Nut butter breakthrough!

[fuzzywater]

I'm so tickled right now!

I LOVE nut butters, but had been having issues buying them (WAY too expensive for poor broke teacher here) as well as making them (grainy and hard unless I used huge amounts of oil). Well, everything I'd been reading had said food processor, juicer or Vita-Mix. Out of all those, the only one I own is the food processor (a Kitchen Aid, for those wondering). Well, after making my green smoothie in a mason jar this morning (all handy ideas received from this board), I decided to give my Kitchen Aid blender a whirl with at least grinding the nuts.....

One go and I realized how much I've been neglecting my blender!

The nuts were almost a paste prior to my adding any oil. I added maybe a tablespoon of olive and a tablespoon of flax and viola! CREAMY, SMOOTH nut butter from my regular blender!! WOOT!

So for those newbies like me who want to make nut butter, don't discount your non-high-speed blender. I can't guarantee all blenders would work, but if you happen to have a Kitchen Aid, give it a go! You might be pleasantly surprised, as I was.


I'm off to enjoy a nut-butter stuffed date now!

[michigan roman]

just a note on the kitchenaid blenders because ive heard several people say they are a good product . i saw at lowes that right now the usually $100 kitchenaid blender has a $20 rebate making it $80 . lowes had it in red or black with a glass jar .

[tvillemom]

I'm confused, did you use a blender, with the mason jar? I think I've tried that before.....I'll give it another go if you let me know "exactly" what you did.
Wendi

[Shivananda]

just a note on the kitchenaid blenders because ive heard several people say they are a good product . i saw at lowes that right now the usually $100 kitchenaid blender has a $20 rebate making it $80 . lowes had it in red or black with a glass jar .At that price the KitchenAid Classic 5 speed is sort of ok, but a bit underpowered by today's standards for a raw kitchen. I'd take the Cuisinart CBT-500 or the Breville Bar Classic (each $100) over this model KA in a heartbeat.

But the new KA ProLine (much more expensive at $230) is awesome. (And KA food processors beat Cuisinart food processors 12 ways from Sunday. I like the KA brand, just not this particular model)

(If you aren't already aware, I used to sell quite a lot of blenders and juicers and am intimately familiar with how they all work)

[Shivananda]

So for those newbies like me who want to make nut butter, don't discount your non-high-speed blender. I can't guarantee all blenders would work, but if you happen to have a Kitchen Aid, give it a go! You might be pleasantly surprised, as I was.

My advice is to be VERY CAREFUL doing this, and make sure you don't do it for very long at any one time. You can not only overheat the motor quickly (and possibly burn it out and void your warranty) but you can also cook your nut butter with the heat that builds up in the jar.

I'll say it again... blenders are primarily designed for blending liquids, or blending solids into liquids. They are not optimal for solids alone.

Unlike you I've had good luck with my KA food processor for making nut butters, but you have to match the batch size to the container. It should be around half full, so that means I use the small container and small blade most of the time. I use the pulse function a lot, and scrape down with a spatula frequently, checking that the contents are not getting too hot.

But the auger type juicer with a blank plate is better, unless you can afford an actual nut mill.

[fuzzywater]

Update: For softer nuts like walnuts, cashews, etc. the blender works great!
For harder ones like almonds, it takes more work, although still a nice end result.

Shiva, can you describe your process a little better? I seem to end up with a hard clump of almond bits when I try using the food processor.... and I am doing it in the small bowl/small blade about half-full, running, pulsing, scraping, etc. Am I just not letting it go enough? I've previously read that you just let it whirl for 5-10 minutes, scraping often, and it turns into nut butter, BUT......
Any tips from one KA user to another?

[fuzzywater]

Wendi,

Yup, blender and mason jar. If you have the type of blender where you can remove the blade, just stick it in the top of a mason jar, screw on the bottom of your blender and flip it onto the base. Your mason jar ends up upsidedown. It sounds odd when you first hear about it, but once you try it.... well, let's just say I've been using lots of mason jars lately!

Another perk is that if you make smoothies in the mason jar, you can drink it right out of the jar or screw the lid on and take it with you - fewer dishes to wash make for a happier me!

For the nut butter, all I did was throw in a handful of walnuts and some cashews (see update re: soft nuts vs. harder nuts) and grind them up.... scrap it down, add a bit of oil, shake it around some and blend again. (Be careful when taking the blade out of the mason jar, or you'll end up with nuts/nut butter all over!) With the walnut/cashew mix, it happened very quickly! With harder nuts, you'll have to stop more frequently and scrape down, shake around, etc.

Once more, no guarantees.... it just worked for me.

[Shivananda]

Hi Fuzzywater,

From what you are describing, it sounds like you need to add a touch of oil. I find that some nuts have enough oil content in them to turn into butter with nothing added, but nuts with lower oil content just turn into meal unless you add a little oil. Use the most neutral tasting oil that you have on hand (ie., probably not olive oil)* unless you want the taste of the oil to be there in the butter (like maybe hazelnut oil in almond butter? just thinking here) and drizzle it in very slowly until you get the consistency you want.

It's kind of like making pesto. Have you ever noticed that when you slowly add oil to pesto while the processor is running it's dry and mealy for a while and then hits a magic moment when it suddenly turns all smooth and liquidy? Up til that point the mix is just soaking up the oill, then when it gets "full" the excess oil lubricates everything, making it more liquid.The meal tends to turn to butter all of a sudden like that.

The reason the fresh almond butter from the grinder at the store doesn't need oil added is that the feedstock (the nut meats) is roasted, not raw. So the nuts have absorbed a lot of oil in the cooking process and easily make butter. At home, with raw nuts, you may need to help it out a little.

*It just occurred to me... think about how you are going to use the butter. If you are going to use it in a salad dressing, say, olive oil actually could work. I just find it too overpowering for everyday use.

PS, if using a blender, keep one hand on the motor base at all times to sense if the motor is getting too hot, and stop immediately if you you get any sharp electrical smell that indicates overheating.

[RawMagnolia]

I'm thoroughly confused... can you take a picture of your mason jar "attached" to your blender please??

[Kitty]

I am confused to and I love nut butters but can't afford them to often. But I swear they get me thru any kind of craving.

[Shivananda]

I'm thoroughly confused... can you take a picture of your mason jar "attached" to your blender please??Hi RM, This does not apply to all blenders, only to the ones that are specifically made with a thread at the bottom of the jar that matches a mason jar thread. When you unscrew the jar from the base with the blades attached, you can then turn a mason jar upside down and screw it down in place of the blender jar. Got the picture so far?

Now, since that wouldn't be convenient, because the food would all fall out, picture instead having the mason jar with the food in it sitting on the counter, then turning the base with the blades in it upside down to screw on the masin jar like a lid. Then flip the whole thing over to place on the motor base and blend. Finally reverse the steps to open the jar.

It's spozed to be less messy... :P

[RawMagnolia]

HMMM... that's really interesting. My blender does screw in on the bottom... I wonder... hahhaha. I'll have to "play" when I get home and see if I can achieve this! Your explanation was terrific Shivananda!!

By the way... is that your actual name? If so, what kind of ancentry does that come from?

Thanks!
Sandra