These fall frosted pumpkin cookies contain all of the pumpkin goodness you can fill into a baked good. And the most amazing part are that they are totally and completely sugar free! I have had quite a few people taste test this recipe and I got none other than the best responses. I brought them to work and passed them out to our team and some patients that I knew are also following grain and sugar free diets. They all wanted the recipe, but it wasn’t out yet. So I promised them all I would get it out today. I know this recipe will be a fall staple in your house!
In this recipe I wanted to experiment with sunflower seed flour (finely ground sunflower seeds). I know some people have nut allergies or their digestive tracts can get upset with eating nuts. So sunflower seeds are a great option! You can honestly use ground sunflower seeds to replace almond flour in any recipe! Fun trick, right? All you have to do is grind raw sunflower seeds in a coffee grinder until it makes a flour. I do mine in about 1/4-1/3 cup batches so I don’t wear out my coffee grinder. And if it’s overfilled, it won’t grind it as finely either. You want to have the sunflower seed flour be as finely ground as possible.
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) organic and grass-fed butter
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 free range egg
2 cups + 2 Tablespoons sunflower seed flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon himalayan salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons Stevita stevia
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Make the sunflower seed flour. All you need is a coffee grinder. Add raw sunflower seeds in 1/4-1/3 cup increments to the coffee grinder and grind until fine. Measure the sunflower seed flour ground to get 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons.
- In a medium sized bowl add the butter, pumpkin and egg and using a hand mixer on medium mix until completely combined. It may take 30 seconds to fully combine
- In a smaller bowl add the dry ingredients: sunflower seed flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, salt, baking powder and stevia and lightly mix them together with a spoon
- Using the hand mixer again and on the low speed slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until combined and all of the ingredients are very well mixed together
- Using a large cookie scoop (1/4 cup fill size) form cookies and put 6 cookies on a cookie sheet. You don’t need to pat them down, they will cook down in the oven
- Bake for 27-30 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet. These cookies are fragile when they are warm.
- Once cooled, frost the cookies with double butter frosting (recipe below)
- Makes 12 large cookies
Double Butter Frosting
Ingredients
1/4 cup grass-fed organic butter
1/2 cup coconut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 Tablespoons sunflower seed flour
stevia, to taste (I use about 1-2 teaspoons)
Directions
- Put the coconut butter and butter in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer until the butters are creamed together
- Add the vanilla and almond extract along with the sunflower seed flour. Adding the flour thickens the frosting a little bit more and allows it to spread more easily on top of the cookies. Mix until the frosting is completely combined
- Frost the cookies. I like quite a bit of frosting on my cookies and with this recipe you will have enough frosting for an extra 1/2 of a dollop on each cookie
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These are so ridiculously delicious ! I had to make a double batch!
So when you brought me this cookie to try i either didn’t hear you or maybe you didn’t tell me that it was sunflower seed flour….so awesome! They were uber yummy and now I am even more intrigued because they are made with sunflower seeds.
I can’t wait to bake these! I have one question, what is coconut butter?
Hey Nikki-
Coconut butter is shredded coconut ground into a spread. It’s much like peanut butter or another nut butter in consistency. But it is made from only coconuts. I love it and buy it at the store. But I know you can also make your own. It works pretty phenomenally in frostings!!
Dr. Meghan
Thank you! I will be on the hunt for this or researching how to make my own. I live in a small town so I will most likely be making my own!
I wish I had a recipe for you, but I know there are many on the internet. It’s totally worth it!!
I would LOVE to make these tonight and I just got home from the store! Can I get the same results using almond flour and how about coconut cream in place of coconut butter? Do either of these work? If not, well, back to the store tomorrow. They look delicious.
Hi Karen :)
Yes, almond flour works in the place of sunflower seed flour.
Now with the coconut cream, I’m not sure. I haven’t experimented before?! But you can make your own coconut butter. I’ve been experimenting with it and want to write a post about it. You blend unsweetened coconut until it turns into coconut butter. That may save you a trip to the store!
Thank you for experimenting with SS flour! I’m excited to try this. I do mostly grain free baking, but my kids’ school is nut free, so anything with almond flour is out. :( I can send these in their lunches though, so I will be trying these out soon.
So awesome!! Glad you found a recipe to work with your family!!
I do not use any artificial sweetener, will using either natural sugar or coconut sugar work? Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Cyndi-
I’m sure that adding honey or coconut sugar will work. I haven’t made it but assume it will work well. I love stevia because it’s an herb and get one that isn’t highly processed and has added fillers to it. And if you wanted to use a less changed stevia you could use the green stevia. Just some options.
Frosted pumpkin cookies.. Did you use raw sunflower seeds or toasted sunflower seeds ( salted or unsalted)? I would love to try making these. Thankyou
Hey Cyndi-
You could use raw or toasted sunflower seeds, it’s totally up to you. I would get them unsalted though, because you can add your own salt for taste. I used toasted in the recipe above.