Anybody make their own tahini??

[tvillemom]

I can't find RAW tahini anywhere. I have a VM and was wondering if I could make it in there? Anybody make their own, if so, how do you do it...do you add anything???

Thanks.

[Veganforlife]

Yes. I actually make it in my coffee grinder. The sesame seeds grind up really find and then get pasty and perfect for what I need it for. And I don't add anything else. Just that...

[rawpreston]

Yeah I make it with my Blendtec, I'm sure it could be done with a VM as well.

I don't add anything to it except some salt. When I first made it I added a little olive oil to assist the blending process, but now I don't. I find that if you soak the seeds first and they're still wet, it makes it really hard to get blended, so you'll probably have to dehydrate them in that case. I did that once and i think it's too much effort.

But my process goes like this: put 2 cups dry, hulled sesame seeds into Blendtec container, and start doing numerous cycles at speed 1. It may cavitate and adhere to the sides but I use a wooden spoon to knock it down. Eventually it will stop cavitating and it will start blending on its own, that's when I take the speed up to 5 and run a few cycles there. Depending on how many I do (about 3-4), it does eventually get nice and smooth. I add a few pinches of salt near the end.

delicious!

[rawstrength]

I make it in my vitamix. I freeze the sesame seeds first so that they do not overheat when being blended vigorously in the vitamix. I just use sesame seeds, nothing else.

[raweater]

I've actually found that in most recipes (those made in a blender) you can substitute tahini for sesame seeds and they will turn to tahini in the blender while making the recipe. This saves a lot of time and I no longer make tahini because the only recipes where I used it are made in the blender anyway.

[JEN]

Me too raweater. I make it as the recipe calls for it because its usually in the blender or processor anyway. My fridge is always overstocked with no extra room anyway since I live with a mostly cooked family.

[rawstrength]

I also do what Raweater and Jen do when a recipe calls for tahini. But sometimes I like having plain tahini around as a spread.

[Visorblue]

Vitamix has some interesting how-to videos (http://www.vitamix.com/household/products/super5000/maxnut.asp) on their website, including making tahini.

[tvillemom]

Thanks ya'll!