Chocolate Chip Sunflower Seed Cookies: The next time someone tells you to eat your greens – grab a cookie! These sunflower cookies, made with ground up sunflower seeds are healthy, easy and super fun! The naturally occurring chlorophyll found in sunflower seeds reacts with baking soda in the oven creating a bright green, colorful surprise inside. Make sure to check out the recipe notes for substitutions and adaptions including ways to make these cookies vegan friendly.
Original recipe posted March 10, 2017 – Updated post and recipe March 10, 2022 with additional pictures, tips and frequently asked questions.
If you’re looking for something new to bake I highly recommend these chocolate chip sunflower seed cookies!
They’re easy to make, super tasty and they’re a lot of fun to share with friends and family who aren’t expecting the vibrant green hue hiding inside. More on the green color further down!
Not only that, but these cookies are also: gluten free, grain free, nut free and dairy free. They can also easily be made refined sugar and egg free as well! With so many ‘free from’ attributes they’re a great, allergy friendly cookie recipe to make and share with loved ones and acquaintances with food allergies and intolerances.
Why make cookies with Sunflower Seeds?
Great question!
First off, let’s just agree that you can never have too many chocolate chip cookie recipes! I’m convinced that there is a cookie recipe for every occasion and I want to bake it! So, why not?
More so, ground up sunflower kernels (sunflower seed flour) is basically just a nut free alternative to almond flour. Unlike coconut flour (also a nut free/grain free flour), you can often easily swap it in 1:1 in place of almond flour without too much fuss.
Sunflower seeds also have a pleasantly unique flavor. They are slightly nutty and almost buttery in taste which work really well in cookies and other baked goods.
How to Make these Cookies
As far as cookies go this recipe is fairly simple and straight forward. There’s not too much involved with little prep time needed.
The only special equipment you’ll need aside from a large bowl is a blender or food processor to grind the seeds though you can use an electric mixer to prep the cookie dough if you like.
Steps
- Add the the oil, sugar, egg (or flax egg) and vanilla to a bowl and mix until well combined. Mix until smooth and combined.
- Add the dry ingredients (ground sunflower seeds, coconut flour, baking soda and salt) to the wet ingredients then add the chocolate chips. Mix into a thick dough.
- Make sure to mix the dough well to ensure the baking soda is evenly distributed throughout. This is what’s needed to make the insides green.
- Scoop out the dough and transfer to a greased or lined cookie tray.
- Bake for about 10-11 until the edges have set and tops golden.
- Cool and enjoy. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies made with flax egg will be more delicate right out of the oven so give them a bit more time to cool before moving.
- Note: The green insides will darken and develop over time. The longer the cookies rest the more apparent the color. Cookies made with white sugar or light brown sugar are more likely to be mostly green on the inside right away.
Tip: Room Temp Ingredients
Make sure that you’re working with room temperature eggs. If you try to mix a cold egg straight out of the fridge into melted coconut oil, it cause the oil to harden up making it difficult to mix.
Substitutions
- Make it vegan:
- Use a flax egg in place of the regular egg. Most of the cookies pictured in this post are flax egg cookies. Keep in mind that cookies made with flax egg won’t spread much so make sure to gently flatten the dough before baking if you want thin cookies.
- Make sure to use dairy free/vegan chocolate chips or use 1/2 cup raisins instead.
- Sugar options:
- I used coconut sugar in the most of the cookies shown here. For comparison: the first cookie pictures shown above (on the wire rack) are made with light brown sugar and the rest are made with coconut sugar.
- Cookies made with light brown sugar or white sugar will be lighter in color than ones made with coconut sugar.
What makes these cookies turn green inside?
If you’ve ever baked with sunflower seed flour you might have noticed your baked goods turn green, or darken in color.
This is thanks to a chemical reaction called: chlorogenic quinone-amino acid greening…which is just a fancy way of saying that the chlorophyll (acid) in sunflower seeds reacts with baking soda (alkaline) when heated up in the oven which then creates a blue-green tinge in the baked cookies. In this case it makes for internally green cookies.
It’s totally safe to eat though it might be a bit confusing if you’re not expecting it. The first time I made these cookies I had no idea what happened.
Enjoy!
Chocolate Chip Sunflower Seed Cookies
The next time someone tells you to eat your greens - grab a cookie!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (140 g) sunflower seeds, shells removed
- 1/2 cup (100 g) coconut sugar (can sub with white sugar or light brown sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (56 g) coconut oil, melted
- 1 egg (sub flax egg for vegan alternative - see notes)
- 1/4 cup (28 g) coconut flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup (87 g) chocolate chips, ensure vegan if needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line or lightly grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.
- Place the sunflower seeds in a blender or food processor and blend the seeds on high until you end up with a flour like texture. You may need to stop every so often to scape the sides of the blender/processor down.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the melted coconut oil, coconut sugar, vanilla extract and egg (or flax egg). Mix until well combined.
- Add the ground sunflower seeds, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl. Mix everything together well until a thick dough forms. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Scoop out 1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll together to form little balls. Place the dough balls on a lined baking sheet leaving about 1 inch in between each cookie. Gently flatten the dough with your hand.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for about 5-10 minutes then carefully transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Store cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days and enjoy!
Notes
- How to Make a Flax Egg: Mix together 1 tablespoon ground flax with 2 tablespoons cold water in a small cup or bowl then set aside for 10-15 while the mixture thickens up into a gel-like consistency.
