Sunflower seed butter substitutes

The closest nut-free option and the right choice when the whole reason you are using sunbutter is a nut allergy. Sold in health food shops and larger supermarkets, and easy to make at home by blending toasted pepitas for ten minutes with a pinch of salt.

Best for

school-safe sandwiches, nut-free cookies and bars, energy balls, smoothies, oatmeal and toast

The same thickness and the same binding power, so recipes need no adjustment whatsoever. The differences are colour and flavour: it is a startling dark green, which is fine in a brownie and looks odd on white bread, and it tastes earthier, more mineral and considerably less sweet than sunbutter. In a sweet recipe add a teaspoon of extra sugar or honey per quarter cup to bring it back into balance.

The most widely available seed butter by a long way, sitting in the world foods aisle of almost every supermarket. Stir it thoroughly, because tahini separates more dramatically than most butters.

Best for

cookies and bars, energy balls, salad dressings and sauces, brownies, savoury recipes

Runnier and looser than sunbutter, so a dough or an energy ball mixture will be softer and may need an extra tablespoon of oats or flour to hold. It is also noticeably more bitter and much less sweet, which is delicious in a savoury sauce and needs correcting in a cookie. Important caveat: sesame is now a declared major allergen in the United States, so tahini is not a safe substitute if you are cooking for an allergy-restricted classroom.

Made from roasted soybeans, sold under brand names in the peanut butter aisle, and specifically formulated as a peanut butter replacement, so the texture and sweetness are already tuned for it.

Best for

school-safe sandwiches, cookies, energy bars, satay-style sauces, anywhere peanut butter is wanted

The closest thing to peanut butter of anything here, in thickness, sweetness and creaminess, which means it also tastes less like sunbutter than sunbutter does. It behaves identically in baking. The obvious limitation is that soy is itself a common allergen, so it is not automatically safe in a nut-free setting, and it is worth checking your school's policy rather than assuming.

The obvious answer if you are only substituting because the jar is empty rather than because of an allergy. Both behave identically in every recipe that calls for sunflower seed butter.

Best for

cookies and bars, energy balls, sandwiches, smoothies, sauces

Same thickness, same binding, same fat content, so nothing in the recipe changes. Peanut butter is sweeter and much more assertive, and almond butter is milder and slightly grainier and less sweet than sunbutter. A useful bonus is that neither turns your baking green, which sunflower seed butter does when it meets baking soda. Obviously these are not options wherever nuts are the reason for the substitution in the first place.

Cheaper than the jar and not difficult, just slow. Toast the seeds at 180C for eight minutes, cool slightly, then blend in a food processor, scraping down repeatedly and being patient through the crumbly stage until it suddenly turns creamy.

Best for

when the shops are out of stock, controlling sugar and salt, large-batch baking, school-safe cooking on a budget

The same product, and often better tasting because it is fresh, though it is grittier than commercial sunbutter, which is ground much finer than a home machine can manage. It also lacks the emulsifiers of the jarred kind, so it separates in the fridge and is looser at room temperature. The one thing that ruins a batch is impatience: it goes through a long dry crumbly phase that looks like failure and then comes together, so keep going.

Nut-free and seed-free, which makes it the option when both are off the table. Warm the jar in a bowl of hot water so it is spoonable rather than solid before measuring.

Best for

no-bake bars and energy balls, cookies, frostings, nut-free and seed-free baking

It binds well and adds plenty of richness, but it is a very different ingredient and you should expect that. Coconut butter is much sweeter, unmistakably coconut, and it sets hard in the fridge because coconut fat is solid at cool temperatures, so no-bake bars made with it come out firm and snappy rather than chewy. It also has very little protein, so if the seed butter was there for nutrition as well as texture, this does not replace that.

The last resort when you have no seed or nut butter of any kind, and it is worth being honest that it is a compromise rather than a substitution. Best in no-bake energy balls and soft baked goods rather than cookies that need to hold a shape.

Best for

no-bake energy balls, soft muffins and quick breads, oatmeal and smoothies, allergy-restricted baking with multiple exclusions

It supplies moisture and enough stickiness to bind, and the oil covers some of the fat, but it brings no protein and no nutty flavour and a lot of sweetness. Energy balls made this way are noticeably softer and will not firm up the way seed butter ones do, so chill them and eat them within a couple of days. Cookies will spread more and bake flatter, so add two extra tablespoons of oats or flour to compensate.