One Last Halloween Recipe: Ghoulish Green Sunflower Coconut Cookies

I'm not ready to say goodbye to Halloween just yet. I know, I know, I need to start concentrating on Thanksgiving and even Hanukkah, but I'm just not ready! Superstorm Sandy has put many people's lives on hold and in many areas Halloween has been postponed for the weekend. I wish we postponed Halloween for the weekend so that I had some time to get my act together.

When I'm not cooking and writing for the blog, I actually have a 9-5 job. I work for an Internet retailer of consumer products and Q4 (Oct, Nov, Dec) is our most busy time. As we head into the depths of our busy season, I'm finding it pretty hard to balance my family, my house, my blog, and my overall responsibilities. Something had to go this year and since my daughter is 3 and doesn't really understand, we kind of skipped Halloween this year.

Growing up, I couldn't wait to go trick-or-treating to collect large grocery bags of candy. One year, in Brooklyn, I filled 2 whole bags of sweet, sour, and even salty confections. Since my first trick-or-treating experience was when I was 6, I'm thinking I can still hide our daughter from this ritual for a couple of more years. I'm glad to get reprieve from figuring out how to allow her to enjoy this important American pastime and how to get her to trade candy for something more healthy.

To trade the "good" stuff for some actual good stuff, I have prepared for her a fun recipe: Ghoulish Green Sunflower Coconut Cookies. These cookies are made with no sugar and no eggs, plus they are gluten and grain free (just a little baking powder). Interesting fact: Sunflower seeds contain acid called chlorogenic acid and, when mixed with baking soda under certain temperatures, it will cause the sunflower seeds to turn green. This is a totally harmless chemical reaction that creates a wonderfully fun looking and tasty Haloween cookie! 

I adapted the recipe from a cookbook I recently bought, Nourishing Meals, by Alissa Segersten & Tom Malterre. Tom gave a talk for the Institute for Integrative Nutrition about the Elimination Diet that I love and they also have a blog, The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, that I absolutely love. The book features lots of healthy gluten free recipes including smoothies, entrees, cookies, and pies. The recipe for Coconut Almond Sugar Cookies caught my eye, but I had run out of almond flour and had just soaked and dehydrated sunflower seeds, so I decided to substitute. The result is a delicious nutty sugar free, gluten free, vegan cookie that will satisfy any little monster.


Ghoulish Green Sunflower Coconut Cookies

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup Sunflower Seed Flour (I used this recipe from Empowered Sustenance) 
1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder (corn free)
1/8 tsp Bright Earth Foods Himalayan Salt
6 tbsp Bright Earth Foods Vanilla Coconut Oil
6 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 tsp lemon zest
25-30 drops of stevia

Process:
1. Mix all dry ingredients in a food process with an s-blade, pulsing for 90 seconds

2. Add wet ingredients and mix until a lump of dough is formed

3. Remove ball of dough and refrigerate for 1 hour

4. Either roll out dough between two sheets of unbleached parchment paper to desired thickness or using a small ice cream scoop create walnut sized balls

5. If rolling dough, use a cooking cutter to cut out shapes. If using walnut size balls, then press down until flat on parchment paper

6. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes

7. Let cool (cookies will turn green once they cool)

8. Enjoy!


Shared at: Too Many Jars in the Kitchen