These are some of the best low carb chocolate chip cookies you will ever taste! Made with sunflower seed butter and sunflower seed flour, they are chewy and crisp and nut-free.
Selling a house might seriously be one of the most unpleasant experiences in the modern world. It’s up there with having a root canal without anaesthesia, or having your fingernails pulled out. You could honestly use it as a form of torture, I think. It would be quite effective as such, driving your enemies to utter distraction and making them beg for mercy. I am about at that point, about to cry uncle and just go and rock back and forth in a corner somewhere, muttering to myself and sucking my thumb. And it’s not one big issue that’s the problem; it’s all the little teeny peeny issues that suck up your time and get you nowhere and you wonder how you managed to waste half a day chasing your tail. There are lots of them, those teeny issues and they add up and pile on until you buckle under their weight. I’d love to just say “Here’s my house, this is what it will cost you and no, I am not making any changes to it before you move in”. But that’s not quite how it works when large sums of money are on the line.
So blah! Urgh! Argh! Gaaaaahhhhhhhh! Consider this my little crazy house-selling-agony rant and let me get it out of my system. I will tell you all about these cookies in just a moment but let me kick a few things and punch a few walls before I do. Or rather, punch a few pillows so I don’t put any holes in my walls before we close on the house.
Okay, moving on. Cookies…delicious warm chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven that taste like your childhood but don’t send you into a carb-laden tailspin. I have a couple of good low carb chocolate chip cookie recipes on All Day I Dream About Food and I am mighty proud of them. But I love experimenting and when I got a bag of sunflower seed flour, I could hardly wait to play around with it. Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to revamp an old recipe I made for my kids that contained Sunbutter and whole wheat flour, to make it low carb and gluten-free. The cookies surpassed my expectations by far and the whole family has become huge fans. They were soft and chewy and had amazing flavour. And I can send them into school because they are nut-free.
What I wasn’t expecting was for my first batch of cookies to turn green. They came out of the oven nice and brown but slowly turned green over the next 24 hours. Weird, but true. They were so tasty I took pictures of them anyway and figured that just might be the way of cookies made with sunflower seed flour. But the second batch never turned green at all, not even a little bit. A little research indicated that it is a reaction with leavening agents such as baking soda and baking powder. The second batch of cookies, the non-green ones, was made with just a little baking powder. Perhaps using powder and keeping it to the minimum made the difference. Who knows? But either way, green or not, these are seriously good cookies.
Please check out my low carb Sunbutter Chocolate Chip Cookies on A Sweet Life.
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Louise Brandt says
I have read on other KETO food blogs that it is the aluminium in the baking powder that causes the green color. Buy ALUMINIUM FREE baking powder to avoid the green.
Carolyn says
Well those blogs would be wrong, actually. I always use aluminum free baking powder. And baking soda, which contains no aluminum, also causes the reaction. It’s a reaction between the ALKALI (which both baking soda and baking powder are) and the chlorogenic acid in the seeds. That is why a tablespoon of acid, which is the opposite of an alkaline substance, offsets the reaction.
So yeah… you might want to not trust those food blogs, if that’s the kind of info they are dispensing. A quick Google search proves it to be untrue.
Yazmin says
Hmm…wondering if this recipe might need a teeny bit more tweaking, if only for corrections? While of course it is a no brainer to add the “flour”, I have learned from experience to assume nothing, and that little step has been omitted. Usually the recipes are infallible, but for some reason this one didn’t make the suggested 2 dozen, and I ended up with 18. Also, there was no way I was going to be able to roll them amd push them down with my hand. I used 2 teaspoons to scoop the cookies on to the tray. Double checked my ingredient list twice before trying them amd the only substitution I made was using a half and half combo of tahini/rainforest butter. I also added 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar to counteract the green scene. 18 minutes later in convection…the oils didn’t separate in these and the taste? Duh-lishious. Soft and chewy centers, crispy edges, just enough choco chips and a caramelly-ness from the tahini. These recipes have never failed and I am extremely grateful for all the work done to ease this diabetic journey. Many, many thanks.
Jennifer says
I don’t know what I did wrong…as soon as I mixed in the sunflower flour the dough kind of separated and got oily?? Cookies are cooling now… we’ll see how they taste?
Yvonne says
I just made those. This is very very good! Your recipes never disappoint.
