Use a food processor to grind down maple-drenched cashews and almonds to make some seriously delicious nut butter! Using about 2 cups of nuts will produce about 1 1/2 cups nut butter. Store the stuff in mason jars in the fridge for up to four weeks. If it's too dry to spread, mix in a drizzle of oil.
Course: Main Course
Keyword: maple
Author: Beth Cato
Ingredients
Toast
2cupsnuts1 cups almonds + 1 cup cashews, or 2 cups cashews, or try other combos
1/4cuppure maple syrup
After processing
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1teaspoonmaple flavoroptional, but adds oomph
1/2 - 1teaspooncinnamon
1Tablespoonavocado oil or other oil, more as needed
sprinklesea salt
Instructions
Preheat oven at 325-degrees. Line a rimmed baking pan with sturdy aluminum foil. In the pan, toss the two cups of nuts with maple syrup until they are coated. Toast for about 15 minutes, checking about every 5 minutes to toss the nuts around. Let the nuts cool for 30 minutes or so.
Add the nuts to a food processor. (Note that you'll need to pry some off the foil.) Put the lid on and start processing. Run for 2 to 3 minutes then scrape down sides. The mix will look coarse and gritty.
Continue processing, pausing every 1 or 2 minutes to scrape sides of bowl. Mixture will start to clump together.
Continue grinding. The nuts will release more oil and start to smooth out more. Continue to stop and scrape the sides every 2 minutes or so to give the machine a break. After about 10 total minutes, it will look like nut butter but it won't be done yet!
Continue processing. It will smooth out and finally evolve to a liquid-like form that snakes across the blades. This will be at about the 15 to 20 minute point. Add the rest of the ingredients and process another minute or so to blend together. Taste test to see if you need to tweak things.
Transfer the nut butter to mason jars to store in the fridge for up to four weeks. If it seems especially dry, mix in a drizzle of oil.