Homemade Maple Pecan Butter

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Hannah

You know how maple syrup is the greatest?

(Along with golden syrup and blackstrap molasses?)

And you know how pecans are the greatest?

(Along with almonds and cashews and pistachios?)

And you know how homemade nut butters are the greatest?

(Along with puppies? Yeah, there was no connection with that one.)

And you know how Sarah is the greatest housemate?

(I lost the rhythm a bit there.)

Well, I made Sarah a batch of Homemade Maple Pecan Butter before I left Toronto, and it was the greatest.

So great, in fact, that we were at risk of eating all the maple-roasted pecans straight from the tray before turning them into nut butter.

And so great that, once turned into nut butter, the entire batch disappeared in little more than the blink of an eye.

This nut butter is ridiculously easy and quick to make, as the high (good-for-you!) oil content of pecans means they butterise (shhh, spellcheck, let’s pretend that’s a word) more swiftly than do almonds or cashews.

Go forth and make this incredible roasted maple pecan nut butter, my friends.

Because this world is the greatest.

Homemade Maple Pecan Nut Butter

Makes 3/4 – 1 cup

1 1/2 cups raw pecans
2-3 tablespoons maple syrup, depending on your sweetness threshold
few pinches of salt

Preheat oven to 160C/325F, and line a baking tray with baking paper (trust me; the clean up is far easier this way). Toss the pecans with the maple syrup, then spread out on the baking tray.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, stirring once, until the pecans are starting to toast but aren’t burning.
Let cool for five minutes, taking sneaky bites of pecans here and there when no one’s looking.
Tip nuts into a food processor along with a few pinches of salt, and process until turned into silky smooth drippy-town nut butter. This took five minutes in my powerful food processor (scraping down the sides once), but it may take you longer, depending on the strength of yours. Have faith! Deliciousness awaits!

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend.

Homemade Gingerbread Almond Butter

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Hannah

Hey you! Yes, you, out there, behind the screen.

You’re magnificent.

And by that, of course, I mean that you are extremely wonderful. Tremendously fabulous.

Your responses to my last post? Incredible. Thank you. For your understanding, and your kindness. For reading, and for being you.

I’ve had a lovely past few days filled with friendship, laughter, heart-strengthening words, cooking adventures, more friendship, and more laughter. I’ve switched back from feeling like sobs are hiding in my chest to sneaking skips on the sidewalk again.

I’m very lucky to have people nestled so deeply in my heart, both here in North America and Australia (as well as a sprinkling of other continents, too).

Soul-friendships are magnificent. And by that, of course, I mean extremely wonderful.

The third magnificent and extremely wonderful thing in today’s post is this homemade gingerbread almond butter, which is almost as delicious, almost as uplifting, almost as rich and complex, almost as addictive and almost as wildly glorious as the act of living itself.

Roasted almonds are turned into a thick yet silky nut butter kissed with the dark intensity of blackstrap molasses, dazzled with a hint of smoky-caramel coconut sugar, deepened with heady spices, and rounded out with a little vanilla and sea salt.

It’s impossible to stop at one spoonful of this spiced almond butter. It’s not too sweet, yet it sings with the same joy that dessert brings. Equally at home on toast, a carrot, coconut ice cream, or simply your lips, I think you’ll want to make this soon.

Because it’s almost as wonderful as you are.

Homemade Gingerbread Almond Butter

Makes a small jar’s worth; around a cup of almond butter
Original recipe

1 1/2 cups (180g/6.5oz) raw almonds
2 tsp blackstrap molasses
1 tsp coconut sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and roast almonds on a lined baking tray for 8 minutes. Cool almonds for 5 minutes.
Tip almonds into your beloved food processor and process until the almonds have gone through the fine meal stage, the crumbly stage, and the clumped-into-a-ball stage, finally reaching the smoothed-into-drippy-almond-butter stage. Depending on the strength of your food processor, this can take anywhere from 8-15 minutes (My food processor is a whiz at nut butters, so it took a mere 7 minutes, but in Australia it would have easily taken 15.) You will need to stop the processor and scrape down the nuts from the sides every few minutes.
Add the molasses, sugar, spices, and salt, and then resume processing. The nut butter will initially jump back from smooth to clumpy, but after another 5-10 minutes will once more reach the lusciously smooth stage.
Eat. Revel. Love. Dance in joy. Always.

