Walnut Butter with Cinnamon and Nutmeg

After reading about the health benefits of walnuts I began making walnut butter at home to replace our peanut butter. I have tried a few different variations of the nut butters some with pecan, or almond added and this one that was all walnut. My husband likes this particular version and it has become our standard nut butter now. It is lightly spiced with cinnamon. The ginger is added for antioxidants but the flavor doesn’t come through in the final nut butter. We have found that a little agave is necessary to round out the flavor. Without the agave the nut butter is a little too tannic for our tastes. Here is what I did.

Walnut Butter with Cinnamon and Nutmeg
Makes approximately 1 ¾ cups – 28 tablespoon servings

Ingredients:

3 cups walnuts
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger, powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ tablespoon agave

Directions:

Combine everything in your food processor and puree until completely smooth (about 3 – 4 minutes). Stop the processor once or twice to scrape the sides of the processor. Taste the nut butter for seasoning and correct as necessary. Store in a covered container in your refrigerator.

Nutritional Information (per tablespoon):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 82.69
Calories From Fat (83%) - 68.41

Total Fat - 8.18g
Saturated Fat - 0.77g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 17.11mg
Potassium - 56.79mg
Total Carbohydrates - 1.91g
Fiber - 0.94g
Sugar - 0.34g
Protein - 1.92g

Comments:

With the omega 3 fatty acids in walnuts I think it makes sense to use walnut butter as our nut butter of choice. Both my husband and I have an apple with walnut butter for our afternoon snack most days. Between the apple and the walnut this snack is a cancer one two punch. Both foods are reported to fight cancer, which works for us.

We use this nut butter on apples, bananas, pound cake, toast, as well as sometimes in our smoothies. One of my husband’s favorite uses for walnut butter was when I made chocolate candies with walnut butter inside (like Reese’s but with walnut butter). They were quite good. I have also used it in place of peanut butter in a satay sauce for seitan. The satay recipe will be ready to post soon, so you should see that one sometime this month.