Follow these simple instructions about how to make Easy Homemade Coconut Butter right in your very own kitchen. You'll never have to buy it again!
Have you seen coconut butter in recipes and wondered what it is?
Or have you seen it on the shelf in your local health food store and wondered how you can ever afford to use it?
Because it is NOT a frugal item in the least when bought in the stores.
Well, I have sure done both.
I saw a great recipe one day that I really wanted to try and then read "coconut butter" as being one of the ingredients. What? I have coconut and coconut oil in my pantry, and know about coconut flour, coconut sugar, and even coconut manna...but not coconut butter.
So of course I quickly looked online to see where I could get it and how much it would cost.
Well--giant pause-- it cost a mere $13.99 for a "giant" 16 oz. container on the first site I checked :-(.
Now, I don't pay $13.99 a pound for much of anything, let alone something that is made entirely of -- (reading the ingredient list)-- COCONUT! That's it?!
Which is Best for Making Homemade Coconut Butter--Food Processor or High Speed Blender?
Well, it took me back to the day when I was trying to find milk substitutes for baking since my oldest was diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to dairy and I saw oat milk on the shelf. You guess it -- the only ingredients in the oat milk on the shelf at Whole Foods were oats, water and a little sweetener and sea salt. (Sounds of my "you-can-make-this-yourself" mind churning)
So what did I do next? Of course I tried to see if there was a way that I could make it myself --
Well, I found a post about making it in a food processor.
The post said it took about 12 minutes of whirring coconut in the food processor. I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news but -- I have a seriously strong food processor. A Viking Professional (yes I bought it refurbished). This machine makes quadruple batches of my Savory Hummus a joy, yielding a creamy smooth product in about 1 minute. So I figured that if any food processor was going to be able to make coconut butter, mine would.
I put about 1 pound of shredded, unsweetened coconut in my processor and let it run--and run--and run-- and nothing much seemed to be happening.
That's when I thought that I'd rather have my food processor than my coconut butter. So I gave up.
For awhile.
Fast forward several months and I was at it again.
This time -- victory!! For me and all the frugal folks out there. Here's how to do it.
Now, brace yourself, because if you don't have one, you will need a Vitamix (you can also order one on Amazon). I suppose that this might work in a regular blender, but I don't have one anymore.
And though the price of the Vitamix is a little steep, once you see how easy they are to clean, and whip up a lot of coconut butter and:
Other Great DIY Pantry Staples
- Homemade Rice Milk
- Easiest Coconut Milk
- Powdered Sugar or Powdered Sugar Substitute
- - Easiest Almond Milk
- Homemade Nut and Seed Butter
- Powdered Egg Replacer
you'll see how quickly your financial savings will cover the cost of a Vitamix or Blendtec pretty easily!
How Much Can You Save?
One 16 oz. jar of coconut butter costs approximately $13.99. One pound of medium unsweetened coconut costs me (I purchase from Country Life Natural Foods) approximately $1.75. That's more than an 87% savings!!
I have always said that whole, real foods do not have to cost a lot of money. You just need to be a little flexible and a little creative and have a community of whole foodists to share ideas.
Need some more convincing about purchasing a Vitamix?
- I will soon be doing a post explaining how this great machine has helped our family save TONS of money over the years, so check back soon.
- You can get a great deal purchasing one through my website (special deals and free shipping are available and your purchase will help support this blog :-).)
- I know this sounds ridiculous, but here's how I think --With just your cost savings on coconut butter alone, if you make 36 16 oz. jars of it, you will have paid for your Vitamix with your savings. Since I have heard of these machines lasting 20 years (they have a great 7 year total warranty), I can easily see you making about 1 jar of coconut butter per year :-). OK. Now you know what a savings nut I can be.
4. Check out my post on Inflation - One Way to Beat It for my thoughts on the economy today and big ticket items.
Ways to Use Coconut Butter:
- Spread it on sweet crackers, or just on bread.
- Use in recipes calling for coconut butter, of course.
- Eat it with a spoon :). Straight. My oldest LOVES it like.
- As a frosting (it will need some sweetener and will get quite hard, like a stiff frosting.)
- Use as a fat substitute in recipes, but it really needs to be softened first and will make your recipe a little more stiff than otherwise.
- Works great as a substitute for nut butters in many recipes
(Note: For those of you who would like to make a go of making coconut butter in your food processor, please try it and let me know what happens. I just would encourage you to keep an eye on your machine so that you don't burn it out.)
