How To Make Coconut Butter

I’ll admit it, I’m a coconut fiend. I eat or drink from this luscious fruit daily. I sip on coconut water and sprinkle generous handfuls of the unsweetened, dried variety all over my morning bowl of oatmeal.

But all that is kiddie stuff compared to this coconut butter. It’s a sure-fire way to get the maximum concentration of rich, velvety coconut flavor and texture in each bite.

Coconut butter is unlike coconut oil; it’s an entirely different animal. Coconut oil is made from the extracted fat of the coconut meat, whereas this butter includes the fibrous shreds of the coconut meat, albeit in dried form. It’s not difficult to make but it does require patience.

I recommend scraping down the sides of the food processor after an audible change where the blades aren’t really catching any of the coconut. This will become an increasing issue as the paste starts to come together; your processor’s blades will just whizz freely after 30 seconds or a minute of work.

Slowly but surely, you’ll end up with a coconut paste similar in consistency to a peanut butter. It will be a little drier in texture but spreads nicely across toast or waffles (or anything in sight, in my case!). The butter will become solid at room temperature, but if you scrape a little off the top and throw it in the microwave for 10 or 15 seconds, it will become soft and pliable once more.

I buy my shredded coconut from my local co-op’s dry-bin area, but you can find Bob’s Red Mill’s brand at Amazon here.