Maple Macadamia Butter of Goodliness

Also, I simply had to interrupt the Melbourne stories to share something I made before my holiday with you. Behold!

I know, I know. This doesn’t look like much. In fact, it looks a bit like dry hummus, and hummus doesn’t often necessitate “Behold!” as an introduction.

It’s not hummus, though. It’s so much better than that. Those of you who read in a linear fashion would already know what this is, because I kinda gave the game away in the post’s title.

But for those of you who read in more of a wiggly-wiggly fashion…. Behold! Homemade Maple Macadamia Butter!

This stuff is the shiz. I’m sure you all know about my addiction to peanut butter, as I mention that glorious substance here on a regular basis. What you may not know is that I equally love all nut butters, but a) Australia doesn’t provide access to a wide variety of non-peanut nut butters, and b) nuts are expensive, and I am a PhD student.

So when my mother offered me 500g of fresh macadamias, I cast away my inner picky “macadamias are one of my least favourite nuts” child and hastily grabbed the bag close to my heart. I knew straightaway that I would be using the macadamias to make, for the first time in my life, homemade nut butter.

Hot diggity dog, this stuff is the shiz. Did I say that already? To make this, all I did was give the macadamias a quick roast in the oven (you could easily skip this step if you prefer your nut butters raw), and then throw them in the food processor for some blenderising (shhh, spellcheck. I’m pretending that’s a real word).

I can’t give you an exact time for how long this takes to come together, but I’d estimate mine took about 4 minutes, though if you like your nut butters super smooth you could do it for longer.

I then added a pinch of salt and only a smidgen of maple syrup, as with this first batch I wanted the flavour to be all about the macadamias. If you want this to be a “true” flavoured nut butter, you’ll want to up the amount of maple syrup. I, however, was aiming for the rich, creamy, buttery flavour of macadamias to hold centre court.

It worked. The maple functions as a background note of sweetness ramping up the natural richness of the macadamias, and you know what the bonus of this is? The simple, natural, just-a-touch-of-complexity flavour of this nut butter makes it taste heavenly on top of some Lindt 85% dark chocolate. Behold!

Maple Macadamia Butter of Goodliness

• 2 cups (200g/7oz) raw macadamias, preferably generously given to you for free by your mother.
• pinch of salt (yes, I’m going to snobbishly say “a flaky, delicate sea salt” here but, really, use whatever you have on hand)
• 2 tsp maple syrup (the real stuff), or more to taste for a stronger flavour

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F) and roast macadamias on a baking tray for about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool.
2. Place macadamias in a food processor and process at a med-high level for about 4-5 minutes, until the nut butter has reached your desired consistency.
3. Add the pinch of salt and maple syrup, and process again briefly so that the flavours meld.
4. Normally I’d dare you to try resisting eating a third of this straightaway with a spoon, but it really is super rich. The nut butter is quite soft when you first make it, but firms up in the refrigerator and keeps for what I’d assume is a long time. I’ve been eating mine too quickly to be able to tell you quite how long it will last for…

Question Time: This is a rather self-serving question, to be honest. *ahem* What flavours would you put with a homemade macadamia butter if, say, you hypothetically had 300g of macadamias left in your cupboard?

Tagged as: macadamias, maple syrup, nut butter, vegan