Friday, April 4, 2008

Tip: Nut Butters

If you are like me, you probably like to buy the organic, all-natural nut butters instead of the Skippy and other such commercial brands. But if you do buy the all-natural stuff, you probably have noticed that the oil separates from the nut butter. This can be annoying when you get down toward the end of the jar and there's not much oil left, leaving a rock-solid glob of nut butter.

My solution has two parts....

1. Stir the contents VERY well when you bring a new jar home from the store -- BEFORE you put it in the fridge. Make sure you get all the way down to the bottom. This will help incorporate the oils into the rest of the nut butter. Then...

2. Store the jars upside down in your fridge. I'm not a scientist so I don't know the physics behind this, but for some reason, the oil doesn't separate this way.

Hope this helps! Leave a comment if it does (or doesn't)!!!

3 comments:

~M said...

I buy the freshly ground almond butter and peanut butters but the jarred cashew butter. The cashew butter separates, and I follow a similar technique. Before I open it, I store it upside down, at room temperature, for a few days. Then, open, stir, say "yuuuuummmmm," and store it the fridge, usually upside down.

If you have a food processor, I strongly recommend making your own almond butter. I more-or-less follow the recipe from gluten-free girl's site but basically I use dry-roasted almonds (make sure they are not coated in flour, or cottonseed oil, which I've read is bad for you), Spectrum almond oil, salt, and (raspberry) honey. I eat this stuff by the spoonful, it is so amazing. I prefer it to the store-bought freshly-ground stuff, which in turn is a million times superior to the jarred almond butter. The best part? It doesn't last long enough to separate! :) And it's fabulous in Elana of Elana's Pantry GF dairy-free power bars!

~M said...

I buy the freshly ground almond butter and peanut butters but the jarred cashew butter. The cashew butter separates, and I follow a similar technique. Before I open it, I store it upside down, at room temperature, for a few days. Then, open, stir, say "yuuuuummmmm," and store it the fridge, usually upside down.

If you have a food processor, I strongly recommend making your own almond butter. I more-or-less follow the recipe from gluten-free girl's site but basically I use dry-roasted almonds (make sure they are not coated in flour, or cottonseed oil, which I've read is bad for you), Spectrum almond oil, salt, and (raspberry) honey. I eat this stuff by the spoonful, it is so amazing. I prefer it to the store-bought freshly-ground stuff, which in turn is a million times superior to the jarred almond butter. The best part? It doesn't last long enough to separate! :) And it's fabulous in Elana of Elana's Pantry GF dairy-free power bars!

Anonymous said...

I have found that by using one prong of the handmixer and mixing the nut butter directly in the jar I can SAVE A TON of time and hand cramps!
Just be careful...the jar will spin so hold on tight:)

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