If you’re on Instagram (Nutiva is, come say “hi!”) and you type in anything related to nut butters, you’ll find thousands and thousands of posts. Take for example #NutButter or #NutButters. And that’s just the beginning of where the nut butter conversations begin. Personally, I am a fan of many brands for all the delicious and organic nut butters they have brought to the marketplace. But as the past owner of a nut butter company, A Loving Spoon nut butters, I know that you can just as easily make your own. With that, today I’m giving you my Ultimate Nut Butter Guide.

Below is a list of all the nut butter recipes I have created and published for anyone to consume.
Click HERE to save these for later.

• Carrot Cake Walnut Butter
• Honey Roasted Peanut Butter
• MCT Cashew Almond Nut Butter
• Purely Cacao Peanut Butter

Additionally, there are 4 recipes (Honey Vanilla Bourbon Peanut Butter, Salted Cinnamon Almond Butter, Java Almond Chip, and Samarah’s Cinny-Vanilly Peanut Cashew Butter) that I have never released publicly (and never will release publicly) because they are found via an exclusive A Loving Spoon nut butters recipe e-book.

 

I began the nut butter business in my home kitchen, but once the product became popular, I moved into a Commercial Kitchen, where I was able to make a larger quantity. From all the years in the home kitchen and Commercial Kitchen (and working with food scientists), I learned a lot about how to make an amazing nut butter.

 

I am asked all the time, “What is the secret to a great nut butter?”

“Hands down,” I’ll say, “the ingredients you use to make up that nut butter.” I learned very quickly that an ingredient can make or break a recipe, and I learned this through the vanilla extract sourced. Not all vanilla is created equally. Not all ingredients, on the whole, are created equally. You must choose wisely.
Beyond that, for me, it became a simple formula, and I’ll share it with you today in this Ultimate Nut Butter Guide.

 

ultimate nut butter guide

Click HERE to save the Ultimate Nut Butter Guide for later.

prep steps

1. Choose your base, aka the nut you will use.
2. Decide if you want just a plain nut butter or one that’s more dessert in nature (this guide assumes you’ll want something more dessert than plain). If you want just a plain nut butter, then you simply need to choose nut, salt or no salt, and added oil or no oil.
3. Choose either salt or no salt.
4. Figure out if you want to add an oil or no oil.
5. Pick a sweetener, if desired.
6. Decide if you want to add a nutritional boost.
7. Determine whether or not you want additional dessert-like ingredients added.

 

nut options

Use unsalted nuts, and add salt in, to taste. Using salted nuts will produce an overly salted batch of nut butter that you are not likely to enjoy.

• peanuts
• almonds
• walnuts
• cashews
• brazil
• pecans
• sunflower
• hazelnut
• macadamia
• pistachio
• sesame

 

salt options

• Sea salt
• Himalayan salt
• Fleur de sel

 

oil options

• Peanut Oil
• Coconut Oil (refined or Virgin)
• MCT Oil
• Red Palm Oil

 

sweetener options

• honey
• molasses
• maple syrup
• coconut sugar
• cane sugar
• monk fruit

 

nutritional boost options

• chia seeds
• cinnamon
• ginger
• nutmeg
• cacao powder
• hempseed

 

additional dessert-like ingredient options

• raisins
• cranberries
• cacao nibs/chocolate chips
• extracts (vanilla, coffee, peppermint, etc.)
• coconut flakes
• other dried fruit (apples, bananas, etc.)

 

how to determine quantities

For at-home, small batch quantity, the way to keep it as fresh as possible is to make them in 8oz jars.
To produce an 8oz jar of nut butter, you’ll need approximately 2 cups of chosen nuts and any other options you want added in.
For 2 cups of nuts, I would use 1/2 tsp of salt to start with. Remember, you can always add more, but you can’t subtract.
If you choose to use an oil, for 2 cups of nuts, I would start with 1-2 Tbsp oil.
If you add in a sweetener, start with 1/2 – 1 Tbsp sweetener (except not that much for monk fruit).
For the nutritional boost and additional dessert-like ingredients, start with 1 Tbsp for things like the chia seeds, hempseed, raisins, cranberries, cacao nibs, coconut flakes, and other dried fruit. Start with 1 tsp for things like cinnamon, cacao powder, and extracts. Stick to 1/2 tsp or less of things like ginger and nutmeg.

 

how to make the nut butter

1. Place nuts and oil in a food processor. Blend until creamy.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the salt and any larger dessert-like ingredients like cacao nibs, raisins, etc. and blend until completely mixed together.
3. Finally, toss in the salt and dessert-like ingredients, and blend for about 10 seconds until blended.
4. Remove finished product, and place in a glass jar.

And that’s it. Most nut butters can be stored in the cupboard, but you can place them in the fridge if desired as well.

 

What is your favorite kind of nut butter?