How to Make Nut Butters

I'll come right out and say it: "I love peanut butter!" I have since I was a kid and I'm so happy I don't have any nut allergies (though peanuts are actually a legume). I remember the first time I ever tried peanut butter freshly ground with no salt, it was at my best friend's hippie aunt's house. She gave us toasted whole grain bread with fresh peanut butter; I was not impressed. Now however my taste buds have matured and I love making my own peanut butter. I feel like it can't get any more home-steady than making your own condiments or beer or sausage.

Since I've never really tried other nut butters, I thought why not try making 4 or 5 different kinds and share them with you all.  That way I am the guinea pig and you guys and take on face value to try them! So what nut butters are we making?

• Peanut Butter
• Almond
• Cashew
• Pecan
• Walnut
• Hazelnut or Filberts

After this tutorial you can make some fresh bread and bust out a jar of jam you canned from last year and have a 100% homemade sandwich! Sofia loves eating homemade raspberry jam and peanut butter on whole wheat sourdough bread. That is quite a change from my childhood white bread and peter pan days!  Did I mention the jam was made with a low sugar recipe and local raw honey? Honestly it's too much fun to tell you how from scratch I make things. If you don't make anything from scratch or only a few things don't feel bad, just know I'm a little crazy and passionate about food! Anyway, back to making nut butters!

How to:

Making nut butter requires a high power blender like a food processor or Vita-mix blender. For one cup of nut butter you will need 2 cups of nuts. For this tutorial I will show you how to make peanut butter.

Simply place two cups of roasted unsalted peanuts in the food processor.

With the lid locked pulse 4 or 5 times to get the nuts chopped a little. Then turn the thing on and let it run. It will pass through several stages.

First it will turn into a grainy mix like sand, then become like flour, then clump into a ball and finally start to smooth out.

This takes about 3 minutes. At this point you need to keep going in order get the oils to release from the nuts.  Stop every once and while to check and see if the oil is releasing. When it does start to form droplets, you can stop and put your peanut butter in a jar and store it in the fridge.

The more oily nuts don't really require extra oil like some recipes say. All you might want to add is some sea salt during the final grinding if you like your nut butter salty. We like ours unsalted. Nut butters last about three months refrigerated in a sealed mason jar; because I use as little oil as possible, I haven't had any problems with separation.

In this trial I found that peanuts, pecans and walnuts did not need extra oil. Cashews, almonds and Hazelnuts did, however. I recommend using a flavorless oil such as expeller pressed sunflower oil. Add the oil a tablespoon at a time to the food processor after the second to last stage when the nuts start to clump; just enough so that nuts become smooth and fluid. You don't want the butter to become too loose!

So what is the toddler verdict to all these nut butters?

• Peanut butter- good
• Almond - yummy
• Cashew- really yummy
• Pecan- not so much
• Walnut- wouldn't try it
• Hazelnut- okay (I have not tried adding chocolate and making something like Nutella, which may rate off the scale)

Peanuts and cashews were my favorites as well. Even though I eat pecans by the handful and love all the other nuts and use them quite frequently in baked goods and as snacks, they didn't hold up as well to taste testing as the other two.

What do you think? What nut butters have you tried? What nuts are your favorite?