Nut butters are remarkably easy to make — especially if you have a high powered blender. I have a BlendTec, but I’m sure it works just as well with a Vitamix or Ninja blender. With my BlendTec, I can have nut butter that is practically fluffy in less than a minute.
But not everyone has a $300 blender…
So for those folks, I busted out my beat up, 20-year old, held together in spots with glue food processor. It took a bit longer and there were more parts to clean afterwards, but we had our nut butter.
The process straight forward: add 12 ounces of the nut of your choice to your food processor. Process for 30 – 60 seconds, or until the nuts start climbing the sides of the processor bowl. Pulse the processor roughly 20 times, then run it for about another minute.
At this point, I’ll add a tsp of nut oil (I like almond oil) and pulse a half dozen times before running the processor again. If nut butter forms a ball that dances on top of the processor blade, bust it up with a spatula and then continue to process for 30-60 seconds or until the nut butter is smooth.
Now you can just transfer that nut butter to a container and store it in your pantry. Like natural peanut butter, you may need to periodically mix the oil back into the nut butter.
Some other tips: If you roast/toast the nuts for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, you will get a richer flavor (and may not need the additional oil). Also adding a small amount of salt, sweetener, and/or cinnamon can really kick up the flavor a notch.
In this video, I make both pistachio butter and pecan butter. Both will be used in future recipes.
I’ll try this with pecans! I don’t have almond oil so will try avocado oil or melted coconut oil Thanks for the recipe!!
I’ve also found that if you briefly roast your nuts, you tend not to need any added oil. Something about the roasting seems to bring out the oil in the nuts.
Thank you for this recipe! I am wondering if this is good for nuts that have hung around in the pantry for awhile?
I don’t know what “a while” is, but if they don’t taste bad to eat, they should be fine for nut butter.