Recipe - Peanut, Walnut and Almond Butter

Recipe time. From a previous post on how to fill your time during the corona virus you will see that I made peanut butter. Since then I have made another batch of peanut butter, a jar of which I am quickly working my way through and another which is being gobbled up by my little nephew Henry. For the first batch of peanut butter I purchased the peanuts which were shelled but still have the skin on the outside. These are dried peanuts as opposed to the blanched variety. The second batch I used the blanched option after much fussing around on batch one trying to remove the skins after toasting in the oven. Problem. The blanched peanuts didn't have as much flavour as their skinless, blanched counterparts. I also heard that the removal of the skins was optional. This time around I thought I would get it a try without removing the skins and see if there are any flavour or textural problems with leaving the skins intact. 

Alright then, let's begin.

Ingredients:

500 grams peanuts

250 grams walnuts

250 grams almonds

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

Method:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 150°C 

Step 2: Spread nuts evenly over oven tray or trays.

Step 3: toast in oven for 20 minutes rotating trays if required. When you start to get the aroma of toasted nuts in your kitchen and before the nuts are burnt is the time to remove them from your oven to cool.

Step 4 Transfer the nuts to the bowl of a large food processor and on maximum setting whizz (is that the technical term?) for 5 minutes. Rest processor for 5 minutes to save the engine. Then give it another 5 minutes. I guess you could skip the resting part if you have a very expensive processor. As the time ticks on you will at times think that nothing is happening but just be patient and let the magic happen. The objective is to get the nuts to release their oils so that you end up with a nicely spreadable butter. I have just checked out my butter at halfway and am tempted not to do the second whizzing. (there it is again, hope you don't mind the technical words in this post). The first time I made peanut butter the taste was great but texturally it was a bit on the dry side. With that fear in mind I have started the second processing. At this point I have my food nerd on and am excited about what the end result will bring. I can kind of hear Obi Wan Kenobi's voice in my head saying "be patient young Jedi" and to him I listen. At the end of the second 5 minutes the butter glistens with the sheen of it's own oils.

Step 5: Add the other salt, golden syrup and olive oil and whizz for another minute to incorporate. You could also use this addition to push down any sediments from the sides of the bowl. 

Step 6: transfer to jars for use and sharing with family and close (really close) friends

Step 7: Actually step 6, spread straight from the processor onto a slice of fresh bread and test it out.