While I am very environmentally conscious in my kitchen, this post all about Sunbutter. The next two days I will be posting about cooking with Sunbutter. But I have to start out with a warning today: if you are not careful when you cook with Sunbutter, your food can and will turn green!
Yes, I have your attention, don't I?
A reader tipped me off to this when I first started cooking with Sunbutter. I am so glad she did because I am pretty sure I would have cried if my Sunbutter cookies had turned green!
So what in the world is that all about?
According to ochef.com
All plants contain chlorogenic acid, mostly in the stems and leaves, but sunflowers also have it in the seeds.
A spokeswoman for Sunbutter says that it does indeed turn cookies and other baked products green as they cool. The solution, she says, is to reduce the amount of baking soda or baking powder in your recipe by almost half, which balances the acidity of the ingredients and keeps them from changing color.
Whether your cookies will rise adequately with half the leaven is a good question, but she says some people who have gotten in touch with the company say they don't notice any difference. Adding a bit of lemon juice to your dough or batter can also help maintain expected colors.
You learn something new every day don't you?
I wanted to issue this disclaimer of sort before I start talking about cooking with Sunbutter. Because, well, I don't want your cookies to turn green!
So before you start experimenting with recipes involving Sunbutter, keep this little tidbit in mind. I think, in the long run, you will be glad you did!
5 comments:
That's got to be unnerving if you don't know ahead of time! I've had garlic turn a bright turquoise when mixed with enough lemon juice :O My solution - used jarred minced garlic instead!
My kids would not eat the cookies I made with Sunbutter because they though thy looked "moldy." I discovered SoyNut Butter and found the flavor better and it holds up in both color and texture almost identical to peanut butter. My kids love it too.
You know what's funny...when i was sitting here reading this I thought, 'well, that would be cool to have naturally green cookies for Christmas!' Add a few red sugar sprinkles and you've got a Christmas cookie right there! lol. PS I found at Food Lion some colored sprinkles that are made in a peanut free facility! Yay! Karen in NC
Karen, if you do that, you must send me a picture. That would be too funny! :)
I realize this is a little late, but i have to say THIS HAPPENED TO ME last year for Christmas. I didn't notice it right away and then a couple days later my mom called to say her cookies were moldy. I didn't think it could happen so quickly but we tossed them to be safe. This past week I tried a different peanut butter cookie recipe to try out the swap for Sunbutter and so far no green, and they were delicious. I went a little shy on the butter to counter act the extra oil in the Sunbutter. Try out the peanut butter cookie recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbooks. It's great!
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