Frosted Pumpkin Cookies (Sugar-free and Nut-free)

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