Organic Sunbutter

Who doesn’t love peanut butter?

I don’t think I have ever met anyone who doesn’t.

A jar of peanut butter represents all the beautiful, though rather short, memories of my childhood with my late dad. He was one heck of a fan of anything peanut-y. To top it off, he was a dad that would skip main course for some delectable sundae, topped with hot chocolate fudge and almond slices, or a slice of warm apple pie served with ice cream, drizzled with caramel. Mind you, he was an architect and when I was 9 or 10 years old, he had a factory project; a milk and ice cream factory. I had never recalled a day of having empty freezer. It was always full of different flavors of ice creams and my mom would always make me eat my spinach before I dug in some ice creams. Not that I care much :p

Dad’s favorite ice cream was chocolate. He would take two heaping tablespoons of peanut butter, melted it with a bit of milk in mom’s old raggedy stainless milk pan then drizzled it on his chocolate ice cream.  He would then savor it over his huge pile of work in his drawing room and turned on some Matt Monroe or Andy Williams. I still prepare my chocolate ice cream that way, though not often, and eat it alone or sometimes with Amiko. It was rather a special moment to keep his memories alive and connecting Amiko to a grandfather she never gets to meet.

Ahh..

Such simple days.

Lately, I have been seeing Nigella posting her madness for cashew butter on twitter. Oh, I am sure as rain it tastes sooo good. I mean, what doesn’t taste good made from cashew nuts? The thing is,  I have another champion in my heart; sunflower seeds. Not only it taste lighter, the fact that sunflower seeds contain more vitamins, proteins, and essential amino acids than cashew nuts makes me opt for sunflower seeds even more. So I was thinking, why didn’t I make some sunbutter myself? I won’t try to find it anywhere near me cos I know they would put a crazy price for an eensie-weensie jar of sunbutter. Especially if it’s organic. Boo.

So without further remarks, here is my recipe for a seriously divine sunbutter.  

Ingredients:

-200 gr Organic sunflower seeds

-3 to 5 tbs Organic honey

-3 to 5 tbs Organic grape seed oil.

Exotic option for the grown-ups:

-1 tsp ground cinnamon

-1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Directions:

-Turn your oven on and put in the seeds. When the oven temperature has reached 175C take the pan out, shake the pan, then put it back in for around 5 minutes. Do be careful so they don't burn and just look nicely brown.

-Put the baked seeds into your blender/food processor. At first it will look coarse just like a nut meal.

                                                                                                            -Continue the blending process by adding the grape seed oil and honey. I choose grape seed oil because it is almost odorless compared to extra virgin olive which smell oftentimes too strong. Feel free to add more oil if you like creamier texture. Do note sunflower seeds also release their own oil. Depending on the power of your blender, mine is from Jurassic era so it takes..umm..half an hour, the time to get the nuts to the creamy state may differ. If you like you can use orange flavored honey to add some surprising taste to the butter.                                                         

VOILA!

Once you go sunbutter you'd never settle for peanut butter. By making your own sunbutter, you get that happy feeling of knowing your family, especially one that has toddlers, is spreading something healthy, sugar-salt-free, preservatives-free on their bread. Besides, this is great to be shared with your friends who might have nut allergy. These are made of seeds, not nuts, remember? Some recipes add a little salt to prolong the shelf-life. But who needs to think of shelf-life when what's inside that very jar won't last long! 

A little note from me about the organic ingredients is; DO NOT worry too much if you cannot find the organic ones. It is better but never a must. 

Spread it on toasted wheat bread, milk for your kids, coffee for you and your spouse, and you will all be smiling to each other on your dining the table just like the families on 70's TV commercials.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to melt two tablespoons of my sunbutter.

A bientot!

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