Jen @ LowCarbFoods.org says
I love eating roasted slightly salted sunflower seeds, but I never thought of using them to make cookies :). I’ll try to bake those over the weekend as they really look delicious.
Caroline Gamble says
Oh thank goodness! Carolyn, I made your chocolate chip coffee cake last week, in which I substituted sunflower seed flour for the standard almond flour. I pulled the pan out of the oven, set it on the stove to cool, and when I returned an hour later, the cake was green! I was convinced it was a crazy, mutant express-growth mold – so convinced I didn’t consider researching the issue – and you know what? I ate the whole darn thing anyway. That’s how good it was! (…and how stubborn I am when it comes to wasting my Amazon ingredients.) So now, thanks to your colorful surprise, I understand why I survived my own.
Carolyn says
I TOTALLY get the stubbornness on wasting expensive ingredients. Apparently a tablespoon of lemon juice can help offset the green. I plan to try that.
linda says
Hi Carolyn – I was going to make Sunflower Seed Flour and Sunflower Seed Butter but then realized I should be able to start with simply raw sunflower seeds. Do you think 1 1/2 cup of seeds could substitute for the 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sunflower butter in this recipe?
Carolyn says
To get the right consistency, you really need to make the butter first. To make half a cup of sunflower seed butter, you need about 1 cup of sunflower seeds. So a bit more than you think.
Lorraine says
Your Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies are our favorites, but I’ll have to try these, they look amazing!
Carolyn says
I love those ones too, but these are softer and chewier. I guess it depends on which you want at that time!
Becky says
Selling a house has got to be the worst. One time we were going through this when we had three little ones. I used to hate when a realtor would call (usually during nap time) to ask if she/he could bring by someone to tour. After I would say sure and ask when they would be coming, it would be revealed that they were already parked in our driveway!
Wishing you much luck!
PLUS, these cookies look wonderful. Where do you get sunflower seed flour?
Becky says
Whoops, just saw the links above as to where to order! Thanks!
Alyssa (Everyday Maven) says
Moving is so hard! It will be over soon and you will be basking in all of the grey and mist of the PNW in the winter ;). I know a lot of people who use the baking soda/powder and sunbutter trick to intentionally make green goodies around St. Pat’s day!
Amber says
Aw, sending you lots of empathy! Hang in there! And these cookies look great. We’ve been wanting a good cookie recipe and all your recipes are delicious! We tried your roasted veggies and dipping sauce for dinner last night, in fact. Very yummy! I had to sub the frozen broccoli, squash, cauliflower medley from Costco because for some reason fresh cauliflower is really expensive in Oregon right now! But, the kids actually thought the broccoli was their favorite of the veggies and the flavor/spices was YUMMY! Plus that dipping sauce …. mmmm! 🙂
Keep your chin up … soon you’ll be settled and this will all be wrapped up!
~Amber
Sarah G says
Oh my! I have to make these ASAP! LOVE, LOVE sunflower seeds!
Surely these lovelies will get your house sold instantly once the buyer smells them. No more complaints or “fix this, change that”. Instead it will be, “Please bring these cookies to closing.” Well, that’s what I would say anyway. 🙂 Hope it all gets ironed out soon!
Carolyn says
Thanks, Sarah!
Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom says
Carolyn, I feel your pain sister! What I hated was trying to keep the house clean and having to walk out with a moments notice when people wanted to come see the house. . well, hang in there!!! and eat lots of these cookies in the meantime. . ok, I just recently bought sunbutter and LOVE it but my kids, not so much?! I couldn’t believe they didn’t like it! well, more for me! Happy Halloween!!
Carolyn says
My kids don’t like it on its own either…try it in cookies, it’s awesome!
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
Hey now! Green cookies are ALL the rage right now. Maybe. I might be lying. But it is Halloween!
I hope your house shenanigans go better! At least you have delicious cookies to help make it bearable! Pinned!
Carolyn says
OMG, you’re right. I totally could have played up the Halloween aspect of the green cookies!
Susan says
You have my sympathies! I do think that moving, which includes the process of buying and selling, is considered one of the top life stressors, in the company of those like death and divorce and illness. And to think how it could go if …People. Would. Just. Do. Their. Jobs. Good luck!
Carolyn says
You nailed it, Susan. My biggest frustration has been chasing down people who don’t get back to me and trying to get them to stay on track!