Sunbutter Cookies

Here's an easy gluten-free cookie recipe made with sunflower butter- a post-modern peanut-free take on those retro peanut butter cookies your Aunt Lizzie used to make. You know, with those jars of Skippy peanut butter (or was it Jif?).

Instead of using traditional peanut butter in this recipe, I used sunflower butter, which has a golden nutty flavor not unlike peanut butter, but slightly different. Kinda like peanut butter's wacky, geeky brother. You know, slightly nutty. Fun. Like a bright new bike.

And they taste so good you just might want some more. Now, please.

I adapted this recipe from a peanut butter cookie recipe (submitted by Erin Smith) to Beyond Rice Cakes, an easy, fun cookbook (especially for teens and students) by Vanessa Maltin, director of outreach and programming at the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness.

Sunbutter Cookies Recipe

These tasty nibbles are gluten-free, grain-free, milk-free, peanut-free and soy-free. Phew. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah. And they're tender-scrumptious.

Ingredients:

1 cup chilled natural sunflower butter

1 cup organic light brown sugar, packed

2 organic free-range eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon bourbon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

A small pinch of sea salt, if the sunbutter is salt-free

See options below for add-in ideas.

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Combine the chilled sunflower butter, light brown sugar and beaten eggs in a mixing bowl. Add vanilla, baking soda and salt; mix well with a wooden spoon.

If the Sunbutter you use is too wet, your dough may end up being too loose (this is why I chill it). Add a tablespoon  or two of brown rice flour to the dough, if you need to.

Pull off pieces of the dough with oiled hands and roll into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet. Using a fork, press the balls slightly to make a criss-cross pattern- making the cookies roughly 1 1/2 inches. Note: If the dough is still not stiff enough to do this, wrap and refrigerate for an hour to stiffen the consistency.

Place the baking sheet into the center of a preheated oven and bake for 9 to 10 minutes, until they are golden and set. They will be soft until they cool. Cool the sheet on a rack for a minute or two before removing the cookies to a cooling rack.

This recipe- as is- makes about 12 cookies. If you add 1/3 cup of optional add-ins, it makes a few more. Or you could just make bigger cookies. Whatever makes you happy.

Add-in Options:

• Try raisins, as suggested by reader Tricia- thanks Tricia!

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips, or gluten-free white chocolate chips.

• Chopped walnuts, pecans, cashews or macadamia nuts.

• How about pine nuts- for a more "grown-up" cookie?

Notes:

Reader Daisy reports- this recipe works without eggs; use your favorite egg replacer. She also mentions using these cookies crumbled as a crumb crust for cheese cake or pies. Hungry yet?