Chai Spice Nut Butter

Drooool……this was amazingly good. I got the idea from this blog   http://edibleperspective.com/2011/12/chai-spice/ and thought I’d have a go at making my own nut butter as the peanut butter I currently buy is made with palm oil and I am trying avoid that because I don’t think it is good for the environment as the destruction of the rainforest and the displacing of orang-utans is often linked with palm oil harvesting and production. It is surprisingly easy to make your own nut butter, but be warned: it is LOUD. You have to run your food processor for ages and for those sensitive to noise like my Spiderman--best make it when they are not home.

The blog I copied it from made almond butter--which I bet would *heavenly* but was too expensive for right now as I am waiting for almonds to go on sale. I decided to make peanut butter as peanuts were cheaper--2 cups roasted, unsalted nuts were £1.07. 2 cups almonds would cost me about £5.

To make your nut butter:

Put 2 cups nuts (toast them yourself or cheat like I did and buy roasted nuts) in your food processor and run for what seems like  fecking forever, stopping every once in a while to scrape down the sides.  Fecking forever might be an exaggeration--it is really only about 8-12 minutes. Feels like longer, I assure you--but totally worth it.

It will be all crumbly, then like a big ball of dough and then will finally smooth out into a creamy spreadable butter.  I found it helped to add a few TB of rapeseed oil (canola) to help make it not so crumbly. I probably should have let it go longer but my machine was making a slight burned rubber smell as it does when I run it too long.  Despite that,  it tastes fab even if it is not as spreadable as the commercial kind--which makes me wonder how much palm oil is there to make it so smooth? It tastes particularly nice straight out of the machine where the blades have warmed it. Mmmmmm…warm peanut butter.

But what about the chai part you ask? Well I’m glad you did. First mix up this chai spice mix (thanks to the Edible Perspective blog for this idea)

Chai Spice Mix

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp ground cloves (not gloves as I had previously typed--thanks Mum for pointing that out)

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp allspice (I added more like a ½ tsp as I really like allspice)

Mix all together in a small jar. That’s it!

Now to pimp your peanut butter:

 Put your freshly made nut butter in a bowl and add:

  1 TB liquid sweetener--she used honey, I used agave, but you could use maple syrup as well.

2.5-3 tsp chai spice mix

1 tsp vanilla essence

¼-½ tsp sea salt (smoked sea salt if you can get it--yum!)

Stir it all together and spoon into a sterilized jar. A salsa jar was perfect for mine. I sterilized by filling it with boiling water and then wiping it dry. Store in the fridge.

I didn’t take a photo of the final product as it looks a bit crumbly in the jar and not very photogenic, but let me assure you it tasted DIVINE. It was really good stirred into hot oatmeal. Or on a spoon. If I made it again I might add a bit more oil or try to blend for longer (maybe if I had earplugs) as it was a wee on the crumbly side--which did not affect the taste only the appearance.

Have a go at making your own nut butter (especially with the chai) and you will not be sorry. Deaf maybe, but not sorry.