Creamy Homemade ChocNut Butter

It’s not low-fat. It’s not organic. It has no butter. But it’s delicious, I swear!

ChocNut is a Filipino “chocolate” candy brand made with peanuts. I use the term chocolate loosely, as it uses chocolate powder, not cocoa butter. The reality of ChocNut is that it is mostly peanuts with a hint of chocolate. The good news however, is that it’s very easy to turn it into chocolate peanut butter.

This recipe needs a food processor or blender to work. Using a fork will require you to use more oil to bind the ChocNut into a spread. I’ve never really enjoyed peanut butter with the oil floating on top. Grinding peanuts in a food processor will release the oils contained in the peanuts. Releasing the peanuts’ oil gives the ChocNut butter a better flavor.

The process used here is similar to create the popular Biscoff and Speculoos Cookie Butters, but the ingredients and proportions are different. This is because Biscoff and Speculoos have no nuts, and thus, no oil to release into the butter.

The best part of this recipe for me is that it’s way more affordable than any commercially produced ChocNut butter you can find. The total cost of ingredients is less than 50 pesos.

Ingredients

• 360 grams ChocNut (about 24 large pieces)
• 1 ½ teaspoons neutral flavored oil such as cooking oil, palm oil, or canola oil

 Procedure

1. Unwrap ChocNut and place in a food processor or blender.

2. Add oil.

3. Turn food processor on and blend until smooth. If using a blender, use the pulse setting. The speed of a blender is usually too fast and throws most of the ChocNut to the top of the blender’s jar instead of chopping it. You counteract this by using the pulse setting, a series of start-stops, to slow it down. Using a blender will take longer but will still give you the right consistency. You can increase the amount of oil to keep the ChocNut down, but it can result in too much oil being used, so be careful.

4. If the spread is too thick for you, add ½ teaspoon oil and blend. Repeat until you get your desired consistency.

5. Transfer to an airtight container for storage.

6. Use as a spread on bread or biscuits. If feeling truly decadent, scoop some onto a spoon and enjoy.

For long term storage of more than 2 weeks, I recommend sterilizing the container you keep it in. See my post on Pickled Quail Eggs on how to sterilize a bottle. This will lengthen its shelf life and can be kept unrefrigerated until opened. Alternatively, store in the refrigerator and consume within 2 weeks.

Photos by Rica Palomo-Espiritu