I have come to the point where I will definitely buy organic peanut butter ready-made as you can find it cheaper than you can find the organic peanuts to make the stuff. Same goes for almond butter. But there is one butter that I absolutely will not buy in the store- no way no how: Coconut butter...behold Amazon's offering for Artisana coconut butter:
Are you kidding me? $26.95?? No thanks. I'll make my own. Trust me, I wouldn't do it if it wasn't beyond-easy. Please note that you absolutely can use a mini-processor. Here's the process:
- Buy 8 oz. raw coconut for $3.25
- Open bag of coconut
- Pour into food processor
- Insert ear plugs into ears
- Press 'start' and let run on 'high'
- Take several whiffs of bliss as the coconut gets churned
- Wait patiently until coconut becomes butter (can be several minutes)
- Pour into container
- If you feel so inclined, take a photo next to your iphone for size-comparison purposes
- Eat butter and try not to make embarrassing "mmmm" noises nor leave a bit of drool on your chin.
- Store in fridge to chill butter so that you can 'grate' it with a fork.
- Store at room temperature for a more creamy butter (or if you're in Los Angeles in the 2010 summer, it will be rock hard at room temperature as you will not see blue sky for months on end and it will be foggy and drizzly and you'll wonder why you bought all those cute breezy sundresses at Ross when really you should have bought the Ugg boots except that they are so ugly but so comfortable I'm told...sorry, where was I? Oh right, the pictures)
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| Organic, unsweetened coconut |
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| $3.25? Hello, lover. |
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| Action shot- weeeee! |
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| Sniff and wear those earplugs. Seriously. |
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| Have patience my child. This can take up to 10 minutes or so. |
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| Now it's getting creamy but has coconut 'bits' in it- I LOVE it at this stage |
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| Now it's nearly liquid- but it will solidify again. |
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| Two small containers- about 4 oz in each. |
I spent 40 cents per ounce making this at home vs. $1.70 per ounce with Artisana. Yay me... I win.
Some ideas for using coconut butter:
- spread on ANYTHING and eat it: cracker, bread, veggies
- chill in fridge and shred with a fork on top of oats, cereal or pancakes
- use on spoon or directly in hot cereal
- 'glaze' a protein cake
- heat and drizzle over pancakes
Q: What item(s) would you rather make at home than sell a kidney to buy? Favorite use for coconut butter?
20 comments:
I have SO been meaning to do this. I have the coconut. I will follow through.
how cool! i just got sent some coconut manna, which i THINK is coconut butter but i can't figure out how to use it other than melting it in my oats.
i still haven't heard back from katie yet but i'm excited to see you monday - i think it may have to be in westwood b/c there is a possibility i have a morning appt. beforehand....
Did I just die and go to coconut heaven?! You've made this slightly sad lady VERY VERY happy I shall be getting me some coconut and making this AMAZING idea reality!
xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx
Ever since HEAB turned me on to making my own I've been doing this faithfully... in my Vitamix! I don't have a food processor:( But the Vita does actually work. Takes a lot of scraping though. My new fave incarnation? (Also from HEAB?) Adding melted bittersweet chocolate to make chocolate coconut butter! Ate my whole little jar just with a spoon! MMMM
Thanks for showing the picture of the coconut. I've never been able to find unsweetened, but now I know what the bag might look like.
I prefer to make my own beans from a bag. One bag makes three to four cans' worth of beans with no salt. The bag costs eighty cents, while four cans of beans would cost over four dollars!
Would you believe that as much as I love coconut, I haven't actually tried coconut butter?! I have an Artisana sample in my pantry so I'll have to give it a go.
i can't wait to make thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis!!!! you can make like 30,000 bags worth for what it would cost for one dang jar of that already made!
i'm getting my hands on a bag of coconut asap ;) thanks girl!
I had coconut butter for the first time at your house. It was dangerously good. MMMM....
LOVE this idea. I've been meaning to try coconut butter but the price tag is too steep for me. I will totally try doing this in my food processor. I need an excuse to use it anyway!
I have been making mine for a while now. I learned that if you warm up the coconut first, the buttering process goes much more quickly. I usually just put it on a cookie sheet in a warm oven for a few minutes. If you overdo it, you get toasted coconut butter, which as it turns out, is just as yummy. The Vita makes a smoother butter than my food processor.
I TRIED this. It didn't work! Mine turned BROWN! I think the heat in the Vitamix just toasted it right up, and it never got liquidy and creamy like yours. :-(
Anon- great idea heating it for a toasty flavah! Yum0- that will be my next coconut product- thanks!
Sophia-NO! Really!? I'm so sorry about that. I've never tried it in my Vita but yeah, the blade can seriously start a fire (well nearly) as of course you know they can make hot soup from cold raw veggies in minutes. Do you have a food processor? Also I've heard that the type of coconut you use can make a difference= you might have to experiment. I hope that you only wasted $3.25 :-)
this is amaizing. i've never tried coconut butter before. this looks so easy. thank you for sharing.
I love making my own coconut butter, too! So easy - but yes, very noisy! :)
I recently made coconut butter at home, too! I honestly can't believe I didn't start doing it earlier!! I use my Vita-Mix on low, and it's "butter" in less than 2 minutes! So much cheaper, too! Oh, and I don't know how often you use coconut, but you can buy that exact brand on Amazon in bulk for even cheaper!! (but you have to buy a pack of 12 bags...) With how many raw macaroons I make, it's a good deal for me. :D
How funny...I love that you bought the breezy dresses, just like me! No Uggs here but I've debated back and forth to no end if they are cute or ugly. Anyway....if I could eat nuts I would love to make my own chocolate peanut butter. That just sounds like a little piece of heaven to me!!
I need to start making coconut butter at home soon, or it's going to get very expensive.
I think I'm on my 2nd or 3rd Artisana coconut butter bottle. I need help, lol!
Thanks for the step by step intstructions, it's very helpful. I'm glad I found your blog and happy to know you are a fellow LA. blogger too. I look forward to reading more.
I can't believe how expensive that stuff is in the store. Good for you for making it at home. Buck that blogger trend! It just goes to show that you don't have to have brand names or spend a ton of money to be healthy.
Hey wow- welcome to all these new visitors! Mandy, Lea, Boos, Ameena, Blackbook, Olie, Melissa...fun to have new 'faces' :-)
Lea-yay LA bloggers!
Mandy Kat- good call on the beans!
i purchased a 16 ounce container of artisana's coconut butter today from wf for $12. i was going to make it, but a quick google search indicated that artisana's mix tasted a bit sweeter and was creamier than most homemade mixtures. when i invest in another food processor, i'll attempt to make it myself.
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