toasted coconut butter January 18th, 2013

Thank you, everyone for all the emails and comments after my last post! One of the things you want more of is food and recipe posts. And I do too! I am a little insecure about my food photography skills especially when there are so many drop dead gorgeous food blog out there, but that is a silly reason not to share the awesome recipes I’ve found with you. I also wonder if you will find the recipes I like awesome, because I’ve adopted a rather odd way of eating–no, not with my toes. Last year I stopped eating gluten and felt so great I soon forced my whole family over to the gluten-free/dark side. Slowly I stopped eating legumes and most grains too and one of my new year’s resolutions was to cut out sugar from my diet. Wow, could I be more unfun?

I feel like I have to confess this all to you because the recipes I make are sometimes odd. Even if I don’t eat a lot of what is normal, the food I eat is always delicious! This recipe for toasted coconut butter proves my point (I think, I hope). I never knew coconut butter existed before last year. It’s a lot like nut butters, super delicious but more savory and crazy expensive ($15 a jar!). Toasting the coconut brings out a nutty sweetness and grinding it yourself brings the price down (~$5 a jar). All these dietary confessions are making me hungry–I think I might go scrape the last bit of toasted coconut butter out of that jar up there–and you need to go make some!

toasted coconut butter

ingredients:

16 oz unsweetened, shredded coconut

a pinch of salt

directions:

Heat the oven to 325 degrees Spread the coconut out on a cookie sheet and put in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Taking it out after 5 minutes to stir the coconut, so it toasts evenly. Let the coconut cool (at least 10 minutes, but longer is fine) Put the coconut and salt in your food processor or high-powered blender. Buzz, whiz, chop, whatever the verb is, for 5 minutes. The coconut will get clumpy at first, then slowly turn more smooth and liquid-y. Be sure to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula a few times, so all the coconut turns into coconut butter. Pour into a jar and store in the cupboard.

a word about texture

Coconut butter is weird. It is liquid when it’s warm (and when you make it fresh) and very solid below 70 degrees F (20 C). Think of coconut butter like you on a tropical island: totally relaxed when it’s over 80 degrees F, but uptight and pissy when it falls below 70 degrees F. So be sure to store your coconut butter in the cupboard. because it will turn into cement in the fridge. To eat it you can warm the whole jar in a hot water bath or heat a bit up in the microwave (30 seconds at 50% power–it burns easily!). What to eat it with, you ask? I have a delicious recipe coming up on Monday, so you’ll have to eat it straight from the jar until then!

variations:

quick disclaimer: I haven’t tried any of these, but really you can’t go wrong adding sugar and nuts or chocolate to pretty much anything.

maple pecan coconut butter:

follow the recipe above, but toast 1 cup pecans at the same time as the coconut (on a separate pan), then grind both the nuts and coconut together. When all is mixed up and smooth, add 1/4 cup real maple syrup.

honey cashew coconut:

same as the maple pecan, but use honey and cashews instead!

chocolate coconut swirl:

after everything is smooth, swirl in 4 oz. melted dark chocolate. It’s like a grown up Goobers.

coconut caramel butter:

okay, this one might be a little much, but I think a mixture of 1 part dulce de leche and 1 part coconut butter would be pretty freakin amazing. Oh look, I have a recipe for dulce de leche right here.