a video + pdf lesson for making nut and seed butters using a tabletop melanger
flipping chocolate spreads upside down
Last summer, and in the 2023 Bean to Bar Craft Course, I gave lessons on making chocolate spreads~~think nutella, but minus the sugar as the first/predominant ingredient (!), palm oil, skimmed milk powder, fat-reduced cocoa, common allergen soy lecithin, and vanillin masquerading as vanilla.
Chocolate spreads require nuts or seeds to be spreadable, otherwise it’s just chocolate in a jar. Chocolate nut/seed spreads require counteracting (disrupting) the fat of the cocoa butter (solid at room temp) with enough fat from the nuts or seeds, and at the same time, require tempering in order to keep the chocolate from blooming. So weird to temper something but not want it to set up and get hard and shiny like a chocolate bar! But that’s not what we’re making here.
I wrote about that recently here:
Nut and seed butters are a whole other (and much easier to make) concept. I have to admit, I’m a bit embarrassed it took me 9 years to start using one of my melangers to make my own nutbutter, for these reasons:
a melanger is the perfect tool,
stonegrinding nutbutter makes it easy to control the texture and,
grind in spices, whichever sugar (or not) we choose, and
it’s possible to craft our own custom nut/seed blends
Then there’s the chocolate factor. Even if you’re not a chocolate maker, stirring in chocolate bits/chunks is a no-brainer after the first time you make a nutbutter and add in leftover bits of chocolate (or craft drinking chocolate in shred form), toast a slice of bread or bagel, then slather it with the nutbutter + chocolate as the chocolate melts into the nutbutter. A dream come true!
Anybody else eat chocolate for breakfast? My mom used to make biscuits, split them open and add melted butter, then pour warm Hershey’s chocolate syrup (straight from the can) over them. In 2017 I took this food memory and reached out to Cheryl Day, baker, cookbook author, and founder of Back in the Day Bakery, to ask if I could order her biscuits. And have them shipped to Map (Oregon) from her bakery (in Georgia), for use in an inclusion bar homage to biscuits + chocolate. It was a fun inclusion bar collab.
See what I mean when I say I can’t help myself when it comes to adding things to chocolate? This time, though, it was fun to flip that notion and add chocolate.
If you’re a maker and thinking new product (yes), know that the nut/seedbutter comes out of the melanger slightly warmed due to the friction of stone-on-stone grinding, so it works best to scrape it into a bowl, let cool, then stir in the chocolate bits before ladling into clean (sterilized) jars. Also, the chocolate chunks/bits/chips work best in tempered form, so now you have a use for those last bits from the tempering run in the bottom of the bowl.
I’ve included how-to’s plus nut/seed + chocolate idea combinations in the pdf below. For starters, I think a cashew nutbutter with match oat milk white chocolate bits should be a thing. Rainbow “sprinkles” of different fruit white chocolate stirred in could also be a thing.
If you’re in the mood to craft something that’s not chocolate (we’ve all been there), I hope you enjoy this short tutorial.
And, for details of the how-to’s here’s a handy PDF
Today’s post is a peek at what’s been in the works and coming here to the Next Batch on substack: new workshops, video how-to’s + downloads, livestream demonstrations, maker interviews (and maker-guided lessons), all right here in a chocolate-happy place.
If you’ve taken my classes or know from me from the craft community then you know I don’t just share details and how-to’s, but do my best to share a-ha moments a maker or maybe-someday maker or chocolate fan can apply in real life, to their real life.
I’m excited about what’s in store, and I hope you’ll find it not just user-friendly, but friendly + welcoming, no matter where you land on the chocolate-lover’s map.
Mackenzie
One day I will stop dreaming of crafting my own chocolate bars while reading your newsletter and actually take the plunge. I think this issue may just be the stepping stone...especially if I can leave out all the bad parts found in Nutella. Thanks for the inspiration Mackenzie!
like you said earlier, Pace over perfection! it applies to dreams, too. Happy you enjoyed the post!