Have I ever mentioned that I have a weakness for nut butters? Spread on toast, whizzed into my smoothie, mixed into oatmeal, rolled into cookie dough balls, sandwiched in between chocolate, or straight up on a spoon- anything goes! As soon as I get to London, I will definitely be stocking my freezer with one of these new Peanut Butter Love Cornetto ice creams- well played Walls!
Due to laziness, I usually buy peanut butter but when the natural option is not available, I go back to the basics and make my own. Although it had been a number of months since I whipped up my own batch, I broke my hiatus when I was in China. I kinda felt I needed to after taking my sister a jar of Natural Skippy Peanut Butter & then proceeding to finish a good chunk of it (pun obvi intended 😉). As peanuts are freely available in the market over there, I made a simple batch of Crunchy Peanut Butter with a Hint of Sea Salt:
When I came back to Bombay, I made another batch although this time was Almond Butter:
And now for my latest favourite as of last Tuesday: Hazelnut Butter:
You guys- this stuff is LEGIT! All it contains is hazelnuts & salt but the flavour is out of this world. It honestly tastes like Nutella without the chocolate. Of course for a more authentic flavor, you could add in some cacao (or unsweetened cocoa) powder & maple syrup.
Aside from containing minimal ingredients & hence being inevitably healthier, I find homemade nut butters taste so much richer & creamier than store-bought varieties. And the beauty of it is that they don’t require any fancy machinery. Although pricier blenders like the Vitamix & NutriBullet certainly get the job done, I’ve never had an issue using a basic blender. I personally use a Morphy Richards Icon Classique 750-Watt Mixer Grinder, which works like a charm. The process of making homemade nut butter may initially sound intimidating and laborious, but it’s actually dead easy – I promise! There are plenty of precise recipes online, but essentially it’s just a matter of adding nuts to a blender/food processor and whizzing until the nuts yield a creamy texture. In between whizzes, you’ll need to scrape down the sides.
Some other tidbits I’ve learnt about making perfect homemade nut butter include:
- Buy your nuts in bulk to reduce overall costs.
- Roasting the nuts beforehand significantly enhances the flavour.
- Use at least 1 cup of nuts– anything less tends to affect the overall texture.
- As it contains no preservatives, store your homemade nut butter in an airtight jar in the fridge to avoid it going rancid. I’ve kept mine for up to 2 weeks in the fridge without any issue.
- Due to the natural oils in nuts, I typically do not add oil when making my nut butter. However in some cases (e.g. when using a less powerful blender), you might need to add a teaspoon or 2 of oil to help get things moving.
The beautiful moment when the powdery texture starts to turn creamy.
- To add an oomph to the flavour of your homemade nut butter, great mix-ins include:
- Cocoa or cacao powder
- Honey or maple syrup
- Cinnamon
- Sea salt
- Vanilla bean
I personally prefer to wait till the absolute end to add in my mix-ins.
And the most important tip:
- Have patience! The first few minutes of processing will result in the nuts looking dry, crumbly & incredibly unappetising (as seen below). Take a deep breath, blast some music and continue letting the blender/food processor do its thang. After an additional minute or 2, the nuts start to release their natural oils and suddenly develop a softer & smoother texture. If you’re adding any mix-ins, this is the time to do so. Give it one final blitz and you are good to go!
- As the process is essentially same for all nuts, experiment beyond almonds & peanuts. A few nut butters which I plan to make soon include:
- Walnut
- Macadamia
- Cashew
- Pistachio
Happy nut butter’ing – because let’s be honest, it’s always a happy time when nut butter is involved ;)!
What’s your favourite nut butter flavour?
Have you made nut butter at home? Any tips?
I made the creamiest cashew butter, with just cashews – in a Sumeet Mixer! My attempt at peanut butter wasn’t quite as successful. It tastes great, but it isn’t smooth and creamy; it’s sort of crumbly, even with a little oil and honey to help it along. What did I do wrong? Over blend it?? Is that even possible?!!
