Cinnamon Walnut and Brazil Nut Butter made with Stevia

This past weekend my hubby asked me to make his favorite walnut butter with stevia instead of agave to see how it would work. I made this yesterday but then got one of my twice a year migraines and wasn’t feeling up to posting the recipe or doing anything really. However, I am feeling noticeably better now and have a few recipes to try to write and post this evening.

Regarding this modified nut butter, both the hubby and I think the flavor changes little with the substitution of stevia for agave. Given the obvious advantage of the substitution in terms of nutrition, stevia will now be the sweetener of choice in our nut butter.

As usual I included Brazil nuts in this nut butter to increase our selenium intake for its cancer preventative properties. I did reduce the Brazil nuts a little since I thought my husband was consuming so much nut butter that he was reaching the upper limit in terms of selenium intake. For more information of on selenium see this post.

I find that the more I make this nut butter the more I like it. It is quick to make and I love spreading a little on apple wedges as an afternoon snack. If this nut butter were just for me I would probably add more cinnamon, since I love the flavor more than my hubby. Making this a couple of times a week I now sometimes add a little freshly grated nutmeg or a pinch of allspice to change the flavor a little. Here is what I made this time.

Cinnamon Walnut and Brazil Nut Butter made with Stevia
Makes approximately 1 - 7/8 cups or 30 tablespoons

Ingredients:

3 cups walnuts
12 Brazil nuts
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger, powder
1 pinch kosher salt
1 rounded scoop stevia

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients, except stevia in food processor and puree until completely smooth. You may need to stop the processor once or twice and scrape the sides of the food processor bowl to get the nut butter completely smooth.

Add the stevia a little at a time until it is as sweet as you prefer, I only wanted sweetener to diminish the tannic taste from the walnuts. I used a little more than one scoop that comes in the container (which is approximately 1/8 teaspoon). I think each brand of stevia has a different level of sweetness depending on the purity of the product.

Store the nut butter in the refrigerator in a covered container until needed. If you try to store this at room temperature it will try to separate like natural peanut butter. I find if I refrigerate this right away there is no separation of the nut paste and oil.

Nutritional Information (per tablespoon):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 90.06
Calories From Fat (83%) - 74.86

Total Fat - 8.96g
Saturated Fat - 1.02g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 10.01mg
Potassium - 65.74mg
Total Carbohydrates - 2.01g
Fiber - 1.01g
Sugar - 0.36g
Protein - 2.08g

Comments:

Walnut butter has become like almond milk and kale chips at our house. All of these are things I make a few times a week because we consume them so quickly. Both Dan and I have become walnut butter fiends, eating this stuff everyday for a snack. If you have a food processor it is ready in a minutes.

Each serving of this modified nut butter contains almost 39mcg of selenium, if you are trying to keep track of your intake. Polyunsaturated fats make up the majority of the fat in this recipe at almost 6 grams.

Unrelated note:

I finally made kale chips in the oven and it worked fine. With a little luck I will have those directions posted later this evening.

For now I am off to make myself a quick bite to eat since my sweetie is having dinner downtown tonight since he is still at the office.