Homemade Hazelnut Butter

We’ve been really big into making everything we can from scratch these days, and since the list of things we tossed because it’s mostly either fake stuff or HFCS included peanut butter (WHICH I LIKE TO EAT BY THE SPOONFUL), it was imperative I learn how to replace that - and STAT.

Enter, homemade peanut butter. Except, I wanted to try something different with Oregon’s favorite ag product – the hazelnut.

Lucky for me, my favorite food blogger has a recipe for that, except not quite what I was looking for. Jessica (How Sweet It Is) made White Chocolate Peanut Butter with some nuts, oil, and a food processor. I figured the process should be easy to replicate, so I picked up some hazelnuts at the farmers’ market last weekend, and swapped out her white chocolate for some brown sugar (for a touch of sweetness).

I pretty much licked the bowl when we were done. BoyfriendMan said it made a really good HB&J sandwich.

Here’s a link to the original recipe.

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups hazelnuts
• 1 1/2 tbsp. canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tsp. brown sugar (optional, and to taste)

Method

[From HowSweetEats.com, with my notes in italics]

Add peanuts to a food processor and blend until a thick nut butter forms. Stream in oil and vanilla with the processor on, continuing to run it until the mixture is smooth – this took me about 3-4 minutes. (She’s right. This does take a few minutes, but the mixture will go from crumbly to oily. You’ll see it.) You can add more oil if needed, just do it in small increments. Turn off processor, add melted chocolate, and turn processor back on. (This is where I skipped the white chocolate – I don’t like it that much – and added brown sugar instead.) Blend until smooth.

I suppose the next thing I need to learn how to make is jellies and jams, right?

doniree

Doniree Walker is the Nomadic Foodie. She loves the exploration and community of food, and currently lives in Portland, Oregon, and loves the region's focus on local and seasonal food, daily farmers' markets and food carts at seemingly every turn. She's on twitter as @doniree and @nomadicfoodie, and blogs her adventures and life in general at doniree.com.

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Tagged as: freddy guys hazelnuts, hazelnut butter, hazelnuts, homemade peanut butter, oregon hazelnuts, peanut butter and jelly, portland farmers market, recipe