Tutorial for a Variety of Nut Butters

General Instructions for Homemade Nut Butters

Included is some insight as to why it is recommended that you soak your nuts and seeds, how to also dehydrate them after you have soaked them and all of the various times for doing so. Plus, you will find some various flavour combinations and even a nut-free sunflower seed butter recipe. Hope you guys enjoy.

Remember, if you add spices and other ingredients to nut butters, they do not last as long as PLAIN nut butters. They can however be frozen.

What Nuts?

Basically if it’s a nut (and even many seeds) and you like it, you can make a butter out of it. Make sure that you select organic, raw nuts, unsalted.

To Soak or Not To Soak.

Why You Should Soak:

Most nuts, seeds, grains and beans are covered in natural chemicals – enzyme inhibitors and toxins – that protect them while growing, both from sprouting prematurely and also from predators. These nutritional inhibitors and toxic substances are enzyme inhibitors, phytates (phytic acid), polyphenols (tannins), and goitrogens. Once harvested, those same chemicals, the major one being phytic acid – are indigestible to the human body and must be broken down before consumption. When food containing phytic acid is consumed, the acid combines with important minerals like calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and blocks their absorption which inhibits our digestive systems’ ability to break the nut down properly. The very simple process of soaking releases these chemicals, helping you to absorb your food’s essential minerals and nutrients. Additionally, by soaking the nuts with the removal of these nutritional inhibitors and toxic substances, the flavor and taste is much more ideal and appealing.

To summarize: Soaking nuts and seeds makes them easier to digest and improves their flavour.

Notes

Only soak nuts for making nut butter, if you can dehydrate them (see the alongside the soaking & dehydrating chart on how to dehydrate with a dehydrator or oven).
The soaking water from nuts and seeds should always be discarded and never used as water in a recipe.
When making homemade nut butter you can either do so with the raw soaked then dehydrated nuts or following dehydration, you can roast them to bring a deeper, toasty flavour, if you wish. This step is optional.
If soaking isn’t important to you, go ahead and roast the raw nuts and use those. That is your choice. BUT, it is our recommendation that you DO soak.
Always opt for organic nuts, whenever possible. To minimize exposure to any additional unnecessary toxins, chemicals, pesticides, etc.

Go to this link for more information on Soaking

How to Make Homemade Nut Butters

(these same instructions apply to all nuts)

Ingredients

2-4 cups of organic soaked and dehydrated raw nuts (see above notes on how to do this)
1-2 tablespoons neutral, light tasting or flavor-complimenting oil, I prefer coconut oil

Optional

extra fine sea or Himalayan salt
sweetener, such as maple syrup, or raw honey
**When making nut butters your nuts can be raw or toasted. See the notes below on how-to roast your nuts.

Instructions

After soaking and dehydrating (see above), add the nuts to the bowl of a 14 cup food processor. (If you have a smaller processor, reduce the seeds proportionately. There needs to be enough room for the nuts to move to convert to butter! I found 2-3 cups to work the best in my 14-cup processor, 3+ cups definitely works but takes a bit longer to process.)
Grind to a fine powder (2-10 minutes, or so), at this time, you may want to add some oil. I personally recommend it, but it’s not necessary. Continue processing until it becomes smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl every minute or two.
Continue processing – the nut’s oils are released and as the mixture continues to warm, it should turn creamy and smooth and move around very easily inside the bowl of your processor. If not, it is OK to add a bit more oil until the mixture is runny and blending smoothly. It may take up to 15-20 minutes until it is totally creamy, this depends on the strength and size of your food processor and how many nuts you are processing. Be patient.
If you want to add salt and/or a sweetener, do so at the very end.

Notes

You can choose your nuts to be roasted or unroasted.
If roasting, add your nuts in a single layer to a baking pan and roast in a 325º F oven for about 10-15 minutes, watching them very carefully.
Toasted nuts have a deeper flavuor. Certain nuts are just better raw and others are better toasted, find what you like best.
If using soaked, dehydrated (dried) nuts, you may find you need to add a little oil, you dont need to do so with every nut, but most needed a little. Play this addition by ear. At times no oil was added and other times as much as 3 to 4 tablespoons of sesame, coconut or even olive oil was added. It helps the process move along quicker and produces a creamier result
These recipe requires the use of completely dry nuts, so please don’t skip the dehydrating. Always use DRY nuts, either soaked and dehydrated, or un-soaked.
No matter how tempting it is, NEVER add water to your nut butter, it will produce a pasty non-creamy result and the nut butter will spoil quicker.

Pecan Nut Butter

Ingredients

2 cups of raw (soaked and dehydrated) pecans to make a pecan butter.
1 tablespoon of organic grade B maple syrup,(see Maple Syrup Grade Chart alongside)
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon,
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg,
a pinch of ground ginger
a little sea salt.

