Hi there! I’m just popping in today to let you know that I created a stellar new nut butter. Cinnamon Vanilla Bean Almond Butter, anyone? If you said “Yes, please!”, then head on over to Get Healthy with Heather to get the recipe.
I’ll be checking in again later this week with a sweet treat perfect for your 4th of July celebrations. I’ll give you a hint… once you have one, you’ll be asking for s’more. 😉
Yes, it’s quite a mouthful. On so many levels.
In fact, if my mouth weren’t so full of Honey Roasted Cinnamon Cashew Peanut Butter I might be able to tell you its fabulous. And that I’m addicted.
You see, ever since I made my first batch of peanut butter, I’ve been having so much fun. My mind has been full of flavor possibilities and my mouth has been full of nut butter. Do you see a trend?
Over the weekend I indulged myself with this sweet, smooth, and rich nutty creation. A not-so-thin layer spread over an English muffin and topped with bananas, was the perfect treat.
So if you need a pick-me-up on this dreary Monday, this is just the thing.
Oh who am I kidding? This is always just the thing.
Honey Roasted Cinnamon Cashew Peanut Butter
(adapted from this recipe)
Ingredients:
Someone out there please confirm that I’m not the only nut butter addict.
Early last week I shared with you how I make peanut butter from scratch using only two ingredients. It’s such a simple recipe (if I can even call it that) and it packs so much flavor! While discussing the recipe with a coworker, he suggested using honey roasted peanuts. I was certainly intrigued.
Instead of buying honey roasted peanuts (which contains a shocking amount of ingredients), I decided to roast my own peanuts in honey. It was very simple and added only 10 minutes to the whole process. Those 10 minutes are worth it my friends because this peanut butter was unreal. I was thrilled with my original and now I’m in love with the new and improved version.
If you own a food processor, do yourself a favor, make this honey roasted peanut butter!
Honey Roasted Peanut Butter
(adapted from Ashley’s Roasted Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter)
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line a pan with parchment (this makes clean up a whole lot easier).
Pour the peanuts on the pan, drizzle the honey on top and mix. It may be hard to mix at first as the honey can be sticky but once it heats up in the oven, it’ll be much easier to stir.
Roast for about 15 minutes, stirring every five minutes. Make sure they don’t burn!
Dump the hot nuts into the food processor quickly before they harden and stick to the pan. Let them cool for about 5 minutes before processing. Turn the processor on and let the nuts do their thing. It should take about 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
Add in the salt and process again until it’s well mixed. Try not to eat all of it straight from the processor.
I sent this to my mom for Mother’s Day along with her mini-loaf of Peanut Butter Banana Bread. It’s absolutely a recipe worth sharing with someone you love. Or, if you can’t bring yourself to share it all, make a double batch and keep some for yourself 🙂
Earlier this week, I shared a tutorial on how to make your own peanut butter at home. Ever since then I’ve had nut butter on the brain. I even created another recipe thanks to a suggestion from my coworker.
Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to share it with you shortly. Dare I say it’s even better than the peanut butter recipe? But you’ll just have to check back and judge for yourself.
Keeping inline with my nut butter infatuation, I’ve found some stellar recipes that all use nut butter. Here are my five favorites for Friday May 6, 2011:
What was the last thing you made using nut butter? Feel free to leave a link in the comments!
Over the weekend it occurred to me that my posts haven’t been showing up in Facebook for a couple of weeks now. What a shame! I know that you want to catch up on what you’ve missed so be sure to read all the posts. Here are few highlights:
Moving right along… Today I want to share with you one of my latest obsessions.
Homemade peanut butter.
It’s amazing how simple it is, so long as you have a food processor. (If anyone knows how to make peanut butter without a food processor or high-speed blender, please tell me immediately!)
The ingredient list can’t be beat! All you need are peanuts and maybe a little bit of salt but that’s entirely up to you. I’m going to walk you through the process one step at a time.
First, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While the oven is heating up, get your nuts ready. I use Planter’s dry roasted unsalted nuts.
This way I can control what goes into the peanut butter and well, I’m in love with the ingredient list.
Check that out, it only contains peanuts! Love 🙂
Okay, so back to the steps. To roast your nuts, you want to spread them out in a thin layer on a baking sheet, like so.
Roasting the nuts releases their natural oils and gives the nut butter a stronger peanut flavor. You could probably skip the roasting step but it makes for a better peanut butter, so why would you?
Once the oven is heated up and the nuts are ready, place the baking sheet in the oven for three minutes. After three minutes are up, remove the sheet, stir the nuts and return to the oven for another three minutes. At this point your kitchen will smell like peanuty perfection. However, refrain from eating the nuts as they will burn your tongue. Ow.
After the nuts have cooled for a minute or two, dump them into your food processor.
Make sure the lid is on tight, plug in the processor, and turn it on. After about a minute, you’ll have a crumbly, chopped peanut mixture. It’ll look something like this.
Scrape down the sides and continue to process for another few minutes (about 2 to 3). You’re almost there!
You can stop here if you like a thicker nut butter, but I like mine creamy and drippy so I processed the nuts for another minute or two. At this point, I added about 1/4 teaspoon of salt just to add a little flavor. Like I said above, that’s completely optional.
In the end, you’ll have something that looks like this.
So smooth, so creamy, so tasty!
When I garner enough self control and don’t eat it straight from the jar with a spoon, I like to eat my peanut butter
The options are endless! I used some of the peanut butter from this batch to make Christina’s Peanut Butter Banana Bread. Oh. My. Goodness. The banana bread was incredible! It turned out so moist and full of banana flavor. I made three mini-loaves which I plan to give away as Mother’s Day gifts. I highly recommend you do the same!
Have you ever made homemade nut butter before? What’s your favorite way to eat peanut butter?
Of all the food I eat, I’d have to say that peanut butter is my favorite. I’ve been eating peanut butter for as long as I can remember. In fact, I like it so much that when I was a kid, I’d take just PB sandwiches to school for lunch. I didn’t want any jelly cramping my PB’s style 🙂
As I’ve gotten older, some things haven’t changed (I still eat my nutbutters sans jelly) however some things have. Namely, I’m open to trying new nutbutters. If I can’t have my beloved peanut butter (smooth, never crunchy), I’ll happily eat almond butter, coconut butter, or sunflower butter. But technically, that’s a seed butter, right?
So when I finally invested in a new food processor, I knew instantly that I had to create my own nutbutter. I didn’t have a type in mind and I didn’t quite know what to expect, so I just used what I had on hand.
For a recipe that was put together on the fly, this turned out remarkably well! Roasting the nuts enhances their natural flavor and gives the butter a rich, nutty taste. There is a slight hint of coconut but it’s by no means overpowering. It has a very drippy consistency but that’s probably due to the addition of the oil. If you’d prefer a thicker nutbutter, then feel free to leave it out.
One things for sure, this nutbutter can certainly hold its own. There’s no need for jelly.
Roasted Coconut, Pistachio, & Almond Butter
Ingredients:
Directions:
What’s your favorite type of nutbutter?
A Voracious Appetite 