Nut butters series - - part 2 - - how to make your own nut butter ( and no nut nut butters)

Nut butters are great.

They are full of flavour, healthy fats and some protein as well as vitamins.

Most of us can go to our local supermarket or organic shop and find a good variety of nut butters.

Yet, some nut butters have more ingredients than we propably want and a 100% nut nut butter is not only more expensive, but harder to find as well.

So, I want show you how to make your own.

To make nut butters you will need either a high power blender or a good quality food processor.

And Why Is That?

100% nut nut butters require a little more power.

Using a '' normal'' blender or one of those food processors that you can't use for more than 30 seconds is not going to work for a pure nut butter.

But, you can add some oil to help your appliance do its job.

Now...

Is it worth it to make your own nut butter if you can buy it for a good price?

And the answer to that is probably no.

I, personally, don't own a blender. Instead I have a very cheap food processor, which naturally, would die if I decided to make 100% butter when I can just buy it.

Yet, adding coconut oil and or maple syrup makes the job easier and adds a little more flavour to your nut butters.

That is if you are committed to have a nut butter with more ingredients.

Plus, making your own means that you can use high quality ingredients which will amp up the flavour, and... who doesn't love that?

Now.

To the recipe.

This is generic for most nut butters, including coconut.

Ingredients :

100g nut of choice

A pinch of salt

For those without a high power appliance:

1-3 tbsp of coconut oil or avocado oil ( I like avocado better, because it doesn't have a strong flavour, but if you love coconut and don't mind go for it)

1-3 tbsp of maple syrup or sugar free syrup

You can add more coconut oil and lees maple syrup or vice versa. Everyone's appliance is different so I suggest to start with 1 tbsp of each and add more if you see that your blender is struggling.

Step 1: toast your nuts.

Toasting or just warming (if you are raw) the nuts will allow them to release their natural oils, so it's easier and faster to blend. Let cool for a bit.

Step 2: process your nuts

Transfer them to your appliance of choice and process until they have a sand like texture, take your time, scrape as needed and add your oil plus syrup ( if you are required to) and blend again, stopping every now and then to make sure everything is blending, adding more oil and syrup if necessary and check if the motor of your blender hasn't died yet ( 😂)

Once you are happy with the texture ( it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth) stop.

Step 3: store

store in any clean container and place it in the fridge.

I suggest to sterilize the the containers you are using to prevent spoilage.

And to do that you simply boil your glass containers for 15 minutes in a tall pot.

Or bake them at 180 °C or 375 °F after washing them thuroughly.

Rubber lids and metal lids have to boil separately for 3 to 4 minutes.

Use tongs to take them out and let cool before adding your butter and closing them.

Now, I am well aware that 100g of nuts is practically nothing, but, is better to make smaller batches that your appliance can work trough.

You can take the recipe and tailor it to your needs and your blender's power.

You want to use raw nuts and toast them, but you can use already toasted ones, just warm them a bit so it's easier to process them.

You are now probably wondering, what about coconut?

Same process. Dessicated untoasted coconut flakes is what you want. Feel free to add coconut oil for flavor.

To the '' nut'' butters

Soy "nut" butter

This recipe needs time, patience and practice.

Will it be as good as the one you can buy at the store? well, that depends...

But with this recipe, you can control what you add to it and how much.

Ingredients

1.5 cups roasted soy beans

1 cup distilled water

2 tbsp avocado oil (or the one that you have at hand)

2 tbsp maple syrup ( sugar free syrup works as well)

a pinch of salt

optional: any spices you may enjoy

Directions

Dump the soy beans in a food processor ( a blender or use an immersion blender) and add water, let them soak for a while until they absorb most of the water and have softened.

Blend until smooth, add all the remaining ingredients and blend again. Make sure to taste for salt, sweetness and spiciness before you store.

I recommend you sterilize the jars you are using for a longer lasting product, as I explained earlier on this post.

Keep in the fridge and feel free to play around with the flavours, you can add some red pepper flakes and a bit of lemon zest for a really bright twist.

Enjoy

Cookie butter

Cookie butter is traditionally made with speculoos cookies, which are cinamon-y belgian winter biscuits that pair great with coffee.

