Good morning!
No one wanted to get out of bed this morning…especially Sketchie! We woke up to quite the snow storm.
I was feeling a bit congested this morning, so I came down to the kitchen and made myself a delicious Classic Green Monster amped up with a 1/2 cup of frozen organic blueberries (that I saved from the Farmer’s Market in the summer). It was a delicious and energizing way to start the weekend on the right track.
Oh, I also had a bit of Dark Chocolate Pecan Butter in the mix too…
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Dark Chocolate Pecan Butter
Quite possibly the smoothest, silkiest, and richest nut butter I have ever tasted. This is a definite show stopper with an intense chocolate taste.
Yield: 1 cup
Adapted from Dark Chocolate Almond Butter.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups toasted pecans
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 tsp coconut oil (or other oil may work)
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
Directions: Toast 2 cups of raw pecans for 10 minutes at 325F. Watch closely so you do not burn them. Place the 2 cups of toasted pecans into a food processor. Process for about 5-10 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl every minute or as necessary. The toasted pecans will form into a butter much faster than the almonds do.
Just before your pecan butter is ready, add the 1/2 cup chocolate chips and 1 tsp of coconut oil to a small pot. Melt on low. You want to remove the pot from heat when there are still some chocolate chip clumps remaining. Don’t worry they will melt as you stir the mixture. I always take it off the heat a bit early to avoid burning the chocolate.
Add the melted chocolate to the pecan butter (still in the processor) and process for a couple minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add your kosher salt to taste and process more. Scoop into a container and store in the fridge. Makes 1 cup of Dark Chocolate Pecan Butter. Refrigerate. Note that the pecan butter firms up in the fridge. Allow it to sit at room temperature to soften before using.
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Toast your pecans for about 9-10 mins at 325F.
Process the pecans in a food processor for about 5-10 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. The toasted pecans will turn into pecan butter much faster than the almonds do!
This was after about 5 minutes…
Add in the melted chocolate and coconut oil into the pecan butter…
And process for another 1-2 minutes. Season with kosher salt to taste.
You will be left with silky, smooth, buttery, and intensely chocolaty pecan butter. I had to hide this from myself deep in my refrigerator!! Oh my, is this a good nut butter.
Coming up, a delicious Curried Lentil Soup recipe I have made a few times over the past few weeks, but have yet to share…
Also, coming up….I will talk about my Winter 2011 training plan and the homemade Light box we made this week…
Nerd alert!
Have a great Saturday!
Light boxes seem to be popping up everywhere! I must make one soon. One that can also store easily in my small spaced….
The pecan butter looks absolutely delicious! I bet it would be great made into some fudge or perhaps pecan butter cookies?
lightboxes are the best, i have one i made as well.
Wow, the Dark Chocolate Pecan Butter looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it, thanks. Light boxes are fun, hubby got me a pop-up tent style one for Christmas that I need to use more. :-)
I have never tried chocolate nut butter, but I can just imagine how wonderful they must be. Your creation looks amazing!
Sweeeeeet light box!! Can you do a post telling how you made it, what you bought for it, etc.? I would love to make one!
Awwww, it wasn’t a nerd alert, it just shows your passion for your food pics! Hehe. I have been asking to have one made for me for a long time ;)
I need this lentil recipe! It looks amazing!
Happy Weekend
xxoo
That dark chocolate pecan butter sounds absolutely divine! You are making me want to try making my own nut butters now!
angela,
love your blog. what vitamix model do you recommend? i have been saving to splurge on one. is there a basic model that will cover green monsters, nut butters, soups? thanks!
I have the most recent VM (not sure the model) and it works great…I cant comment on the others, but I have heard you can’t go wrong with any model…
Looks divine! :D
I can hardly wait for that soup recipe. Lentils = love. :P
Great post as usual; your blog makes me cry with covetousness for a good food processor!! :
this looks like your best nut butter yet!
Stay warm!
Your place always looks so cozy.
Great light box.:)
any good ideas to eat the butter with? :P
I’ve found that the nuts higher in oil (I think they are anyway :P) like pecans and macadamias blend to the butter stage a lot mroe quickly and easily than nuts like almonds :) Gosh, these dark chocolate versions of yours are killing me! Just have to get through my three store-bough and one home-made jar of nut butter first… :P
I’m thinkin white chocolate pecan butter sounds pretty amazing for a non- caffeine girl!
Ooooh i love your lightbox! I need to make one really badly.
I made my first almond butter last week and it was AMAZING! I love making nut butters and can’t wait to branch out!
Oh my gosh not another delicious nut butter! Yum yum yum. I made your chocolate peanut butter today and it was very good!
I love all these nut recipes because I’m not a big fan of eating nuts so this is a great way of getting them in my diet without eating them raw. Brilliant!
I keep coming back to this post and staring at the picture of it dripping off the spoon. I can’t wait to make this later today — if it tastes half as good as it looks, it will be fantastic!
That nut butter looks so delicious, I fear I would want to eat it like soup! However, I cannot get over the fact that you do not have curtains on your bedroom window! :D