I’ve been on a total nut butter gifting spree lately. By the time I’m finished rattling all these nuts in my food processor, I may need a very strong hearing aid. Eric is convinced I’m slowly going deaf, so I guess covering my ears for dear life while processing nuts isn’t helping much. These things should come with ear protection, don’t you think?
Mind you, this is coming from the guy whose subwoofer and surround sound used to blast me out of the house when he played his beloved Counterstrike game on his computer. He also likes to watch movies so loud, you feel like you’re sitting in an IMAX theatre and the floor is about to fall out from under you. Yes, I’m pretty sure he’s lost more hearing than I have.
Despite the noise, I love making nut butter – it just feels so gourmet and fancy, not to mention once you get the hang of it, it’s quite easy. Without a doubt, it has to be made in the right processor though. In the wrong processor, making nut butter can be a complete nightmare with engines blown out, powdery nuts, and even melted processor parts. I’ve experienced all of these in the past, which is why I don’t recommend making nut butter unless you have a high-powered, heavy-duty processor that can handle the task. I have a 12-cup Cuisinart processor and it works very well for making nut butter, although the lid can be a pain to clean at times.
There just so happens to be a lot of nut-butter crazed people in my life, all of whom are female. Coincidence? I made this Maple Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter for my sister Kristi, the peanut butter fanatic. I’m pretty excited for her to try this because I don’t think she’s ever been around to sample any of my homemade nut butters before! It’s currently traveling across the Canadian prairies and will soon be on her doorstep any minute now…that is, unless someone else gets to it first. Did I mention a customs dude once ate half a box of my Glo bars before proceeding with the shipment? I’m kinda paranoid now.
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Chunky Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter
Yield
1 cup plus 6 tbsp
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
One of my all-time favourite homemade nut butters, if not the favourite!
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted roasted peanuts + 1/3 cup for later
- 1/2 cup raw unsalted macadamia nuts*
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon, or to taste
- 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt, or to taste
- 5 tbsp Sucanat sugar*
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup raisins
Directions
- Place 2 cups of peanuts and macadamia nuts into food processor and process until the mixture resembles peanut butter, stopping to scrape down the side of the bowl if necessary. This can take up to 10 minutes.
- Process in the cinnamon, salt, Sucanat, and vanilla, adding gradually. The sweetener will at first thicken the peanut butter quite a bit, but keep processing and the heat will eventually melt the sugar and smooth out the nut butter once again. If it still looks too thick, keep processing!
- Pulse in the raisins and 1/3 cup of reserved peanuts, leaving it very chunky.
Tip:
- Macadamia nuts, thanks to their high oil content, create a super silky and decadent nut butter, however this recipe should work without it. It just might come out a bit thicker.
- I do not recommend subbing the dry granulated sugar for a liquid sweetener like maple syrup. Maple syrup has ruined batches of my nut butter in the past because it can thicken and create a strange texture in nut butter. If you don’t have Sucanat, brown sugar may work but you probably won’t need to use as much.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Still to come – the double cookie dough balls and cookie dough nut butter I made for my sister Kerrie.
I’d love if some of you could share below if you’ve had success – or not – with your particular food processor brand (or blender) when making nut butter. I think this would be really helpful for those wondering if their machine will fit the bill! Share your horror stories and successes….
I’ll start with one of my own stories. Minutes after opening a brand new Kitchenaid food processor a few years ago, I decided to process some pitted honey dates. Did I mention they were dry as a bone? Yeah, bad idea. After only seconds of processing in my sparkly new machine, I managed to melt part of the plastic on the processing blade and overheat the machine rendering it useless. I had to send it back to be repaired (which luckily they did), but my processing confidence never fully recovered…
Great favor combination!
Makes me wonder if I could make my own peanut butter in very small amounts:)
Homemade nut butter is the absolute best. It really couldn’t be any easier, and the flavor combinations are nearly endless. This cinnamon raisin version sounds great, especially with the addition of maple! Your sisters sound like lucky girls ( I’m excited to see the cookie dough nut butter too!)
Mmmmm, looks divine! I love this combination of flavors, especially in a nut butter spread. Perfect!
I’ve been wanting to make my own almond butter for years and I just got myself that 12 cup Cuisinart (thank you Air Miles points!) so I’m really glad to hear that it can handle making nut butters. I can’t wait to make my first batch!
My mom has the same cuisinart, I named it jaws!
I can’t believe a customs agent did that! He was ‘testing’ them…. Imagine the surprise to opening that box.
I made three, yes three, batches of your rawtella on Friday night to add to my gifts for my female friends (rawtella, homemade hot chocolate mix, shortbread bites, and homemade chocolate dipped marshmallows completes the package). I did it in a 9-cup Cuisineart and it seemed to fair okay until my last batch. I think I should have let the food processor rest a bit! Ha. It just wouldn’t smooth out and I ran out of coconut oil and didn’t see that I could use grapeseed. Otherwise, I would label it a success… especially after I couldn’t stop licking the spatula and kept having to wash it in between batches.
