Homemade sunflower seed butter

Well, making your own sunflower seed butter is quite a long process if you use your own sunflower seeds. And, if you are like me and leaves the shells on, it will take a bit longer. Lol. You will get a crunchy sunflower seed butter though, which is still pretty good. I am going to take through this process step by step if you grew your own sunflowers and left the shells on the seeds. 

**Sunflower seed butter is a perfect alternative to peanut butter. My son is allergic to both peanuts and tree nuts, so sunflower seed butter is a favorite at our house. I thought it would be even to make my own!**

Anyways.... Let's get started! 

Here's what you need for the sunflower seed butter:

Note: You will need olive oil and salt to roast the seeds, but the measurements are in the steps for that.

3-4 cups sunflower seeds

1 cup water

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon salt

What to do:

1. First, grow your sunflower. If you plant in late May, they should be ready to harvest by mid September. Yes, our sunflowers grew 10 feet tall!! Lol. 

2. Then, cut the sunflower heads (flower) off and hang them upside down in a cool place to dry. Leave them anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks depending on how damp your sunflowers are...

Note: We hung out our sunflowers in our creepy 150 year old basement. Lol.

3. Now, pluck all of the seeds off of the sunflowers, and place them in a large bowl with water and 1 tablespoon of salt for 24 hours! 

Note: Plunking the seeds does take a long time, and it is pretty annoying. You are not alone. Lol. ;)

4. Now, drain the water from the sunflower seeds, and place them back in the bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Mix until all the sunflower seeds are coated in olive oil. 

5. Preheat oven to 300F degrees, and spread the sunflower seeds across a cookie sheet.

6. Bake for about 45 minutes until a majority of the seeds are golden brown. 

7. Once cooled, place them into a food processor or blender with 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon salt. Turn the food processor or blender on high, and let the sunflower seeds grind up for about 18 minutes. 

Note: You might need to stop periodically if your food processor or blender gets too hot. It is also a good idea to stop and stir the mixture periodically too.

 

8. Once the majority of the seeds have been ground up, add 4 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Blend on high again for about 12-15 minutes.

Note: You might need to stop and periodically stir the mixture.

9. Place in a jar and refrigerate! You now have sunflower seed butter!!!