Oh wow that sounds awesome- will have to try making cashew butter soon! By the sounds of it, you probably needed to blend the peanuts a bit longer.
One of the most dangerous things I ever did was make homemade chocolate hazelnut butter… let’s just say it didn’t last very long at all! I’m dying to try one of those new Cornettos too.
Mmm let me know if/when you do & if it tastes as good as it looks!
I’ve made my own nut butter on a few occasions! It’s crazy addictive. And kind of a necessary evil for me since it’s the only way I can enjoy some of the fancier flavours like vanilla and chocolate — too many of those “contain traces of peanuts” 😡 That and it’s nice not to have to shell out $13 for a small jar 😛
Seriously though- when did nut butter become SO expensive? The most I’ve paid is $18, which of course had to get confiscated at the airport – who knew that it counts as liquid!
I tried making almond butter in my BlendTec and ended up burning some of it in the process! I think I need to buy a bigger food processor and try again. 🙂 I think it’d be worth the investment.
Oh gosh, hope your BlendTec didn’t get ruined in the process?
Love this! I’ve been wanting to make my own nut butter for a while but quite frankly, my laziness gets the best of me. I’m verrrry curious about the hazelnut butter, because I am a complete Nutellaholic.
If that’s the case, you MUST try out hazelnut butter soon – you will love it!
Your nutbutter looks so creamy, Khushboo! I have an older blender that really doesn’t have the power to pulverize nuts into nutbutter, but a Ninja is on the horizon and I am hoping that helps as store bought nubutters are so expensive these days! I cannot wait to see how your pistachio nutbutter turns out – that’s one I haven’t ever tried!
Seriously- when did nut butter become SO expensive! The most I’ve spent is $18 – definitely not an amount I’d shell out regularly!
i tried making peanut butter once and didnot have good results with it. will need to try again soon. thank you for the reminder.
Oh no! Hope you have better luck next time round :)!
You will have to let me know if you try making pistachio butter – I have always been tempted but know it would cost a fortune to make so want to know if it’s worth it! Homemade nut butter is where it’s at!
I certainly will let you know once I try it- fortunately pistachios aren’t overly expensive over here!
so much yes. I borrowed my friend’s blender and made dark chocolate almond butter made from dark chocolate almonds…so good! Although I may or may not have used most of it for the recipe…..
I don’t know how you managed to have the patience to turn it into nut butter- I would have just eaten the almonds straight up :)!
My current obsession is almond butter – I added a spoon of coconut oil to help it along – amazing for the flavour! I highly recommend!
Love love almond butter, especially salted :)!
Despite all the crazy food things I’ve tried over the past few years, homemade nut butter is not one of them. I know, shocking right. I love this post though because not only do you share a recipe for making various kinds, but also tips and tricks for actually making it. In fact, this might be the most helpful homemade nut butter post I’ve seen. Plus I get to say nuts.
Thanks so much Meg :)! I’m surprised you haven’t tried making nut butter yet…you know, given your love for nuts and all ;)!
I need to start making my own again. I was on a roll for a while! It saves SO much money.
It really does…and I think the idea seems more laborious than the actual process!
I’ve made homemade almond butter (using roasted almonds, maple syrup, and salt) but I just didn’t love it as much as my usual kind. Maybe I just need to experiment some more!
Definitely give it a shot- I find that just sticking with roasted nuts & salt gives the most authentic flavour :)!
I’ve made peanut butter, almond butter, and cashew butter, but I’ve never tried making hazelnut butter!!! I also tried making coconut butter once but I couldn’t get it to work 🙁
Oh wow how did cashew butter taste? Worth trying?
Love nut butter… favorite is probably almond.
I’ve made almond butter and coconut butter at home. You do it perfectly! I personally prefer homemade almond butter to store bought. I don’t roast the almonds though, it just has a different softer taste that I love.
Oh wow- almond & coconut butter sounds amazing…love that flavour combo!!