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Nut butters <- Food Processor

post #1 of 4
11/11/06 at 11:41pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys,

For the 1st time i tried processing pecans till they become a nut spread...
but, i didn't want to add extra oil because i wanted it to be 100% pecans..
It didn't turn out very creamy like the bottled ones, and was like..lacking oils..

Now, i used raw pecans.. I processed em for like 10 minutes on and off.....till it can't go finer...

Anyway, does roasting them lightly actually gets the oils out and results in a creamier butter, or,
it's my food processor...
Shud i use a burr grinder like thing?? (smash rather than chop) :confused:
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post #2 of 4
11/12/06 at 3:54pm
Grinders that make nut butters are burr grinders-ones with coarse teeth that grind against each other. This crushes the nuts as well as cuts them.
A food processor is only a cutting machine. If you try to keep grinding the nuts, you'll cut them so small that they'll start releasing oil, but the meats won't get any finer and the result still won't be any smoother.

If you have a burr coffee grinder, it might do pretty well making nut butters. I'd give up on it as a coffee grider though.
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post #3 of 4
11/12/06 at 6:17pm
Not only would a burr grinder not give you a smooth nut butter, you'd probably muck up the grinder in the process.

Most brands of nut butters use toasted nuts, so toasting the nuts should give you a more authentic taste. As far as processing goes, it makes no difference. A food processor will only grind nuts so far. If you toast the nuts and then process them while still warm, that might help the oils liquefy and they might process more smoothly, but, if you're already processing the nuts for 10 minutes, that probably generates plenty of heat anyway.

Creamy nut butter is made by crushing the nuts with massive steel rollers. This isn't feasible at home.

I've been working on a creamy nut butter in a blender that utilizes toasted still hot nuts and some heated oil (to help it blend). So far, it's taking a lot of oil to get this to work. My ultimate goal in this regard is a homemade nutella.

The right blender helps as well. Vitamix blenders are supposed to excel at making nut butters. At some point I'm hoping to squeeze a vitamix blender into my budget.

The other option that I tried with less than stellar results was a mortar and pestle. You had to use very small amounts of nuts, a lot of elbow grease and it still wasn't peter pan creamy.

I really think some form of added oil is the answer. Achieving a perfectly creamy no oil nut butter at home... I'm pretty sure it can't be done.
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post #4 of 4
11/12/06 at 9:38pm
Thread Starter 
Sigh, :(

I was hoping to explore different kinds of nut butters coz i've tasted quite a list already, except for walnuts and pecans..

Tot of using the pestle and mortar too :P ... but....guess i gotta abandon that idea too..hahaha...

Anyway, dun think i'd wanna use a coffee burr grinder...tht'll be quite a mess to clean up... :D...

Thx guys
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