- What makes these green inside? Sunflower seeds contain chlorophyll (the chemical in plants that makes them green). When mixed with baking soda, heated, and cooled the acid reacts and turns green. You may notice a few green specks here and there just after baking, but the green color will intensify over time.
Nutrition Information
Serving Size:
cookie Calories: 182Saturated Fat: 6gSodium: 144mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 2gSugar: 7gProtein: 3gMore Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (a classic cookie good any time)
Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (next level, grain free goodness – my most popular recipe)
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies (great in the Fall)
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies (for the inevitable, summertime zucchini surplus)
Oatmeal Raspberry Chocolate Chip (if you’re feeling fruity)
Sarah says
We were away all weekend and I didn’t get a chance to grab groceries! I was looking at my kids’ lunches and realized they needed something a little more sustainable so I whipped these up in 1/2 an hour. I substituted lard for coconut oil, raisins for chocolate chips, pumpkin puree for egg, half pumpkin seeds and half sunflower seeds, added 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, used 3/4 cup coconut sugar + 1/4 cup honey (ran out of sugar). 10/10, perfect combo. Will be back!
My only thought for next time: I used salted roasted pumpkin seeds and I didn’t cut back on the salt in the recipe itself. I’ll just adjust accordingly in the future.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Sarah, so thrilled to hear you enjoyed them!
Thanks so much for sharing all your changes too! It’s super helpful to know what works and to hear all the different things that can be done to make these cookies even better 🙂
Arlene says
Perfect St. Patrick’s Day cookie!! Yay! Thanks for sharing. My kids and grandkids love this every year. (Okay, okay – I do, too!)
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! Thanks so much Arlene! I’m so glad your kids (and you!) enjoyed these – thanks so much for your comment & review 🙂
Holly says
Hi Sara, do you have any idea how much sunflower seed flour to use in place of whole sunflower seeds?
Also, what is the texture of these cookies? Is there a way to make them a little crispy? I know I could never achieve that when using almond flour in my baked goods but I LOVE a good crunch!
I’m assuming you’re using refined coconut oil? Thank you!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Holly! I just blended up some sunflower seeds to check – thank you for the excuse to make these cookies again 🙂
1 cup of whole sunflower seeds (140g) turns into about 1 1/3 cup sunflower seed flour.
As for the texture, these cookies are more on the chewy side. While the insides are quite chewy, the outside do get a bit crispy. With that in mind, you can probably make them crispier by shaping the cookie dough balls into flatter cookies before you bake them in the oven.
One more thing that might help you get crunchier cookies is actually by using whole sunflower seeds. Instead of grinding the seeds into a uniform powder/flour, you can grind them up into a gritty texture and leave some larger seeds intact. I actually like doing this because I like my cookies to have a little bit of texture/crunch!
Hope this helps!
Holly says
Awesome! Thank you so much. Making them today!!
Holly says
These cookies are epic! I love the slight bitterness of the sunflower seeds and the cookie has the perfect amount of sweetness.
Sarah, your tips really worked with the flax egg and grinding my own seeds. They are chewy in the middle and crunchy on the outside. Thank you!!
Holly says
Oh wow! I just saw your pics again and mine did not turn green..wonder why? I don’t really care cuz they’re so delish but it is curious.
Sarah Nevins says
The do get darker over time (only in the middle) so there’s a chance you might have one tomorrow and find it’s green inside!
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! Glad you enjoyed them and everything worked out 🙂 Thanks so much, Holly!
Sharry says
Just so easy and fast to whip up. No one believes these are healthy!! Then after a day when they are green inside the reactions are priceless, thanks so much for being a creative clever cook and sharing 🙂
Sarah Nevins says
Thank you so much Sharry 🙂 I love hearing that – thank you for taking the time to come back to leave a review!
Ali says
This is an unbelievably good cookie!!! I can’t believe it. Even the “raw cookie dough” is Devine! Thank you so much. My new go-to dessert!
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! So happy to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to come back and let me know how it went for you!
Kolyenka Meriadoc says
i made these yesterday and they are already almost gone ! i only kind of had the ingredients, so the recipe was modified somewhat, and i used margarine instead of coconut oil, brown sugar instead of coconut sugar, and semisweet chocolate chips instead of dark ones, which made it a little overly sweet, although I’m sure that my substitutions are the cause of that, not the recipe. nevertheless they are very good (if somewhat crumbly, but honestly who cares) and im definitely making these again. maybe with half the sugar, though. the green color was present as soon as they were cool enough to eat, but has gotten progressively darker and the outside has tiny green speckles, too. i absolutely love the color, it makes for very interesting cookies. the recipe is very easy and only takes a few minutes, and the result is wonderful. after a little bit more tinkering to fit with the ingredients that i usually have, it’s going in my recipe box for sure.
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed them! That’s really helpful to know about your adaptions too – I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d find it useful to make these without so many specialty ingredients. Thanks so much for coming back to let me know how it went for you 🙂
Caden says
Absolutely fantastic recipe! So simple yet so delicious and healthy too!
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks Caden!
Margie Lehnen-Holtz says
These sound amazing and from all the reviews I can’t wait to make them. Just wanted to let you know that there is no mention of adding the chocolate chips. I am an experienced baker and know when to add them, but just wanted to let you know.
Sarah Nevins says
Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out to me Margie – it’s fixed now. Hope you love them!
Cassie says
HIGHLY recommend – I made these twice this week! I add ground almonds too because I have them on hand the dough seemed a little wet. And I am so enthusiastic about the “franken-cookie” vibe…will definitely make around Halloween.
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! Thank you so much Cassie – I’m so happy to hear how much you enjoyed them!