After my second child was born, I cleaned up my diet a lot, and part of that process was reducing refined sugar. The problem with this was that I was a lifelong junk-foodie, I craved sweets and candy, making a mostly sugar-free diet very difficult for me to maintain. In an attempt to satisfy my urges for sweets, I dove into finding alternatives that would give me that fix, using mostly whole food ingredients. This is when I discovered coconut butter.
What Is Coconut Butter?
Coconut butter is a one-ingredient treat, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it rocked my flipping world. The discovery of coconut butter led to frenzied days in the kitchen, concocting simple treats that I could pop in the freezer to nibble on at night when the craving usually strikes.
Coconut butter is made by simply taking dried shredded unsweetened coconut and blending it until it turns into a smooth butter. To do this, you can use a blender or a food processor. That’s it – ONE ingredient, blend and enjoy. Like I said, world-rocking.
Coconut butter is different than coconut oil. Coconut oil is the oil from the coconut, while coconut butter is made from the “meat” of the coconut. Coconut butter is similar to coconut oil in the sense that it’s consistency is very much impacted by temperature and climate. Although it starts off the consistency of smooth peanut butter for me when I make it, once I put it into a glass jar in the cupboard it often goes completely hard and crumbly. For this reason, the stuff I put in jars in the cupboard is added to smoothies, and I make “candy” for the freezer with rest (the freezer helps it retain it’s shape).
Just a note- while coconut butter is made from one simple ingredient (regular shredded coconut) and no refined sugar, it’s worth noting that everything should be consumed in moderation. While coconut is full of great stuff like fiber and good fats, it is high in those fats and should be consumed in moderation (easier said than done!). Also, it should be noted that shredded unsweetened coconut works best – sweetened won’t have the same effect and you may end up disappointed.
How To Make Coconut Butter “Candy”
There are a few ways that you can make coconut butter “candy”.
- Use candy molds and freeze
- Use as “frosting” for frozen date bars
- Freeze coconut butter in silicone muffin cups with nuts for clusters
- Dip fruit (like strawberries or raspberries) in coconut butter and freeze
- Spread coconut butter on parchment paper on a baking sheet, add chocolate chips, nuts, sprinkles or frozen fruit and freeze for coconut butter bark
The possibilities are only really limited by your imagination. For every coconut butter recipe there is, you could probably fool around in the kitchen and find even more uses for it. Yep, it’s that good.
So if you’re looking for a versatile treat that has no refined sugar and is super easy to make then look no further than coconut butter!
Just be warned, it’s addictive. You might just end up eating it straight off the spoon before you can make anything at all!
More Health & Wellness:
- Here’s What I Learned From Following the Whole30
- The Health Benefits of Drinking Kombucha Tea
- The Health Benefits of the Celery Juice Trend
