Dairy-free/Egg-free/Nut-free
PeaNOT. Get it? Like Peanut, but NOT, because it's sunnut butter (or sunflower seed butter, if you're inclined to speak that many syllables, which we're not), so they're peaNOT butter cookies. Ah, life is one hilarious moment after the next.
Truth be told, we made these cookies so long ago (four months!) that we can't remember much about them other than that they tasted good. Really good. As in, flew out of the cookie jar good. And right into the mouths of our children who will not normally entertain the idea of eating sunnut butter. Honestly, these kids absolutely refuse to go near a sunnut butter and jelly sandwich, no matter how empty the refrig is. But let me tell you something, they had no problem going near these cookies.
If memory serves us, the cookies spread out A LOT. In fact... (rummaging through iPhoto) ... Yes! we have a photo or two. And they really did spread out a lot. When you keep an open mind, they look like those lace cookies whose name escapes us right now. Ours turned out crispy and crunchy, and next time we will modify the recipe at will to bring them back to the cookie side.
The original recipe, from the 2008 late-Spring Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer, didn't call for chocolate chips, though that would have been a brilliant upsell for them. Aren't these marketing people ever thinking? It also wasn't allergy safe, so we turned to the usual suspects to substitute for the allergy offenders.
Oh wait a minute, chocolate chips. Maybe that's why the kids liked them so much...
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature (we used Earth Balance)
3/4 cup sunflower seed butter, chilled
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs (we used 1/4 cup plain soy yogurt plus one egg worth of Ener G egg replacer, but didn't "mix" the Ener G egg before adding it)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (Trader Joe's brand, because they're dairy-free/egg-free/nut-free)
Hey, no one said this recipe was good for you.
Steps
- Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl, beat together butter, sunflower seed butter and both sugars until fluffy.
- Beat in eggs and vanilla.
- Gradually beat in flour mixture.
- Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate until well chilled, about 2 to 4 hours.
- Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls with your hands.
- Place about three inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
- Dip a fork in flour and press onto tops of cookies, making a criss-cross pattern on each cookie.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Be careful not to burn the bottoms.
- Cool on baking sheets for a minute, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely before eating.
Makes about 2 to 3 dozen sunflower seed butter cookies. Enjoy with a tall glass of dairy-free milk, and then go running for an hour.
