Going Green

Those of you who saw this on Facebook already know about my mysteriously green cookies. But for those of you who missed it or are not on Facebook, I thought it was interesting enough that I'd share it here too.

I made a batch of peanut butter-banana cookies (with chocolate chips) not too long ago. I substituted sunflower seed butter for the peanut butter, so Emma could eat them. Nothing else was unusual about the recipe. After I baked the cookies, I let them cool and then put them in the fridge, like I do all the cookies I make. (I like cold cookies.) The next day some started developing a light green tint to them, and each day they got more and more green. Now they're all a very deep and unmistakable shade of green.

I had no idea what happened. They looked as though I had used green food coloring, but I hadn't. They tasted fine, but I stopped eating them after a few days, since I didn't know what made them turn green. But shortly after I posted about this on Facebook, a friend of mine found the answer. It was the sunflower seed butter. The explanation goes something like this... All plants contain chlorogenic acid, mostly in the stems and leaves, but sunflowers also have it in the seeds. So when baking with it, it has the effect of slowly coloring the food green. It's a harmless chemical reaction and the cookies are safe for eating again. Maybe I'll make more for Halloween--they're a pretty good trick and treat all in one!