You can make the cookies yourself for a more traditional cookie butter, but you can make any of your favourite cookies into cookie butter.

I like oreo cookie butter BTW,

This is the recipe for the speculoos cookies you wanted to make your own, these are gluten free and could be lower carb if you substitute the gluten free flour for more almond or hazelnut flour.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup (375 g) firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup (250 g) unsalted butter , softened at room temperature ( not cold)

2 large egg yolks

3 tbsp heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract or paste

1 tsp lemon zest

1 cup (100 g) almond or hazelnut flour

3 1/4 cup (500 g) 1-1 gluten free flour ( for a better end product you want a mixture of rice flour, corn flour and either tapioca or potato starch)

1/2 tsp baker's ammonia (can you use baking powder? yes. Will it give the same result? no. Baker's ammonia is great for crispy cookies, as this one, using baking powder will result in a chewier, less crisp cookie, and that's totally fine)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground anise seed

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

Yep, lots of spices.

it is worth it, though

Directions

Mix brown sugar, butter, egg yolks, cream, vanilla and lemon zest until is fluffly and a yellow-y cream color for about 6 minutes. Fold the almond or hazelnut flour.

Combine the flour, baker's ammonia or baking powder, salt and spices in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the wet one continuosly beating until you have a taky dough that

you can mold.

Form the dough into a disc and wrap it well in cling film, let rest in a cool dark place, yet avoiding the fridge ( you don't want it to brittle), overnight

Flour slightly your work surface and roll your dough ( you can use a wine bottle or sauce jar if you don't have a rolling pin) until is around 4mm thick or just about 1/4 inch, now you can cut them into any shape you like ( there are traditional molds sold on Amazon if you want to go all in on it). Place the cookies on a non stick surface, baking paper, baking mat

or a lightly greased and floured sheet pan (for the love of God, do not use aluminium foil, your cookies are going to stick and burn!) Chill the cookies for 2 hours before baking on a preheated oven at 180 degrees C or 375 degrees F

Bake your cookies (middle rack preferably for best heat distribution) for 10 to 12 minutes, make sure you turn your sheet pan half way of the process for even baking, and let them cool on a wire rack once they are golden brown (don't touch them until they've cooled down completely). Store them in an air tight container or sterilized jars.

You can let them develop their flavor by storing them for a week before consuming .......or not.

What you can do is divide the batch, eat some cookies the same day you baked them and save the rest for up to 3 weeks and check how the flavours develop each week (little nice experiment if you will)

Now to the cookie butter recipe, that you can tailor to any cookie you like:

ingredients:

200g cookies

200g water

100g refined coconut oil

1 tbsp golden syrup

Instruccions:

Step 1: process your cookies into crumbs. If you're using cookies with filling, say oreos you'll have to take the cream out and save it for a litlle later .

Step 2: add water. Combine the cookie crumbs with water plus golden syrup (maple works as well, and you can try wih sugar free syrup, just make sure the ingredients can handle heat)

Step 3: cook on medium heat until everything is dissolved. Now is the time to add the cookie filling reserved from earlier and let melt into the mixture. Allow it to cool for 5 minutes.

Step 4: add refined coconut oil, blend until homogenous and pour into a sterilized glass container, chill in the fridge until solid(unless you want your cookie butter to taste like coconut I highly suggest you use refined coconut oil, which does not have any strong flavours and keeps the benefit )

Step 5: Store in a sterilized jar

This cookie butter is tricky to store due to the coconut oil being a main ingredient which melts at 75°F (24°C) and hardens between 70 and 74°F (21 and 23°C). ( you know it's cold when the coconut oil in your kitchen is hard as a rock.. )

Place it, if possible, where is not too cold nor too hot. I would suggest you place it in the firdge in case you live in a warm place given that it will only harden when it gets cold, but if it metls, the fat will separate form the rest of the ingredients and your cookie butter will pretty much be ruined.

In order to enjoy simply take it out of the fridge 15 minutes before using and check, you might need to wait more.

I personally love it on bread and pancakes but feel free to eat it out of the jar!

Oat butter

Oat butter is quite new and different.

But that's no excuse to avoid it!

I have an oat butter recipe on Nut butter series part 1 if you want to check it out ...

Enjoy!