Given their choice of spreads, my kids would probably opt to live on Nutella over peanut butter, apple butter, hummus or anything else. My apples didn’t fall too far from the tree as Nutella has always been one of my favorite guilty pleasures as well. It’s actually impossible not to love. Even people I know who aren’t fans of hazelnuts will find themselves diving into a jar of this Italian chocolate spread like nobody’s business.
It’s a massive bummer that my kids can’t have Nutella at their nut-free school, so I cooked up the idea for this uber-simple sunflower butter chocolate spread and used it to make Chocolate Sun Butter Pancake Sandwiches to add to their school lunches as a special twist every once in a while. They’re total decadence — so darn good they border on being dessert, but since they have a lot of protein I let them pass for a middle of the day lunch treat.
You can also use the chocolate sunflower butter spread on sandwich bread, rolled up in lavash and cut into wheels or even for Nut-Free Nutella Matzo Crackers. If you’re ok letting your kids have chocolate you might as well offer it in the middle of the day. Much better than close to bedtime for sure!
Next time you make a batch of Whole Wheat Pancakes, refrigerate or freeze a few extra to have on hand to make these sinfully delicious sammies for your troops!
Chocolate Sun Butter Pancake Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1 recipe whole wheat pancakes (recipe linked below)
- 2 tablespoon semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup sunflower butter
Instructions
- Make pancakes according to recipe directions, place on a cooling rack, and allow to cool fully.
- Melt chocolate chips in a microwave for 40 seconds or over a double boiler until melted and allow to cool.
- Stir sunflower butter into melted chocolate.
- Spread 1 teaspoon of the chocolate sun butter mixture on a pancake, and sandwich together with another pancake.
Trader Joe’s!
What brand of sunflower spread do you like to use?
As a parent of a kid with nut allergies I am sensitive to the daily worries. But I am in no way offended by her post. I think we need to be careful not to be over sensitive. After all it is a bummer kids can’t have nuts in schools to keep our kids safe. Nutella would have been so much easier for her recipe but she took the time to find a great alternative. Thanks for the great recipe!!
It is a peanut butter type product that is made from sunflower seeds instead of peanuts! 🙂
What is sunflower butter? Sunflower margarine? I am in the UK.
As a change from peanut butter, try almond or hazelnut butter. Delicious.
Going to try this with soy butter to see how it comes out! My daughter is allergic to all nuts, and sesame and sunflower seeds. As for the commentary on how it’s a bummer that schools are nut-free, I totally get that. It’s a pain, and I honestly don’t expect parents of older children to have to adapt to my daughter’s needs. She’ll have to be responsible for herself in the end. But since she’s only 2 now, I’m very grateful that her preschool is nut-free. She’s not old enough yet to be able to assess whether something is safe for her to eat, and I love that I have no fear of her accidentally eating something from her classmates. She can’t read labels after all 🙂 Hang in there with us allergy moms. We appreciate it so much.
I showed this to my daughter and she gave it a thumbs up – if I swapped the chocolate sun butter for peanut butter. My child also goes to a nut free school and it is a bummer. It does limit me a bit when packing her lunch.
I understand others have food allergies as do I (several, in fact), but you cannot be expected to please the whole world. Please continue to be yourself when writing your posts, I appreciate all the work you do and all the help you give when trying to feed my family.
I found no offense to her recipe/post. Just because your child suffers a food allergen doesn’t mean they are being attacked by a parent of a child with no food allergens. I do hope you teach your children to be more kind than what you’ve displayed in your comment.
I generally love Weelicious, and like Susan, was excited to see a SunButter recipe, but could have done without the whole ‘woe is me’ act when it comes to your kids going to a nut-free school. Believe me, having to live with food allergies is far worse than having to think of ways around nut-free recipes. Having one FA kid, and an older one without food allergies (whose favorite food was once peanut butter and who now knows we can’t have it in the house and never complains!), I get that it’s not ideal to have to think about adapting foods for schools. But it’s for the safety of all kids. And lots of your readers come here to look for foods that work for their new FA situation and certainly don’t want to hear how terrible a life without Nutella is! A little more thought into that intro to the recipe would have gone a long way with a large group of your readers, I suspect.
Wow! This looks great. Thank you for posting. My son will love this. Much appreciated!
Susan, I am sorry to hear of you kids allergies. I have severe allergies to some foods too so I do understand. But her opinion to be “bummed out” about not being able to send nutella to school is her opinion and thus 100% as valid as yours. Or mine, Or anyone’s. No need to bash her on commentary. This is a recipe site. What she is providing here with this recipe will help all us other mom’s who have to bend (willingly!) to protect the 1 out of 13 kids who have food allergies (US stat).. don’t be discouraged…she is providing a very useful service by coming up with these creative ways to feed our kids in ways that don’t harm others. And her comment will resonate with the majority of moms, I can assure you.
so tired of hearing how sad people are that their kids can’t bring nuts to school…trust me you would be a lot sadder like me if your kid could die from nut exposure. I was so excited to see a sunbutter recipe so clicked on it then read what a bummer it is your kids can’t bring nutella to school…couldn’t you just say your kids go to a nut-free school, not how disappointing it is? ugh, so discouraged to read this…I’m so over all of it..unsubscribing now