I usually bake cookies on Wednesday for Pizza Day at our school. I have wanted to bake my Peanut Butter Cookies, but our school district is a "peanut-free zone." With greater awareness and sensitivity to student's allergies, today there are more restrictions at schools than ever. But, the moms at school are savvy; they serve sun butter, a sunflower seed product, in place of peanut butter. In fact, last week they were making a batch of sun butter and jelly sandwiches to serve at our Winter Faire. I took a taste and was pleasantly surprised; the texture and flavor are almost the real deal.
So, this morning I experimented by substituting sun butter for peanut butter in my cookie recipe. I made the dough at home; it turned out somewhat wetter than the original, but I decided to leave it as is rather than add flour. Mid-morning, I baked the cookies in the staff lounge where we actually have a stove installed! The aroma wafted throughout the office, then out the front door to announce the promise of cookies after school today. I am happy to report the substitution worked. Although the texture was slightly less dense and the baked cookie was a bit moister using the sun butter, they were hands-down delicious!
8 ounces milk and dark chocolate, chopped
4 ounces butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup sun butter
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 cup flour
3/4 t baking soda
1/4 t sea salt
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream the butter with the sugars until soft and smooth. Beat in the egg, scraping with a rubber spatula. Beat in the sun butter and vanilla extract. Stir in 1/2 cup of the flour with the baking soda and salt. Then, stir in the remaining flour until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the lined cookie sheets, about 1 inch apart. (I don't like crowding my dough; I'd rather take the extra time it takes to bake fewer cookies per sheet.) Then with lightly wet hands, roll each mound into a ball. With a fork, lightly press the dough by making a cross-hatch design on each flattened cookie. Bake two sheets at a time. After 8 minutes, change the positions of the sheets, from top to bottom and from back to front. Bake another 7 minutes. Total baking time is minutes. Carefully remove the baked cookies to a rack to cool.
*You can always use peanut butter to make the original recipe. It makes a lighter and dryer cookie. I don't know which one I like better!
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