, I managed to source some sunflower seed butter 🌻 and pumpkin seed butter from Amazon (Got it from the brand Biona but you can get them from the Meridian brand too). I would probably venture into making my own butters once I manage to get a more sturdy blender but until then, I’m just glad to be able to buy them online! I also have tahini at home (sesame butter) that I use to make humus but I find that it has quite a strong taste baked into biscuits so personally not my preferred choice for baking!

If I had to rank the flavor strength of each butter it would go something like this (from mildest to strongest flavor):

Pumkin seed butter < sunflower seed butter < peanut butter (or how I remember it!) < tahini

For my recipe, I decided to opt for the sunflower seed butter. I also decided to cut down on refined sugar so I’ve been using maple syrup instead (I love that stuff🍁) and dried apricots to sweeten my cookies. Then for the crunch, I swapped the nuts for pumpkin seeds.

So let me share my final result with you now 🙂👩🏽‍🍳🍪 Soft gluten free cookies with crunchy seeds and sweet nuggets of dried apricots coming up!

My sunflower seed butter cookies (nut free)🌻🍪

Servings: 7

Time required: 30 minutes

Level of difficulty: Easy

Equipment required: baking tray

Ingredients

• 70 g buckwheat flour
• 70 g jumbo oats
• 60 g sunflower seed butter
• 30 g pumpkin seeds
• 40 g maple syrup
• 7 dried apricots (~50g)
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp of baking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C (fan assisted)
2. Mix the sunflower seed butter, maple syrup and egg in bowl
3. Chop the apricots in small pieces and add them into the wet mixture
4. Add in the flour, oats, baking powder and stir thoroughly until fully combined
5. Spray some oil on the baking tray then using 2 tablespoons, form the cookies flattened slightly (~8 cm diameter, 1 cm height)
6. Bake them in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden
7. Let them cool down slightly before enjoying them with a cup of tea or a glass of milk! ☕🥛

They are not super sweet as I don’t like overly sweet bakes anyway, but you could definitely add more apricots or maple syrup to your taste. Next time I will try with some 85% dark chocolate pieces instead of the dried fruits I think, that will make them low FODMAP on top of gluten free and nut free! 🍪🤤

You can keep them for 3-4 days in an air tight container but it is best enjoyed warm out of the oven! Pretty happy with myself overall, I will probably try to experiment more with butters and fillings next time but this is definitely a good starting point!✅