I’ve been seeing a variety of yummy homemade nut butters recently. Since my husband is allergic to nuts, I decided to give homemade sunflower butter a try. Huge win, you guys. This stuff is thebomb.com. Seriously.
I thought my husband was going to eat the entire jar tonight in one sitting, and my one-year old was eating it by the handfuls (or trying to…). Then, one of my taste-testers declared it better than even peanut butter. I honestly wasn’t expecting results like that, but hey – I’ll take it. 😉
This sunflower butter has only 2 ingredients, and takes less than 30 minutes to make. Plus, it costs mere pennies compared to how much you’d normally be spending in the store.
It does require a bit of patience to whiz it up, but is truly so simple. The key is to make sure and blend it long enough to get the dreamy creamy consistency that we all love. I’ve listed the steps below, along with pictures to help make the process easier!
The first step is to lightly toast the seeds on a cookie sheet at 350º for 10 minutes. You could easily skip this step if you prefer a raw butter, but it brought out an incredible flavor that I wouldn’t want to miss.
After cooling slightly, add the sunflower seeds to your food processor. (I would definitely recommend a food processor over a blender for this recipe.) Whiz for about 30 seconds (it will look like a course flour), and then add salt and continue to blend for another minute or so. Your mixture will resemble course sand at this point.
Continue to process and scrape down the sides in 1-2 minute increments or as needed.
At about 4 minutes, your sunflower butter will begin to form a coarse ball. At 6 minutes, it will form a buttery ball.
Finally, at 7 minutes, your mixture will begin to smooth into a butter consistency. You’re getting close – but keep processing!
After 3 more minutes (10 minutes processing time), it will turn into a beautiful, smooth, and creamy butter. Congratulations – you’re done!
Now comes the fun part – pairing it with all your favorite nut/seed butter foods. Carrots, celery (Ants on a Log, anyone?), toast, apples, PB&J, smoothies, cereal, a spoon… The possibilities are endless. Please do yourself a favor and make this soon. Your tastebuds will thank you. 😉
Let me know what you think in the comments below, and may your day be seasoned with sunshine! 🙂
- 3 cups raw sunflower seeds
- ½ tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- Lightly toast sunflower seeds on a baking sheet for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Allow to cool for a few minutes while you get your food processor ready.
- Process sunflower seeds in food processor for 30 seconds, then add salt.
- Continue to process at 1-2 minute increments, scraping down the sides of the processor bowl.
- After 9 minutes, scrape one more time, and blend for 1 more minute.
- At 10 minutes of processing, your nut butter should be creamy and smooth!
- Store in an air tight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks (but I don't think it will last that long...) 🙂
Have you tried a high quality blender? I don’t have a food processor!
I haven’t tried it! It might work, but I suspect it would be too sticky for the blender. If you try, let me know how it goes!
Use your food processor! I used my vitamin and it melted the plastic off the base after only about 90 seconds of blender.
That’s horrible!! Now we all know what will happen to a blender…