Magic Color Changing Sunbutter Cookies for St. Patrick’s Day
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With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, what better way to surprise your kids than with cookies that leprechauns turned green! In case you missed it, there’s this awesome recipe floating around for Sunbutter cookies. When you bake them, they go from golden brown to green inside. It’s magic!
So, grab your kids for a baking experiment, and let’s get started!
What Makes Sunbutter Cookies Turn Green
This recipe is very simple, so it seems like leprechaun magic is what turns them green. But it’s actually science! In other words, you can bake cookies and count it as class time. At least, you should be allowed to do that. Haha!
So, why does this happen? Sunbutter Cookies turn green because of a chemical reaction between the chlorophyll (an acid also known as chlorogenic acid) present in sunflower seeds and baking soda (a base that is also known as sodium bicarbonate). When chlorophyll and baking soda react, the byproduct is called chlorophyllin that is vibrantly green.
Why Didn’t My Cookies Turn Green Right Away?
You will notice when you first pull your cookies out of the oven, they only look a little green in places, but they are definitely still golden brown. They most likely don’t look like the pictures. Let them cool completely. Even then, the outsides are probably not this insanely green.
However, once cooled, the inside of your cookie will be a mesmerizing emerald jewel tone that you’ll want to take to Home Depot’s paint department for a color match to paint your whole house. It’s so beautiful!
So, here’s my secret to getting my cookies to turn green all the way to the outside. I put my cookies in an airtight container in my pantry overnight. When I came back to shoot pictures in the daylight, they were even greener than the day before!
It’s totally safe to eat, by the way. Although, truthfully, my toddler was immediately turned off by the color. Older kids and adventurous eaters are more likely to enjoy these.
How to Make Color Changing Sunbutter Cookies
All we really need for these are Sunbutter, coconut oil, and maple syrup. I got the very basic cookie recipe from Real Food with Jessica. However, I zhuzhed it up a little for prettiness and flavor, but also to balance out the fat of the Sunbutter.
I really wanted my cookies to turn super green!
My additions are lots of vanilla and applesauce. The vanilla gives these a bit more depth of flavor. The originals are nice, but I just wanted to get more of a bakery vibe out of them.
Then, there’s the green color. Remember, the key to your cookies turning green is using enough baking soda to react to the chlorophyll in the Sunbutter. Applesauce adds to the acid, so we don’t have to use so much soda that we can taste it. It’s also great for balancing out the fat a little bit.
Finally, why not drizzle some white chocolate on top? These cookies are meant to be fun and festive for St. Patrick’s Day, after all.
Shaping Your Cookies
You can tell from the pictures that I used a scoop and my cookies didn’t spread at all. You are more than welcome to roll your cookie dough smooth and flatten it out into more of a cookie shape. They’re still going to take about 12 minutes to bake at 350ºF.
Honestly, I did try a couple of these where I smoothed them and flattened them. However, the result wasn’t as dramatic or pretty as the scooped ones. I think it’s a personal choice if you want these to look like craggy emerald hills or little coins.
If you do want to use a scoop as I did, you’ll want to grab your #40 Scoop. This will get you 19 cookies, or 18 if everyone in your family decides to taste the cookie dough. You can stretch this recipe to 24 cookies by making smaller cookies.
Here’s What You’ll Need for Your Cookies
Some of the ingredients might be hard to find, so here are some helpful links:
Comment below if you have questions, concerns, or opinions. And tag me @ellejayathome on Instagram or Twitter if you share pictures from any of my recipes. I love to hear from you!
Leprechaun Magic Sunbutter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sunbutter
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 large egg (or flax egg: 1 Tbsp ground flax + 3 Tbsp water)
- ½ Tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup coconut flour
- ½ tsp pink himalayan sea salt
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- ⅓ cup white chocolate chips
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- green sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Whisk together the Sunbutter, applesauce, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla.
- Fold in the coconut flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Scoop 2 Tbsp-sized balls (or use a #40 scoop) onto a lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely for the green color to emerge.
- Melt white chocolate chips with coconut oil. Drizzle over cooled cookies, and finish with a sprinkle of green sanding sugar or sprinkles for fun.
- Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
