HOMEMADE NUT BUTTERSAt the moment we have been busy orgainizing and taking our yearly Whole Food and Grain order from our customers. I have been impressed with the amount of nuts that are being ordered, especially almonds and filberts. Upon questioning them I have found that someone in the family has a peanut allergy and cannot eat peanut butter so they are making their own nut butters. Years ago, I had another customer tell me that she made all the nut butters in their household from scratch and said that if I ever tasted a fresh made nut butters, almond or fiberts or cashew or even walnut butters, I would never buy peanut butter again. Many of us also like to be in control of what we eat and what we feed our families, so making as much as possible from scratch and not buying a product that has ingredients you cannot pronounce like "carrageenan"" and don't really know what they are. Before you make nut butter, you'll need to decide whether you want to use raw or roasted nuts. Each produces a slightly different flavour. Raw nut butter tends to be more expensive in stores, so it's a good choice, if you want to save extra money. It's also a good product to have around if you follow a raw food diet or are experimenting with one. Be aware of the potential risks involving using raw nuts, if you plan to use them. There are two ways that I know of to make nut butters. Our Bosch Universal Plus Blenders or the powerful L'Equip RPM blenders are both capable of making a nut butter. Very simply, you put about a cup or 2 cups of nuts in the blender and turn it on and after 10 to 15 sec. start to pour some cooking oil through the top until the nuts have become a paste. It will take about a minute to turn to the butter and it would require about 3 + Tbsp. of the oil to help the nuts become the butter. Most of us however, make the nut butter with the meat grinder attachment to our Bosch Universal Plus. We need to change out the 4.5 mm. disc that comes on the front of the meat grinder and add the 2mm. disc that you can order separately. After hooking up the meat grinder on the machine where the bowl sits. You simple feed the nuts through the top and the butters come out the end. If you want a chunky nut butter you can use the 3 mm. disc which will make a little coarser grind. Now is a good time to taste the butter and see if you wish to add some salt or maybe a little honey to sweeten it up. You can also make the consistency a little runnier by adding a little oil to the butter and mixing it in. Who knew you could make nut butters with the meat grinder? Now there are no preservatives in the butters so you keep them in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks. The nuts can be stored in a cool place for over a year or two (depending on the nuts) We like to keep our in the freezer so they keep up to 5 years and are ready to use whenever we want to make fresh butter. |
