This week, I broke my Vitamix tamper while trying to make ice cream (you know, the plastic stick you use to push stuff into the blades?). It was probably the closest I've come to crying all week (yeah, over a broken plastic stick). A new one is on it's way in the post (thank God for online shopping) and I am checking the tracking status every five minutes.
One thing I've discovered while making nut butter in the Vitamix is that as your butter gets hotter and hotter, it becomes more and more difficult to blend. Fear not! I have a solution: instead of viciously stabbing your tamper into the unyielding mass and seriously contemplating buying Skippy, place your semi-blended butter in a jar and leave it to cool overnight. The next day, blend it for about 30 seconds to a minute. This turns even the toughest, roughest almond butter into a smoothie. If it's too runny, put it in the fridge to firm up.
Now for la recette. This buttah is absolutely divine on apples and pears. Or smear it on a bagel and sprinkle with cinnamon. You can buy dry roasted nuts, but they go rancid quickly. Buy raw and toast them on low heat in a large skillet. Add the almonds first and roast for about eight minutes, then add the cashews for another five, then the walnuts for another five.
Cashew-Almond-Walnut Butter
One thing I've discovered while making nut butter in the Vitamix is that as your butter gets hotter and hotter, it becomes more and more difficult to blend. Fear not! I have a solution: instead of viciously stabbing your tamper into the unyielding mass and seriously contemplating buying Skippy, place your semi-blended butter in a jar and leave it to cool overnight. The next day, blend it for about 30 seconds to a minute. This turns even the toughest, roughest almond butter into a smoothie. If it's too runny, put it in the fridge to firm up.
Now for la recette. This buttah is absolutely divine on apples and pears. Or smear it on a bagel and sprinkle with cinnamon. You can buy dry roasted nuts, but they go rancid quickly. Buy raw and toast them on low heat in a large skillet. Add the almonds first and roast for about eight minutes, then add the cashews for another five, then the walnuts for another five.
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200g raw cashews, toasted as above
100g raw almonds, ditto
75g raw walnuts, same thing
40g peanut oil
25g rice malt syrup or other liquid sweetener
1/8 tsp salt
Put nuts and oil and salt in Vitamix and process until smooth (or smooth-ish). Add syrup and re-blend briefly. Transfer to container. The next day, re-blend cooled butter until very smooth and runny.
Put nuts and oil and salt in Vitamix and process until smooth (or smooth-ish). Add syrup and re-blend briefly. Transfer to container. The next day, re-blend cooled butter until very smooth and runny.
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| CAWButter post first Vitamixing. |
This butter is particularly heavenly on fresh wholemeal bread with dark brown sugar.
I haven't blogged in over a month, but I have been working on a numbah of original recipes, which I shall post soon, provided I am not inundated with schoolwork by a free-time-loathing school system as I have been. These include:
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| Chocolate Coconut Cream! |
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| Za'atar Foccacia! (cue stop-bastardizing-food hollers from traditionalists) |
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| Chocolate Macadamia Ice Cream! Leave a comment and tell me which you'd like to see first! |
i bet the buttah was super fun! sorry to hear about your vitamix.. :)
ReplyDeletei'd like to see the chocolate macadamia nut icecream first:)
Richa @ Hobby And More Vegan Food Blog
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Thanks! All right then, chocolate-macadamia ice cream by the end of next week - once I get my maths homework done!
ReplyDeleteWhy does your icecream look so perfect and uncracked?!!?!? Smart ducky. Yours truly...anon.
ReplyDeleteHi, anon! I've posted the recipe for that ice cream. I've found that with tofu-based ice cream, I get a LOT of ice crystals, because of the lower fat content (though perhaps adding oil will solve that). Making ice cream with a banana and nut butter or just a nut cream base will not produce any ice crystals, due to the fat content. I don't even need an ice cream maker.
ReplyDeletehehe guess who anon was :P
ReplyDeleteI have no idea! No one calls me 'smart ducky', not since I was three, at least :)
ReplyDelete