Additional Optional Add-ins

vanilla extract or fresh vanilla bean
baking spices – such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, etc
raw cacao or organic cocoa powder
herbs and spices to create savoury nut butters. Such as chili powder, curry, cumin, oregano, garam rosemary etc
Savoury and/or herb nut butters make an EXCELLENT replacement for spreads on healthy breads

Instructions

Use the above simple nut butter instructions.
This delectable treat tastes like a pecan pie in a jar. It’s amazing as is straight from the jar, served on oatmeal or toasted ezekiel bread or used as you would any nut butter.

Note

Always process the nut butters completely first, then add in any extra flavors to the finished butter by stirring in by hand or quickly processing for 1 minute or less.

How to Make Homemade Nutella

This homemade rich and creamy, sweet and chocolately vegan nutell, has an amazing flavour from the roasted hazelnuts. Please confirm with your DBM Physician if coconut sugar is permitted on your program – NOT for Cancer patients

Serving size

Approx.1 ¼ cups

Ingredients

2 cups soaked and dehydrated raw hazelnuts (see above chart on how to do this)
¼ cup raw cacao or organic cocoa powder
1 – 2 tablespoons neutral, light tasting or flavour-complimenting oil – such as coconut oil
½ cup unsweetened home made almond milk or coconut milk – preservative-free
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste from one vanilla bean
½ cup coconut sugar or honey
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

Preheat oven to 325º F.
After soaking and dehydrating (see above), place the hazelnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet.
Roast the hazelnuts for 10-15 minutes, watching very closely, you don’t want them to burn. Once they are ready, the skins will have darkened a bit and many will have come loose.
Add the nuts to the middle of a damp kitchen towel. Close the towel up and rub the nuts vigorously to loosen their skins.
Take the nuts without their skins out of the towel and place into the bowl of the processor. Continue rubbing until you get the skins off the rest of the nuts. There will always be a few stubborn ones that just won’t release their skins. It’s not a problem.
Add all of the nuts to your food processor. Grind to a fine powder (2-10 minutes, or so),
At this time, add the coconut oil. Continue processing until it becomes smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl every minute or two.
This may take 12-15 minutes (possibly longer) depending on the strength of your food processor.
At around 15-20 minutes once the hazelnut butter is ready, now you can add in the remaining ingredients slowly and keep processing and scraping down the bowl for another 5-10 minutes, or until silky smooth. Enjoy a big spoonful while it is warm.

Can’t Have Nuts?

This nut-free sunflower seed butter is super simple to make and it’s a wonderful substitute in most recipes that call for a nut butter of some kind. Toasting the sunflower seeds is necessary for getting the most amazing toasty, nutty flavor possible.

Nut-free Sunflower Seed Butter

2-4 cups soaked and dehydrated raw sunflower seeds (see above chart on how to do this)
1-2 tablespoons neutral, light tasting or flavor-complimenting oil, I prefer coconut oil

Optional

fine sea or himalayan salt
sweetener, such as maple syrup or raw organic honey

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325º F. After soaking and dehydrating (see above) the sunflower seeds, spread them in a single layer onto a cookie sheet. Roast the sunflower seeds for 10-15 minutes, watching very closely, you don’t want them to burn. They should be golden brown and your house should be filled with the most incredible aroma (that somehow smells like freshly baked cookies).
In the bowl of a 14-cup food processor, add the toasted sunflower seeds and process. (If you have a smaller processor, reduce the seeds proportionately. There needs to be enough room for the nuts to move to convert to butter! I found 2-3 cups to work the best in my 14-cup processor, 3+ cups definitely works but takes a bit longer.)
Grind to a fine powder (2-10 minutes, or so), at this time, you may want to add some oil, I recommend it, but it’s not necessary. Continue processing until it becomes smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl every minute or two.
Continue processing – the nut’s oils are released and as the mixture continues to warm, it should turn creamy and smooth and move around very easily inside the bowl of your processor. If not, it is OK to add a bit more oil until the mixture is runny and whirring smoothly. It may take up to 15-20 minutes until it is totally creamy, this depends on the strength and size of your food processor and how many nuts you are processing. Be patient.
If you want to add salt and/or a sweetener, do so at the very end.

Storing your Nut and Seed Butters

Nut butters will keep for several weeks in a glass jar with a cover in the fridge.
You can also freeze nut butters for up to 4 months.
Some people make quick nut milks by blending about a tablespoonful of their homemade nut butter with a cup of water.
For this recipe, go to our Eat To Live page – and download the Eat To L i ve – Replacements booklet.