Kalmia wrote:
> On Jun 22, 3:01 pm, "Steve Freides" > wrote:
>> Christopher M. wrote:
>>> Butter doesn't taste good by itself.
>>
>>> Can't cook with peanut butter.
>>
>>> Peanut butter is bland without salt.
>>
>>> W. Pooh (AKA Winnie P.)
>>
>> If you make your own, almond butter with a percentage of peanuts is a
>> healthier alternative and tastier, too, IMHO. As mentioned here
>> several times before, I use about 3/4 almonds, 1/8 peanuts, and 1/8
>> cashews for my homemade nut butter and I think it's a fantastic
>> combination.
>
> Will you please give the entire recipe and prodecure? Sounds
> wonderful.

I've posted it before but here's a quick description of what I do.

I use a Sunbeam Oskar, which is a mini food processor. The mini basket
on some full-sized food processors should suffice. You want a
straight-edged blade, not serrated.

I use all dry-roasted, unsalted, whole nuts that I buy from Trader
Joe's. Although I eyeball the measurements, I've checked them and they
a 2 cups almonds, 1/3 cup cashews, 1/3 cup peanuts.

Doug's reply mentions that you have to let them grind a long time -
that's true. If you're starting to go deaf by the end of making a
batch, that's about right. My procedure is this:

Start the food processor with only the nuts in it and let it run until
the top half stops moving. At that point, I add about 1 tablespoon of
refined coconut oil and a 1 teaspoon of non-EV olive oil. Grind again,
this time until all the non-moving nuts have started moving and are
incorporated together. At this point, if you stop the processor, you'll
have a very thick paste that more than holds its own shape.

From here, I continue to add small amounts of olive oil until I get the
consistency I like, which is pretty loose because I like to eat mine
mixed with sliced fruit, but mine also is thick enough to work as a
substitute for peanut butter on a PB&J sandwich. I don't like drizzling
it through the hole in the top - I prefer to take up the lid, add a bit
of oil, start it again, and eyeball the consistency, repeating this
cycle until it's what I want.

Interestingly, I recently wore out one Sunbeam Oskar and, when I tried
its replacement (both were bought used on ebay), I was disappointed that
the sharper blade of the replacement machine made my nut butter finer in
texture than I like. I've gone back to using the older, duller blad in
the new machine. Mine is probably best described as slightly chunky.

Hope that's enough for someone to give it a try. The coconut oil is
strictly optional, and the choice of non-EV olive oil is because I like
the lack of olive flavor in my nut butter - you could certainly use a
different oil.

Note that if you choose to add salt and/or honey or sugar, you'll
prbably need anywhere from a little to a lot more oil to get it thin
enough. When I've added those things, I've basically made it first
without them, then added them and readjusted the texture until it was
again what I wanted.

-S-