Fancy Sunflower Seed Cookies – Gluten-free and Healthy

These sunflower seed cookies really are fancy, delicious and healthy too! They are gluten-free, refined sugar-free and vegan which means there are no eggs used. Often cookies are made with lots of butter, white flour and white sugar which are not healthy ingredients. I have developed them with healthy ingredients and no starch.

All of the ingredients I used have great health benefits too.

Coconut oil is actually coconut oilvery good for us. In tropical climates like Polynesia, Sri Lanka and the Yucatan where they have a diet high in coconut oil, the people are healthier, have less heart disease, cancer, and colon problems than unsaturated fat eaters. It is now accepted that there is good cholesterol and there are good saturated fats. Learn the 12 benefits of  Coconut Oil, this newly declared an Amazing SuperFood.

I like to use coconut sugar as it is one of the healthiest sugars. It is made from the sap of coconut flowers by boiling it down to dry sugar blocks or a soft paste or a granulated form. Coconut sugar contains a higher amount of nutrients compared to brown sugar as it has some amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, chlorine, magnesium, sulfur, and micronutrients.

Sunflower Seed Cookies - Gluten-free
Sunflower seeds

The main crunchiness in these cookies is the delicious nutty sunflower seeds. They are a popular snack that is undervalued.  They may be small but sunflower seeds are a dense source of nutrients and full of extraordinary health benefits. They are for sure a healthy superfood.

One of the binding ingredients is flax seeds which are a great substitute for eggs in baking9 Egg Substitutes for Tasty Vegan Baking Without Eggs.

The flaxseed has only been recognized for all the wonderful health benefits in the last few decades even though it has been cultivated for their health benefits for 5000 years!  Learn all about Flaxseed and It’s Many Health Benefits and Uses.

For this recipe and all my recipes, I use Himalayan salt which is actually good for you!

I often use stevia which is the sweetening healthy option so less of the healthier sugar is used.  The stevia plant is incredibly sweet and also incredibly good for you.  The leaf is 30 times sweeter than sugar while extracts are 300-400 times sweeter.  The best stevia will, therefore, be the one that retains some whole food value and is water-based.  Liquid forms will be less processed.  Go here to learn How to Get the Best Stevia Without the Bitterness

Brown Rice Flour has become a staple in my gluten-free baking adding fiber and nutrition.   It assists in weight loss, helps reduce cholesterol and balances energy.  It is low cost and adds a somewhat dry gritty crumbly texture.

Oats are a low-calorie grain that provides high levels of fiber and low levels of fat.  It helps tp stabilizes blood sugar and reduces the risk of diabetes while removing bad cholesterol.

If you want gluten-free oats, here is a very good one Harvest Gluten Free Organic Rolled Old Fashioned Oats which is good for cooked oatmeal porridge. For making a crumble, it is better to have one like this: Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Quick Cooking Rolled Oats

Pumpkin seeds are so good that I add them to many of my meals. The bonus nutrient value is that they are the only seed that is alkaline-forming.

Almonds are very tasty and so beneficial for our health. They are my favourite nut; most mornings I add 7 to 10 almonds to my breakfast.

Adding a few raisins that are unsweetened and unsulfured adds some more sweetness to these delicious cookies. Raisins are a healthy, tasty food when eaten in moderation. They are a good source of nutrients and add a tasty sweetness to desserts and snacks. According to Medical News Today, they have many health benefits.

Sunflower Seed Cookies - Gluten-free
Fancy Sunflower Seed Cookies – Gluten-free and Healthy

Sunflower Seed Cookies

Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian
Keyword cookies, Gluten-free
Servings 28
Author Diana Herrington

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup virgin coconut oil *melted
  • 1/2 cup coconut sugar ground finely
  • 1/4 tsp light liquid stevia
  • 2 Tbsp golden flax meal ground flaxseeds
  • 1/4 cup warm water
  • 2/3 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/3 cup rolled oats
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2/3 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/3 cup almonds
  • 1/2 cup raisins unsulfured, unsweetened

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 325º F
  • Add warm water to the flax meal in a small bowl and mix; let it sit for 5 minutes.
  • Combine the coconut oil, sugar, vanilla, stevia, and salt in a bowl until creamy.
  • Add the flax meal mixture to the coconut oil mixture and mix well.
  • Then mix in the brown rice flour and baking powder.
  • Mix in the oatmeal, raisins, seeds, and nuts.
  • Make little one inch mounds, place each of them on a coconut greased baking sheet and flatten each one.
  • Bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Take them out of the oven and let them cool before removing them from the sheet.

Notes

*Melt the coconut oil on very low heat until it is liquid.
Makes 28 – 30 cookies

** This is for an egg-free vegan recipe, learn more about Eggs Substitutes.

More recipes with sunflower seeds for you:

sunflower seeds
Sunflower seeds roasted in tamari

 Healthy Carrot Salad with Black Currants and Sunflower Seeds – a very tasty carrot salad made extra good with the currants and sunflower seeds.  Also, it is filling too.

 Simple Nutritious Spinach Salad with Sunflower Seeds – What a delicious way to get those greens into our meals with this salad.  This spinach salad is super nutritious and with only 2 main ingredients, it is a fast salad to make.

Toasted Sunflower Seeds – A favourite of mine is to have toasted sunflower seeds in my pantry to add to meals or snacks.  When I make toasted sunflower seeds, I make lots and keep them around for sprinkling on salads, steamed vegetables or on grain like brown rice or quinoa. This is very simple as long as you stir them consistently.

 Raw Trail Mix – Raw trail mix is a healthy way to go. Whenever I read the label on a trail mix in a store, they always, in my opinion, have unhealthy ingredients in them (sugar-coated dried fruit) and are not very digestible.  All the ingredients are healthy and made to be digestible.  Best of all this is a very yummy mixture. 

 Millet & Buckwheat with Sunflower Seeds – This Millet & Buckwheat recipe is a favorite of mine; it is very yummy and mostly alkaline.  The buckwheat with its full flavour enhances the very light flavour of the millet.

Healthy Baking

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  • Sinfully Delicious and Healthy Too!
  • Wouldn’t it be great to eat cookies and tarts like you did as a child, innocently enjoying the sweetness and textures without worrying about the downside?

Get the skills and knowledge to create healthy baking with the Healthy Baking Course. Go here Healthy Baking Course to check it out.

vital healt assessment

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3 thoughts on “Fancy Sunflower Seed Cookies – Gluten-free and Healthy”

  1. Not having much luck creaming coconut sugar. It’s turned clumpy with coconut oil slurry. Help?

  2. 1 star
    These sound perfect for me however, when I tried to cream sugar, oil, vanilla and one other ingred. It just became a clumpy mess. The sugar became a glob and the oil would not mix in. I would like to try again if I can get better results.

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