The peanut butter cookie rescue

Twas the weekend before Christmas, and all through your house your relatives, and their various special diets, and food allergies are hanging about. 

When what to your wondering eye should appear, but your favorite peanut butter cookie recipe that you’ve always held so dear.  Alas, you know that if you were to make it this year, there would arise such a clatter, with calls of “why are you trying to kill your young cousins!”

So, back into the cupboard you stash your ingredients; only to later make a wish to good ole St. Nick, that there could be a way to still have a taste of those warm peanutty cookies……

Well, Merry Christmas folks, because here’s the answer to your peanut butter troubles.  I like to call it the “Tale of the peanut butter cookie rescue.”

If you’re honestly trying to figure out how to make your usual spread of holiday cookies, while also avoiding triggering one of the many allergies your extended family has, then you need look no further than your local grocery store’s shelves.  While what I suggest here may not solve all of your family’s food issues, what I found at this year’s IFT17 Food Expo, in Las Vegas, will help you hang on to your favorite peanut butter cookies.

What I learned is that those pesky peanuts can be swapped out for sunflower seeds instead. Crazy, right?  Yeah, I know.

Now, before you close that window, and declare this site to be fake news, hear me out.  While it’s true that sunflower seeds by themselves don’t taste like peanuts, when they’re turned into sunflower seed butter, the results shockingly do taste exactly like peanut butter.  Yet another thing to file under, “Weird, but true.”

I sampled some this at the SunButter booth this summer, and was amazed.  I’m a Skippy peanut butter fan myself, but was happily shocked to find Sunflower butter is just as creamy as I would expect peanut butter to be.  So much so, that if I had done a blind taste test, I would have sworn it was made with peanuts instead. The texture, taste, and color, all match, but there really are sunflower seeds in there instead.

With only about a day before Christmas to go, you can still get SunButter in time, because it’s sold at Sprouts and Whole Foods of course, but it is also sold at regular grocery stores like Ralphs as well.  I’ve spotted it in the peanut butter aisle in several stores, so all you have to do is make a quick grocery run, and then start whipping up your batter.  One minor note to make though, since you’re using a different product (aka a seed butter instead) you may have to make a minor adjustment with the baking powder in your recipe (according to the product website you have to decrease it a bit).  For more details, or to check out their version of a sunbutter (aka peanut butter) cookie recipe follow this link.  As you’ll see there, they even come with that traditional fork crisscross imprint.  While you’re there you can read up on more recipe ideas, and product details.

Merry Christmas Everyone, and make sure to share those cookies with Santa too.  Oh, and thanks to Clement Clarke Moore for this little poem’s inspiration.