Creamy Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter

Homemade sunflower seed butter is a breeze to make and it’s so creamy and delicious. Once you make it yourself, you’ll never go back to store-bought.

With homemade sunbutter, you can have total control over the ingredients and with the special tips in this post, you can make amazingly super creamy sunbutter in literally minutes.

With more and more people becoming allergic to peanut butter and tree nuts, sunflower seed butter is becoming more popular because it tastes similar to peanut butter. And now, with this recipe, you can easily make tasty homemade sunflower butter yourself.

Why You Should Definitely Make Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter

First of all, by making your own sunflower seed butter, you’ll save a ton of money. For example, right now a very reasonable price for organic sunflower seed butter is 8.39 a pound and you can buy it on Amazon for $9.79 per pound.

Organic sunflower seeds, however, are only $6.29 per pound on Amazon, and only $2.61 per pound if you get them at Azure. Think about all the money you can save with that option!

Second, you can have control of the ingredients and process. Buy organic or conventional sunflower seeds, add sweetener and/or oils or not, and choose which ones to add. Add salt or not. Roast or soak and dehydrate the seeds, or use them raw. It’s all up to you.

Third, homemade sunflower seed butter simply tastes so much better than any store-bought sunbutter.

Ingredients

Here’s a simple list of the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe. For the amounts scroll down to the recipe card.

• sunflower seeds (organic preferred).
• oil (optional, but recommended). 
• sweetener (as desired). Can use honey, maple syrup, a low-carb sweetener, stevia extract, or even dates.
• salt (optional but recommended. Not needed if using soaked and dehydrated.)

Instructions

Here’s are the basic steps for this recipe. For the full instructions, scroll down to the recipe card.

• Either soak and dehydrate or roast the sunflower seeds.
• Put seeds in food processor or high-speed blender, along with sweetener and salt and other ingredients, if using.
• Process until creamy.

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Variations

Here are some tasty variations to try.

• Maple cinnamon: Add 1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup and 1-2 to 1 teaspoon cinnamon to the seeds before blending. Add some pecans for crunch, if desired.
• Chocolate: For really dark chocolate, add 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder, along with a bit of sweetener before blending the seeds. Add less for a lighter chocolate version.
• Vanilla bean: Blend in the scraped seeds of a vanilla bean, 1–2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract, or some vanilla powder before blending.
• Spiced: Add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of cloves and nutmeg, again, before blending.
• Brownie batter: Add cocoa powder, a bit of milk or coconut milk, a sweetener and about 1-2 tablespoons of protein powder and/or flaxseed for a thicker texture.
• Banana bread: Add some cinnamon and banana chips to the mix.
• Espresso: Add 1-2 coffee beans to the mix
• Mocha: Add 2-3 tablespoons of cocoa plus 1-2 coffee beans.
• Coconut: Blend in for a yummy coconutty sunbutter or as a texture add in at the end after blending.
• Cinnamon Raisin: Add some cinnamon and vanilla when blending and then whir lightly or stir in some raisins.
• Cookie Dough: Add some vanilla and sweetener when blending and then afterwards add in som chocolate chips or cacao nibs
• Stir in some chia or flax seeds or chopped nuts or seeds for added texture.

How to Store

You can store this super creamy sunflower seed butter in an airtight container on the shelf for about a week, but you’ll want it in the fridge for longer periods as the oils will go rancid. 

You can even store it in the freezer for at least up to 3 months and in the fridge for up to 2 months.

If you add alternative ingredients to this recipe, the shelf life will be altered.

Ways to Use

• spread on bread or toast
• in baked and no bake goods
• as a stir in swirl for ice cream
• on apples and celery
• added to smoothies 
• on a spoon!

Recipe Notes

• You don’t have to use 4 cups of sunflower seeds, but you’ll need enough volume for the butter to start forming. For a high-speed blender, that amount is about 4 cups for the standard blender. For a food processor, the amount that you need will depend on the size or your machine, but 4 cups in general is a good amount to use.
• Make sure to scrape down the sides in food processor while . in high speed blender using the tamper should suffice.
• For really creamy sunflower seed butter, you might want to use more oil. This might cause the oil to separate out when storing, but a quick stir blends it back together. Using an oil that’s solid at room temperature (like coconut oil) should prevent this, but I personally prefer extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil.
• If using roasted seeds, make sure they are cooled completely before processing them.
• IMPORTANT TIP!: Make sure that there is no water in the food processor, blender, or on the utensils that you use when making this or it will cause the nut butter to clump up.

What Kind of Sunflower Seeds To Use

You can use plain raw, raw soaked and dehydrated, or roasted sunflower seeds. Raw seeds will make a very earthy flavored sunflower seed butter which I personally don’t care for. Both the soaked and dehydrated and roasted seeds make an amazingly tasty finished product.

All or most of the benefits of the seeds being raw are lost due to the high temperatures involved when grinding, but I keep soaked and dehydrated seeds and nuts on hand always so that’s often what I use.

Recipes Using Sunflower Butter

Technically, while all or most of these recipes don’t specifically call for using sunflower seed butter, it works well in all of them either used alone or in combination with other seed or nut butters.

• For roasted seeds, spread the seeds out on a cookie sheet and bake at 325°F for 8-15 minutes or until golden brown and fragrant, stirring halfway through.

• Place the sunflower seeds into the bowl of the food processor and process. If your processor is small, you might need to reduce the amount of seeds and the amount of the other ingredients as well. The seeds need to move in order to process into a butter.

• The mixture will go from chopped seeds to a meal, then to a flour-like consistency and then it will start clumping. If desired, add some of the oil starting with 1 tablespoon and adding more until you reach the consistency that you want. Make sure to let the machine rest every 2 minutes or so after starting processing to prevent overheating.

• Once the seeds have turned into a butter, you can add a bit more oil if you’d like to get the sunbutter even more creamy. Then add any sweetener, salt, or add ins that can be blended in and process briefly.

• Finally, add any texture add ins like cacao nibs, chocolate chips, raisins, flax or chia, or other nuts and seeds and process briefly so they aren’t blended in.

High-Speed Blender Instructions

• Put the sunflower seeds and oil, sweetener and salt, if using, into the blender container. Start processing using the tamper or other device to push the seeds down into the blades.

• Make sure to let the machine rest if needed, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

• Stir any textured add-ins in after removing the butter from the blender.

• Continue pressing the mixture into the blades until it turns into a smooth butter.

• You don’t have to use 4 cups of sunflower seeds, but you’ll need enough volume for the butter to start forming. For a high-speed blender, that amount is about 4 cups for the standard blender. For a food processor, the amount that you need will depend on the size or your machine, but 4 cups in general is a good amount to use.
• Make sure to scrape down the sides in food processor while processing. If using a high speed blender, you likely won’t need to do this.
• For really creamy sunflower seed butter, you might want to use more oil. This might cause the oil to separate out when storing, but a quick stir blends it back together. Using an oil that’s solid at room temperature (like coconut oil) should prevent this, but I personally prefer extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil.
• If using roasted seeds, make sure they are cooled completely before processing them.
• IMPORTANT TIP!: Make sure that there is no water in the food processor, blender, or on the utensils that you use when making this or it will cause the nut butter to clump up.

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar. Net carbs are the total carbs minus fiber.