Submitted to Ricki’s Wellness Weekend, Healthy Vegan Friday, and Allergy-Friendly Lunchbox Love.

Sunflower Coconut Honey Truffles and Friendship

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Hannah

Before I started my own blog, I would spend hours trawling and reading other people’s blogs but, sadly, rarely ever commented. I didn’t realise, back then, that comments are a blogger’s bread and [peanut] butter, and that the simple act of leaving a few words can be the difference between a crummy day and a day of smiles for the person behind the blog.

(As an aside, thank you so much to everyone who has, or might in future, comment here. You turn so many of my days into days of smiles.)

Even when I did started blogging, I was initially nervous about commenting on the blogs of people who awed me with their talent, popularity, and/or on-a-pedestal-awesomeness.

One such person was Amber, whose blog I chanced upon and loved for its stories of travel, food, and fun. At first, I couldn’t bring myself to comment. The lady was clearly so effervescent, so beautiful, so intelligent, and so passionate that the thought of little old me contacting her seemed laughable.

And yet something within me told me to write to Amber. It might’ve been her love of language and grammar, the juxtaposition of her metal music lovin’ with her baking prowess and veganism, or simply the fact that her gorgeous smile invited friendship rather than prohibiting it. Whatever it was that pushed me to get over my fears and contact Amber, I’m so grateful I did.

Almost immediately, we became bosom friends in the manner of Anne of Green Gables and Diana (though we both, I believe, prefer Laura Ingalls Wilder by a smidge), and have seen each other (albeit never in person) through various highs and lows. I sometimes get confused when I remember that we haven’t met in real life but, hand over heart, this lady means so much to me that even a proper squeezy hug at an airport arrival lounge couldn’t fully convey it*.

*We will get that squeezy hug one day, though.

Amber is currently writing her first cookbook after quitting her job in an incredible leap of faith, and I couldn’t be prouder.

One more thing. If I’d never contacted Amber that dark nervous night nearly two years ago, I never would have come across her recipe for raw honey-almond butter truffles. And, in turn, I wouldn’t have been able to share with you my version of her incredibly delicious, rich, dense, and not-ostensibly-but-tangibly scrumdiddlyumptious treat.

In other words, we’re all winners at this point.

Sunflower Coconut Honey Truffles

Very slightly adapted from Amber’s all-raw recipe at Real Sustenance

1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup sunflower seed butter (interchangeable with any nut butter)
45ml raw honey (I used Manuka honey. Also, sub in maple or agave syrup if you don’t do honey.)
1 tb ground golden flaxseed
1 tb cocoa powder, for rolling
1/4c water, optional, as needed

In a medium sized bowl, combine the coconut flour, sunflower seed butter, honey, and flaxseed in a medium bowl.
Using a wooden or metal spoon, stir thoroughly to combine as best you can. As both my sunflower seed butter and honey were rather thick and solid, I had to add around 1/4 cup of water (slooooowly, as needed) until the mixture started to clump when pressed together in my hands. Be careful with the water, though, as you don’t want to overdo it and make the mixture taste insipid. Keep checking as you go, until the dough stays together when you press it together. If that makes sense…
Roll the mixture into balls, the size of your choosing. I believe I got 15 out of my delicious dough.
Pour your cocoa into a small bowl, then roll each truffle in the cocoa to coat. Store in the fridge or in your belly.
At this point, I thought back to my no-bake cookie dough truffles which looked like raw meatballs and chuckled at how, in the wake of that fiasco, I managed to make delicious sweet treats that look like wombat droppings. I then forgot all scatological references as I gloried in the complex sunflower-seed-coconut-slightly-sweet-cocoa-tinged-rich-dense-amazingness of these truffles.

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Fudge

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Hannah

STOP PRESS.

Remember how, a few posts ago, I rhapsodized over my homemade chocolate coconut hazelnut butter?

