Sweet & Spiced Nut Butter

If you’ve been following my weekly recipes for a while, you might recognise this as the trail mix I posted in January 2017. You remember that, right ? 🙂

Well, I had that trail mix hanging around for a while and decided to turn it into a nut/seed butter spread to see what it would be like. It was, and is, amazing. Such a lovely mix of nuts and seeds, spice and salt. Yum factor + 10 ( on a scale of 1-10, obvs ). On it’s own, ya know, off the spoon, mixed through porridge, a schmear on a piece of toast… but then things get real — add some melted chocolate to it and set it in silicone moulds for some dynamo pralines.

In my humble opinion, candying the whole mix prior to making into butter is key! Traditional praline paste is made form caramelised nuts/seeds, so why should this be different? Go the extra mile, it’s always worth it.

100g ( ¾ cup ) sunflower seeds
100g ( ¾ cup ) pumpkin seeds
100g ( 1 cup ) walnuts
100g ( ¾ cup ) hazelnuts

100g coconut flakes, soaked 20-40 minutes, drained

30g ( 2 tbsp ) lucuma
100g ( ½ cup ) coconut sugar
75g ( ¼ cup ) maple syrup
1 tsp tamari
¼ tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Method

• Soak all the nuts and seeds together in the same bowl with enough water to cover by 3 inches, for 8 hours.
• Drain and rinse the nuts and seeds well and allow to drain for a few minutes to ensure all water is gone. Otherwise, this water can dilute the recipe.
• Combine them in the food processor and pulse to break down a little, but not too much. Keep it chunky. The point here is to create more surface area for the sweetener and spices/powder to stick to.
• Transfer to a bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix by hand to coat.
• Pour onto a teflex lined dehydrator tray and dry at 115f for 10 hours, flip onto mesh and dry the rest of the way, about 10-15 hours or until crispy.
• Allow to cool and have a little nibble…

Make it into butter – 2 ways

Stone Grinder Method – this is the one I use 

1. Grind the mixture down in a food processor until it’s a fine meal.
2. Add to the stone grinder about 1 cup at a time, allowing it to turn over for a few minutes before you add the next cup.
3. Let it grind for 2 hours or until very smooth and runny.
4. Transfer to an airtight jar and store at room temp for up to 1 year.

Food Processor Method – this is the one I recommend

1. Grind the mixture down in the food processor for 10 minutes or until it turns to butter. You may need to scrape the sides every few minutes to keep the mixture moving.
2. It won’t be as smooth as using the stone grinder, but it’ll still be yummy.
3. Transfer to an airtight jar and store at room temp for up to 1 year.