Vitamix - Pecan Butter

Move over peanut butter!  I don't say that lightly; I love peanut butter.  Love, love it.  However, pecan butter made a recent arrival into my life and I now have a new object of culinary ardor.

I've made peanut butter and almond butter successfully.  I have a bag of pecans.  I also have a Vitamix blender (awesome, by the way).  Naturally, I made pecan butter.  There really was no getting out of it.

I didn't expect to be amazed by the outcome, but not only am I impressed with pecan butter, Joe loves it too.  Joe likes peanut butter, but not with the same vehemence that would drive me to eat it with a spoon from the jar.  Plus, Joe doesn't really like pecans.  There is something about pecans that makes him skip over them in a bowl of mixed nuts.  So when I announced that I had made pecan butter he shrugged and nonchalantly accepted the sample I held out to him.  He looked at me wide-eyed and said, "that's pecan butter?  Really?  It's amazing!".

If you want a truly amazing sandwich, pecan butter and pear jam on homemade bread is true bliss.


Pecan Butter:

3 cups pecans, unsalted

in the blender with a tamper

4 teaspoons olive oil

 Place oil and pecans in a food processor or blender.  If your blender has a tamper, use that.  Blend on high in short intervals to prevent the blender from overheating.  Blend until smooth.  Pecan butter is drier than peanut butter, adding oil will make it more spreadable.  Add the oil a little at a time to achieve the smoothness you desire.  The 4 teaspoons was great for me, I could have stopped at 3 and I would have been happy with that too.  How much oil you add will depend on how fine your blender processes the pecans as well.     

It may not look like much, but it's fantastic!