Homemade sunflower butter

As I have mentioned before, my daughter has a slew of food sensitivities. One of the things she actually can eat is sunflower seed butter. Have you read the ingredients on a jar of this nut butter recently? It is either sweetened with evaporated cane juice (not bad) or organic sugar. Organic or not, sugar is sugar and not something you want to be feeding your body. J has been fighting this cold for weeks and I am convinced that the added sugar she is consuming is the culprit (sugar is known to suppress the immune system). While I don't want to take away one of the few foods that she can actually eat, I also don't want her to be consuming added sugar. So, like many times before, I decided to make my own.

I went to Whole Foods and purchased organic hulled sunflower seeds. FYI, they were $2.39/lb...a jar of organic sunflower butter averages around $6/jar. I covered the bottom of a small cookie sheet with a single layer of sunflower seed kernels tossed with a drizzle of olive oil. I put the sheet in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, stirring them halfway through, until they just started to brown. Salt and let them cool for 10-15 minutes. Dump the kernels in a food processor, add about a teaspoon of olive oil and a teaspoon of maple syrup. Puree until the oils start to release from the kernels, approximately another 10 minutes. If the butter looks too crumbly, add another drizzle of olive oil. This is what my finished product looked like:

It was inexpensive (less than the manufactured kind), no added sugar, and it passed the Jana taste test. Yet another experiment I can call a success!