MAPLE-SUNBUTTER COOKIES {gluten-free, nut-free, vegan}
Just to push all those savory-salty-sweet buttons like a good peanut butter cookie! I’ve tried this recipe with all sorts of gluten free flours, oils, and sweeteners. However, maple syrup is my favorite! The choice of oil seems to make less of a difference. I give a couple of options below. If you opt for coconut oil, be sure it is melted. Like butter, it solidifies at cooler temps and will seize up into little chunks when it meets a cold substance (like refrigerated maple syrup!).
Dry Ingredients:
1 cup sorghum flour (or brown rice flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 heaping teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup sunflower seed butter
1/2 cup pure maple syrup (I used grade A, but I bet grade B would be even better)
3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil (melted), olive oil, or organic canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- In a large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Add the dry mix to the wet mix and stir until evenly moistened. Allow the dough to rest a minute or two.
- Using a tablespoon, drop the dough onto the cookie sheet and give each mound a gentle press to barely flatten into disks.
- Bake 9-11 minutes, depending on your cookie personality: soft vs crumbly.
Yield: About 1 dozen
LARA SHOLL LIFESTYLE 
Yum! I made a couple of batches, one with vegan chocolate chips too!
I wanted to make naturally green cookies for my environmental students for fun. I lessened the baking soda for the green to appear. Great recipe!
Juliet, I’m so glad you liked them! I can’t remember if I mentioned in the post or not that sometimes the centers turn green. Do you know why this happens?! If I used more baking soda would it go away? Thanks so much for the comment.
I first noticed the green once when I returned to a knife in the sink that I used to spread my sunbutter on some toast and it was green! Of course, I flipped out! But looking it up, I came across this about chlorogenic acid.
From sunbutter’s website: http://www.sunbutter.com/blog/celebrating-st-patrick’s-day-with-green-sunbutter-cookies/
It talks about the baking soda in there.
So good to know why this happens and how to possibly prevent it. Thanks for the info.
Looks like a delicious recipe, and I have most of the ingredients! I’ve never used sorghum flour or xanthan gum – do those have specific properties you chose them for? Would quinoa flour make a decent substitute? thanks for getting the recipes out there!
Hi Alex, thanks for the comment. I think quinoa flour would probably work fine. The cookies might set up a little differently and they would definitely have that distinctive grassy flavor from the quinoa, which I personally really like. I use sorghum flour interchangeably with brown rice flour. It has a nutty, whole-grain flavor and color that reminds me a lot of whole-wheat, but gluten-free. Xanthan gum adds elasticity to gluten-free baked goods, which tend to be really crumbly because of the missing gluten. Xanthan gum can be a little pricey. However, a small amount lasts a really long time and really makes a huge textural difference. I hope this helps! Please let me know how they turn out!