This looks absolutely delish! Would using a layer of plastic wrap on top help keep the cover from getting super messy? I’ve found that putting it on top of the blender before I cover it really cuts down on smoothie build-up and cleaning time for my cover…just a thought…
I seem to be collecting appliances. My 13 cup kitchenaid was crap. Wouldn’t process anything. Neither does the 4 cup. Thankfully we get a huge discount because my husband works for the paren company, but still…what a waste! I bought an 11 cup cuisinart to replace the defunct kitchenaid, and I loved it so much, I bought the 3 cup. I’ve not tried nut butters in either, but they both work wonders with dates and figs. I’m afraid to use my VM for nut butter because I only have a wet canister. A dry one is on my list! I think a stick blender would work really well if you have a nice deep container to use w it. My magic bullet will do very small amts of soaked nuts – like for cashew cream. I run it until the motor smells hot. LOL a tribest bullet blender is also on my list. Wonder if Santa got my list…
I busted my roommate’s food processor once by trying to process dried dates. Bad idea! I now use my Mom’s ancient food processor which is a beast of a machine. It is a Hamilton Beach Scovill 702-4 model. I don’t know what year exactly it is from (late 1980s I think) but it is brown/yellow and has a wood panelling pattern on the front so that just about says it all. It works so good for everything! My boyfriend recently broke the ‘on’ button but he managed to fix it (thank goodness!). I do not look forward to the day that it croaks *knock on wood*
You always make the best nut butters! I really need to get over my fears and make some already!
Oh my, that does really look tasty. I would love to make the switch from processed peanut butter to something like this. I guess this would be a great recipe to start with. :)
I have a 7 cup kitchen aid food processor and I have made almond butter and your mocha hazelnut butter in it. It did overheat after the 2nd batch of the hazelnut spread but that was after it had been going straight for about 40 minutes! I let it cool over night and it was fine in the morning. It is a true workhorse (so far!).
My son is allergic to peanuts so I often make nut butters for our family. They really taste far better and I love that I can control the ingredients.
This Christmas my two sister-in-laws are getting homemade mocha hazelnut spread, homemade honey almond butter, and homemade pumpkin butter (Thanks Angela for the great gift ideas!).
I have an old Cuisinart (4 cup??) that I have used just once to make peanut butter (your recipe, Angela)! It went ok, but I thought it was smoking towards the end! Later on, I read in a blog (maybe this one?? can’t remember now…) post that the smoke was probably the oil mist from the nuts as they broke down. The PB was so good I will probably try it again, although I might try smashing the nuts first, just to see if that might lessen the stress on the machine. Oh, and I did stop it from time to time as it was getting quite warm. I believe I just used 2 cups of nuts when processing.
I just tried this recipe to give as Christmas gifts. I used a brand new Cuisinart 11-cup and it worked great! Very delicious. Just a quick note- the final product was a bit soupy. I only processed it for about 5 minutes (at which point it was extremely creamy)….does anyone know if letting it process for shorter or longer would help this??
Angela: I made 3 batches of this to give to my cousins for Christmas and it was a hit! It was so good I made one for myself, too. And thanks for the tip on the lovely Weck jars! Crate and Barrel also had these little red-handled spoons, so I tied one on to each of the jars full of delicious PB!
Hey Angela!
This may be a strange question, but comming from a country where nut butters are not so common, I must ask!
How do you eat your nut butters? Right from the jar as a dessert? On a biscuit? On a sandwich? With ice cream?
Thanks for a wonderful blog!
/ Tove
I love eating it straight from the jar! hah. But I also enjoy them on sandwiches (with strawberry jam is a classic), crackers, oatmeal and of course in baked goods.
I just made this last night- and oh my, its so so delicious!!!! It took quite a bit of self control to not eat half of it while I scooped it into a jar for the fridge! I made some adjustments based on what I had in the pantry- used half toasted almonds and half toasted cashews and 4 TB of organic coconut palm sugar, and 1/3 almonds at the end for the crunch and it came out wonderfully smooth and silky! :)
Glad I found my way to this recipe, Angela! I made my own cinnamon vanilla almond-walnut butter yesterday and it is INCREDIBLE and easy with the food processor. I plan to adapt your recipe with different nuts (since I don’t eat peanuts anymore) and hope to get a delicious outcome
Thanks for the push in this direction, indirectly!
-Stephanie
I just made this and it is so awesome!! Thank you Angela for all you do! You are an inspiration!!
I am a new Vegan and your site has helped me tremendously!! Going to try your spaghetti squash tonight!!
Thanks again!!
Lisa
May I ask how long this would keep for and would you keep it refrigerated? Thanks
It will keep for over 1 month :)