Sunbutter bites
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Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had a thing for peanut butter. That smooth, nutty butter melts so perfectly in between a slice of toasted whole-grain bread and just-ripened banana slices, or on a square of dark chocolate that is dipped into the PB jar when nobody is looking.
And then I discovered a new love: sunbutter. Made of roasted sunflower seeds, it resembles the appearance and texture of PB, but with a milder, toasty flavour. With less saturated fat and a higher protein, iron and fiber content, it is the perfect base for my new health snack. You can buy sunbutter in most grocery stores these days, but making your own is cheap and easy, so why not? I add flax to my version for an extra punch of minerals and omega-3.
Aren’t my new sunbutter bites cute? Eating one of these is like taking a bite of sunshine. Although there are similar vegan brown rice treats floating around the web, I found that most of them don’t hold together very well at room temperature, which means packing them to go is not an option. The use of agar flakes in this recipe solves that problem!
PrintSunbutter bites
Ingredients:
Homemade sunbutter:
- 2 cups hulled sunflower seeds
- 1 tbsp ground flax seeds
- 3 tbsp sunflower or canola oil
- pinch of sea salt
- 1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
Sunbutter bites:
- 1/2 cup sunbutter
- 1/4 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
- 1/4 cup brown rice syrup
- 2 tbsp agar flakes (see notes below)
- 1 1/2 cups crispy brown rice cereal
- 1/2 cup kamut flakes
- 1 cup granola (preferably homemade)
- Optional additions: handful of hemp hearts, dried fruit, poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds, ancient grain cereal flakes,etc.
Directions:
For the sunbutter:
- Toast sunflower seeds until slightly golden.
- Once cooled, put sunflower seeds in a food processor and grind until they become a coarse meal.
- Add the oil, salt and optional maple syrup. Process for about 10 minutes, occasionally stopping the processor to scrap down the sides of the bowl. If it looks too thick, add a tbsp more oil and continue to process. It will eventually become smooth, I promise! Store sunbutter in the refrigerator.
For the sunbutter bites:
- In a medium saucepan, mix together the sunbutter, maple syrup and agar flakes and heat on low, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes to a light boil. Remove from heat.
- Stir in the crispy brown rice cereal, kamut flakes and granola. The mixture should stick together well.
- Spoon the mixture into an 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and refrigerate until firm (about an hour). Cut into bars or squares and enjoy!
Please note that the amount of agar depends on how much oil you used in your homemade sunbutter. If you used little to no oil or if you are using store-bought sunbutter, reduce the agar amount to 1 tbsp.
