Nut Butter

I've been experimenting with nuts lately. Since the AIP diet I've been only able to eat cashews and almonds without too much difficulty as long as they are roasted. If I eat raw nuts, I feel like I've eaten a ten-course meal twice and I look like I'm pregnant with bloat. Bloat is not a good thing.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I no longer purchase almond butter after finding cockroach legs in the last batch. Eeeww. I've craved it for a long time now and considered purchasing nut grinders or food processors shopping on occasion but getting frustrated at lack of selection and bad reviews. I recently read some blenders can grind nut butter but it's hard on the motor. I even found a free Cuisinart blender on Freecycle but sad to say, I was disappointed. My cheap, $5 garage sale Osterizer blender has been going strong for ten years now and mixes much better than the reputable Cuisinart.

After discovering raw nuts are not my friends and wary of even roasted nuts, I needed to do something with the leftovers which included 1/2 cup of roasted cashews, 1/2 cup of honey-roasted almonds, and 1/2 cup of raw almond meal. First, I roasted the raw almond meal. I've never liked the taste of raw nut butter no matter what kind. Then I dumped all the nut leftovers in my blender and pushed the "grind" button.

First it turned to powder. I had hope. Then it continued to turn and mix and started coming together. It was really exciting until after about five minutes the motor started to smell like it was overheating. I turned it off and moved the nut mixture around waiting for the motor to cool. At this point it looked like coagulated powder. I turned the grind back on for another five minutes. I took a bit out with a spoon and it was like real nut butter!! And very warm!!

 

I think if I had a real grinder or maybe if I would have continued grinding longer I probably would have had smoother texture, but I was worried I'd damage my blender. The texture was fine and it tasted great. From what I understand, it never quite looks as if it'll end up butter but then at the last minute the constant grinding will release the oils in the nuts and that's when it starts getting creamy.

I can't believe all this time I've had this blender that could have made nut butter! Not that I need to start eating a lot of nut butter as it's quite fattening....