How to Make Nut Butter: Three Tasty Recipes
Catching yourself dropping a ton of money on expensive flavored nut butters? It’s easy and budget friendly to make homemade nut butters! Learn how to make nut butter three ways, with these recipes for vanilla almond sun butter, spicy cinnamon peanut butter, and coconut-macadamia butter.
I have a problem with impulse buys at the grocery store. Obviously, when you go food shopping on an empty stomach, you’re bound to come out of there with a cart full of random foods. But even on a satisfied belly, I have zero impulse control when it comes to a new frozen meal at Trader Joe’s, a flavor of chips I haven’t tried, or, invariably, a new flavor of nut butter.
But alas, fancy nut butters are hella expensive. So to save some money, I’ve learned how to make my own. And now that I have a fancy new Vitamix (and by new I mean refurbished because we’re not total ballers here) my homemade nut butters are as smooth and creamy as store bought.
With homemade nut butter, the flavor combinations are endless. Pistachio butter? Why not. Chocolatey nut butter? You can do that too. Have an itching desire to make bacon peanut butter? Well, it's a thing. A weird thing, yes - but you can do it.
Vanilla Almond Sun Butter
How to Make Nut Butter
If you’re wondering how to make nut butter and thinking it takes a lot of time and energy, you’ll be excited to know that it doesn’t take anything other than a food processor. Also nuts, obviously. A high powered blender like a Vitamix really does make a difference in texture, but it's not necessary. If you have a regular ‘ole food processor, just blend it longer.
You can use any nuts you like, just be sure to roast them first. This helps bring out the oils so it blends better. Raw nuts will make your nut butter texture a little grainy. To roast nuts, just pop them in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes, being careful not to let them burn. If any do burn around the edges, just toss them before making your nut butter, otherwise it’ll have a slightly off taste.
When blending the ingredients, start with the nuts and dry ingredients, then stir any wet ingredients in with a spoon after blending. Because, as we all learned in science class, oil and liquid don’t mix, so blending liquid sweeteners or vanilla extract into nut butter will prevent it from getting creamy.
Spicy Cinnamon Peanut Butter
How to Store Nut Butters?
Question mark intended, because I’m not totally sure the best way to store homemade nut butters and I would love for someone to educate me! They taste so much better room temperature, and it’s kinda annoying pulling it out of the fridge early so it’s spreadable, but I’m not sure how long homemade nut butters are good at room temp? I’m guessing most of us would probably eat them before they go bad, but I’m not willing to bet accidentally giving you food poisoning on it. I’ve been keeping mine in a mason jar or plastic container in the fridge, where according to google, they’ll be good for a few months.
Coconut-Macadamia Butter
How to Enjoy Homemade Nut Butters
The recipes I included in this post are for vanilla almond sun butter, spicy cinnamon peanut butter, and coconut-macadamia butter. The vanilla almond sun butter tastes like a regular almond butter, but has a little extra sweetness from the sunflower seeds and vanilla extract. The spicy cinnamon peanut butter has a little bit of heat to it from cayenne and chili powder. And the coconut-macadamia butter is really sweet and drippy!
Here’s some of my favorite pairings:
Vanilla Almond Sun Butter:
Crisp apples or juicy pears
Rice cakes
Chocolate
Spicy Cinnamon Peanut Butter:
On toast with slices of banana
Stuffed into dates
Coconut-Macadamia Butter:
Drizzled over ice cream
On slices of mango
Stirred into oatmeal
If you liked this post on how to make nut butter, follow my favorite snacks Pinterest board for more inspiration.
This post on how to make nut butter was originally posted January 2015. Images and text have been updated to give you the best possible content.
How to Make Nut Butter: Vanilla Almond Sun Butter
Adapted from Edible Perspective
Ingredients:
1.5 cups roasted almonds
1.5 cups roasted sunflower seeds
1.5 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1 1/2 tablespoons neutral flavored oil
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions:
Place almonds, sunflower seeds, sugar and salt in a food processor or high speed blender. Blend until it forms a sand-like texture, scrape down sides, and pour in oil. Continue to blend until smooth, scraping down sides as needed. This should take about a minute in a high powered blender, and up to 10 minutes in a food processor. The mixture should be creamy and smooth.
Scrape out into a storage container, and stir in vanilla extract. Keep at room temperature up to a week, or refrigerate for up to 3 months.
How to Make Nut Butter: Spicy Cinnamon Peanut Butter
Ingredients:
3 cups unsalted, roasted peanuts
1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon chili powder
A couple dashes of cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1 tablespoon peanut oil or neutral flavored oil
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
Instructions
Place peanuts, spices and salt in a food processor or high speed blender. Blend until it forms a sand-like texture, scrape down sides, and pour in oil. Continue to blend until smooth, scraping down sides as needed. This should take about a minute in a high powered blender, and up to 10 minutes in a food processor. The mixture should be creamy and smooth.
Scrape out into a storage container, and stir in honey. Keep at room temperature up to a week, or refrigerate for up to 3 months.
How to Make Nut Butter: Coconut-Macadamia Nut Butter
Ingredients
1.5 cups shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
1.5 cups roasted macadamia nuts
1.5 tablespoon coconut sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Place macadamia nuts, coconut, sugar and salt in a food processor or high speed blender. Blend until smooth, scraping down sides as needed. This should take about a minute in a high powered blender, and up to 10 minutes in a food processor. The mixture should be creamy and smooth.
Scrape out into a storage container and keep at room temperature up to a week, or refrigerate for up to 3 months.
If you liked this post on how to make homemade nut butter, you might also like:
Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam Bars
Whole Grain Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins
Salty Coconut Cashew Energy Balls
