When I started getting into health food and veganism coconut oil became a big deal for me soon after I also discovered there was coconut butter, at first I was confused about the difference and it seems i'm not the only one. Coconut butter is the flesh of the coconut that has to be blended to make a smooth, thick and creamy (solid mixture when cold and runny if warm). It is different to the oil which is extracted, think of it like peanut oil and peanut butter. Coconut butter is actually healthier than the oil, in that the butter has fiber and other nutrients, where as the oil is pure fat.
I just recently posted my RAW vegan chocolate recipe, where I used coconut butter for the white tops for some of my chocolates. If you are interested in RAW chocolate and it's health benefits check out my post here.
I didn't go into too many details about how I made the coconut butter on that post but was asked in the comments where to find coconut butter. The simple answer is you can easily buy it from health food shops and online but if you like homemade things like me, then it is possible to make your own coconut butter. It's pretty simple, all you need is desiccated coconut but it does takes a while to get the butter texture and if your food processor isn't powerful enough it might not turn to a butter at all.
Let's get started ......
These are the only ingredients you will need
250g good quality desiccated coconut (ideally organic)
2 tbs liquid coconut oil (preferably virgin / organic)
Put the desiccated coconut into a powerful food processor
Turn the food processor on the highest speed
When the coconut starts sticking, scrape down the sides regularly
After about 5 minutes or when the texture of coconut is quite thick add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
Keep blending for at least another 5 or 10 minutes until the texture turns into more of a paste, if you can keep blending until it's a liquid.
As you can see the texture of my coconut butter isn't quite liquid but this is because of the general temperature of the environment i'm making it in is too cold. I was blending for over 20 minutes in total and this is the final texture so I decided it was enough for the purposes I needed it for. It will become soft anyway once you give the mixture a warm bath. My coconut butter solidified over night, I warmed it up this morning, as you can see the texture is suitable enough for spreading.
The coconut butter is really nice as it is for spreading on toast but if you have a sweet tooth or are using the butter to make chocolates you might want to add sweeteners like coconut sugar, agave nectar or stevia, whilst the coconut butter is in liquid form. Making white and dark chocolates has a divine effect on the eyes and palette, especially good if your are allergic to nuts and can't use a cashew nuts paste to make white chocolate, this is a great alternative.
You should definitely give coconut butter a try especially if you are not vegan and consuming diary because there are many amazing health benefits from eating coconut butter and it doesn't contain the cholesterol that diary butter has and non of the nasty chemicals that low fat spreads have. It's sweet, nutty and naturally delicious!
🥑 🍎🥝 🍉 🍇 🍐🍓🍈🍋🍑 🍍🍊🍌🍏
switching to a plant based diet 🌱 can change your life and change the world
✌️Join the food revlution now✊
Thanks for reading