Who can resist the sweet/salty pairing?  Salted caramels, chocolate-covered pretzels, or sea-salt milk chocolate bars (like my favorite from De Rubeis), the combination lights up the tongue.  I found a salted cashew cookie recipe in King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking cookbook and swapped out salted sunflower kernels for the cashews.  Old-fashioned oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor, give the cookies a crunchy texture, and a sprinkling of sparkling sugar on each one maintains the balance between sweet and salty.  Sparkling sugar gives the rather plain-looking cookies a bit of eye appeal as well.

Salted sunflower oat cookies

• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor
• 2 cups salted sunflower kernels
• Sparkling sugar for topping

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 half sheet pans with SilPat or parchment paper.  Beat butter, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, and egg in a medium bowl.  Beat in ground oats, then sunflower kernels.  Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, drop dough onto the prepared pans.  Place the sparkling sugar in a shallow dish or saucer.  Dip the moistened bottom of  a small drinking glass into sparkling sugar and flatten each cookie ball; recoat in sugar after each cookie.  Bake for 12-15 minutes, switching pans halfway through for even browning.