Homemade Cake Batter Coconut Butter
A few months ago I was in a store and a fancy food product caught my eye: Vanilla Cake Batter Coconut Butter. I mean...WHAT. I've eaten coconut butter for years (and have even made it at home)...but this was some next level stuff. So despite the $13 price tag, I bought it (I'm kind of a sucker for novelty foods).
Hattie and I loooved it—we were eating it by the spoonful. Once we hit the end, though, I really couldn't bring myself to buy another jar.
BUT. I was pretty sure I could replicate it at home using the same ingredients and a little patience.
So that's what I did! We've been making and eating this concoction for months now. I am sharing with you today because I think it would make a wonderful DIY holiday gift, if you're into that sort of thing...and I know that many of you are, since you told me you got busy in the kitchen with last year's suggestion for Maple Roasted Nuts.
Now, if you're new to coconut butter, here are some ways you can eat it:
Straight up out of the jar with a spoon.
In a smoothie.
Spread on toast, sweet potato "toast" or muffins.
Stirred into a bowl of oatmeal.
Spread on fruit slices.
Mashed into a roasted sweet potato with some cinnamon (I love using Japanese sweet potatoes for this because they're so sweet!).
Crumbled over baked apples.
My favorite way: heat up frozen blueberries until slightly warmed and juicy. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Crumble coconut butter on top and give a good stir so it get all melty. Best nighttime treat!!
If you are giving this as a gift, you may want to include a recipe card with some of these ideas!
INGREDIENTS
4 cups dried unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean OR 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 teaspoons honey
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground pink Himalayan sea salt
INSTRUCTIONS
Dump coconut into a food processor, and process for about 5 minutes. You may have to pause and scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl a couple of times. FYI: when you let the processor run for awhile like this, it will get warm.
Add 1 teaspoon of coconut oil. This step is not necessary, but it does help to facilitate blending and speeds up production time quite a bit. Let the processor run 5-6 more minutes, until the consistency looks like this.
Then add the vanilla, honey* and salt.
*I use less honey when I'm making it for myself, since we consume it almost daily and I don't really love sweet stuff. Use more if you're gifting it as a treat!
Pulse a few times until ingredients are incorporated into the coconut butter. The texture will change a little bit—it will look something like this.
Using a metal spoon, scoop the mixture into a glass jar. Pack down each scoop with the back of the spoon. This step is important, because you want it to be one unified mass instead of crumbles.
This recipe fits perfectly into an 8 ounce glass jar, which I think is a lovely size for a gift. Increase the recipe size if you're making more and/or buy smaller jars if you prefer. I always save all my glass jar containers for projects like this!