Sure you do. Here’s a photo to jog your memory:

Several of you wonderful people immediately dashed off to your kitchen(s) to try your hand(s) at this decadent nut butter, and I was elated to discover that you liked the outcome as much as I did. Emma and Errign, take a bow.

However, after making this nut butter for myself for the second time (a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do), I discovered something magical. Something fantastic. Something akin to the triumph of hearing your mother finally acquiesce to your pleas to buy a Tamagotchi (hello, grade five).

In the fridge, chocolate coconut hazelnut butter solidifies into vegan chocolate coconut hazelnut fudge. HUZZAH.

Simply pour the nut butter into a container so that it’s about a centimetre thick (or as thick as you’d like, really), and then pop the container into the fridge for a little while.

Soon, the nut butter will harden into a fudge-like creation that you can cut into little squares and pop in your mouth at will. The wondrous chocolate, hazelnut, coconut, and vanilla flavours are still there, but you no longer have to deal with the raised eyebrows of your loved ones when they discover you at 11pm with a spoon of nut butter in your mouth.

Because fudge is more legitimate than spoonfuls of nut butter, apparently.

Oh, and if you don’t like fudge?

(First, how dare you?)

Here. Have part of a Saguaro Cactus from five-year-old me instead.

Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Butter. Exclamation Mark.

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Hannah

117

There are quite a few things I enjoy doing in life that aren’t entirely, completely, incontrovertibly, or 100% good for me (or the world around me).

Such enjoyable-but-naughty-ish habits include:

1. Sitting directly in front of the heater during winter with a light cardigan on, rather than putting on layers and coping with the cold like your friendly neighbourhood polar bear would.

2. Eating half a kilo of steamed or roasted brussels sprouts and broad beans in one sitting. This makes my arteries say “hurrah; we love you!” but my stomach say “egads; no room at the inn!”

3. Writing and reading blogs into the early hours of the morning, despite the good fairy on my shoulder tugging on my earlobe and telling me to go to bed.

4. Spending my days dreaming of travel and the people I want to hug when I travel, even though my life is pottering along fairly nicely right now and I should probably stick with it for a while.

5. Hoarding this Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Butter instead of blogging it, because I’m torn between wanting to share the mind-boggling deliciousness and not wanting to look silly when you discover how simple the recipe is.

Oh, who am I kidding? Deliciousness always wins out. For a minute, though, can we pretend that I’m like totally like oh-em-gee super clever and brilliant and like tricksy-genius?

That’s a better story than the reality, which was me standing in my kitchen and thinking: “Coconut is tasty. Hazelnuts are tasty. Chocolate is tasty. With their powers combined…”

Seriously, people. Make this nut butter. It’s decadent but surely healthy, comes together incredibly quickly, and makes your brain spark with thoughts of coconutty-richness-ooh-nutella-ish-ooh-oh-ooh-chocolate-sweet-rich-melty-rich-sweet-coconut–nutty-chocolate-ooh-oh-ooh! I promise you, your life will be better once your brain is sparking.

Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Butter

Makes never enough. Recipe from my noggin.

70g hazelnut meal (You could also use whole hazelnuts; I just used what was in the cupboard. Whole nuts would probably mean the mixture takes longer to butterise.)
55g dark chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% Bittersweet)
55g desiccated coconut
pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Pour the hazelnut meal, chocolate, and coconut into a food processor, and process on high until the mixture becomes smooth and liquid-y. This didn’t take me long, probably only about 5 minutes.

After 1-2 minutes, it looked like this:

Then after another minute or so, like this:

Then a minute or so later, like this:

I probably could have kept going, but I didnae wanna.

2. Add in the pinch of salt and vanilla extract, and blend to combine.

3. That’s it! Delicious delicious easy-peasy magic tasty bonza vegan chocolate coconut nut butter wheee!

Wayfaring Chocolate

adventures in chocolate, travel, cooking, and living

Category Archives: Nut Butters

Homemade Maple Pecan Butter

Homemade Maple Pecan Nut Butter

Homemade Gingerbread Almond Butter

Homemade Gingerbread Almond Butter

Sunflower Coconut Honey Truffles and Friendship

Sunflower Coconut Honey Truffles

Vegan Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Fudge

Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Butter. Exclamation Mark.

Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Butter