1 Four homemade nut butters.
2 Sunflower Seed Butter
3 Dark liquidy consistency
4 Crunchy texture that reminded Shavon of oatmeal.
5 Thick texture, no aroma
6 Thick, crunchy texture
7 Nice pecan aroma, sweet flavor
8 Creamy and smooth-perhaps a little too oily.
9 Very liquidy with a strong hazelnut scent and flavor.
10 Smooth, mostly creamy texture with just a little bit of crunch.
11 Very sweet flavor, the closest to peanut butter.
It used to be that peanut butter was the only kid on the block but now you can find all kinds of butters. From almond, to hazelnut, cashew, pecan-- if it's a nut, chances are it's been turned into a nut butter. Seeds too, like sunflower and pumpkin, are made into butter and perfect for folks allergic to nuts. Today, on what we're calling Taste Test Thursday, Monty and Shavon got to sample a few, all but one of which I made in my blender.
Nut butters can easily be made at home either in a blender or a food processor. While peanuts don't need to have any added oil, some of the others do. Then, about a minute in the machine and you've got nut butter. Our tasting consisted of pecan butter, roasted hazelnut, cashew, almond, and sunflower. Here's what they thought:
Neither Shavon nor Monty liked the sunbutter declaring it dark and without much flavor. Definitely not a favorite. It resembled peanut butter in color and texture, but that's where it ended. The almond butter was not aromatic but once tasted, did have a mild almond flavor. Made with natural, skin on almonds, perhaps this would have been better had the nuts been roasted. A favorite with Shavon, but not Monty.
Pecan butter was very aromatic and tasted of the nuts themselves-- a plus for Monty and a negative for Shavon who isn't really fond of that particular nut. Cashew butter was up there on the top-roasted, but not salted, the nuts themselves shine through and overall flavor is mildly sweet. The last butter we tried was hazelnut and I must admit, I added a little too much oil when making it so it was a tad runnier than it should have been. Overall it had good flavor and amazing aroma.
So, Shavon's top 2 were almond and hazelnut and Monty chose pecan and cashew.
All in all, fun and informative.
From: Danielle | 3/10/11 at 10:30 pm
I LOVE nut butters and peanut butters. I started making NuttZo in my kitchen after my husband and I adopted our first son from the Ukraine who was vitamin deficient. NuttZo has SEVEN different nuts and seeds.
From: Jillian Macdonald | 3/11/11 at 10:10 am
Wow, sounds interesting - can you share the recipe?