How Should You Store It and What It Its Shelf Life?
Coconut butter keeps really well and will likely store just fine in your pantry for several months. Most likely you won't have it around that long, however.
There is no need to keep it in the fridge, and in fact, if you do, you will have hard time eating it since it gets incredibly hard at low temperatures.
Recipes Using Coconut Butter
Here are some tasty ways to use your Homemade Coconut Butter!
3 Ingredient Shortbread Crisp -- (this really uses only 3 ingredients. And none of them is a packaged mix. Don't those "3 ingredient" recipes drive you nuts when one ingredient [or more] is a mix that has a gazillion ingredients?!?!
Coconut Truffles -- 3 recipes for tasty simple healthy candies
Chocolate Avocado Truffles -- Super easy and delicious. And healthy. You won't believe these are made with avocado!
Coconut Before Blending
Coconut Butter in Blender
Finished Coconut Butter
Recipe Notes
THM: For those on the Trim Healthy Mama plan, this recipe is an "S."
UPDATE 11/2015:
After having trouble with this working sometimes and not working at other times, I have a few tips to help you get PERFECT coconut butter anytime.
- Start with less coconut. This works more consistently if you start with only about 4 cups of shredded coconut. Make that into a butter and then add 1 cup of additional coconut at a time, blending to a butter with the addition of each cup.
- Make sure that your blender is COMPLETELY dry. Even a little bit of water makes things problematic.
It's as simple as that!
And how creamy and sweet tasting! It will come out of your Vitamix quite warm and runny, but it will harden up as you let it sit. If you need to speed up the process, just put it into your fridge or freezer (or outside if it is winter :-).)
Your coconut butter will become spreadable around 76 degrees, but you can use a knife or apple corer to get it out of the jar if it is colder than that in your home (it sure is in mine in the winter).
NOTE: Occasionally, for some reason, the coconut butter just doesn't make coconut butter. I have really despaired of this in the past but we've managed to eat it anyway. However, if that ever happens to you, just add a few things to the blender and you can have these fabulous No-Bake Coconut Cookies instead!
Easiest Homemade Coconut Butter
Ingredients
- 7 cups unsweetened shredded coconut (approx. 1.25 pounds)
Instructions
- Measure 7 cups medium shredded unsweetened coconut (about 1.25 pounds). Pour coconut into the Vitamix (or other high-powered blender). Of course, you can try to use less. I just found that this is a great amount to get it blending well in the Vitamix to produce a wonderful consistency quickly.
- Turn the motor of your Vitamix on and quickly work the speed up. Run the machine on High while using the tamper to keep the coconut moving through the blades (or follow directions for your blender)
- Run the machine on high for about 1 minute.
- After a brief rest, process the coconut on High again for up to 1 minute until it is of the desired consistency.
- Pour into a glass jar for storage.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is merely an approximation. Optional ingredients are not included and when there is an alternative, the primary ingredient is typically used. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site. Erythritol carbs are not included in carb counts since they have been shown not to impact blood sugar.
Do you have a recipe for coconut butter that you would like to share? How about something that you would like to figure out how to make at home?
I have sweetened coconut, any thoughts on using it? I read through the comments and didnt see any one else asking. I came searching for coconut butter and found your blog. My recipe that had me searching is for brown coconut butter.... do you suggest browning the coconut - toasting it first or trying to brown the coconut butter to get brown coconut butter? Thanks for your thoughts. 🙂
Yes, that should work!
You can use the sweetened as well.
Has anyone tried ----the Magic Bullet ----for making coconut butter??:?
I am going to try it ---but first I'd like to hear if anyone has done that
Once you make the coconut butter, how long can you keep it?
Coconut is pretty shelf stable but I have seen jars in the store w/ 4 weeks shelf life. Not sure if it could go longer than that.
Hi
I tried the recipe. It turned out nicely but it is not smooth. It has a fine sandy texture.
How do I get it smooth please?
Hi there. What kind of blender do you have?
Just perfect! I couldnt find coconut butter anywhere locally (rural Wales) but always have pure coconut in. I made my first batch without a hitch in my 'Vitamix-inspired' blender, thanks to your recipe and hints. Keep up the good work x
So great! I have new images for the post that I'm working on right now. Glad to have helped and I hope to share new flavors soon!
Did you use the dry container to make your coconut butter?
No, I used the wet one. Good question.
I just made coconut butter today after reading your post a few days ago. You really encouraged me to give it a shot with your detailed post. I was worried because my 15 year old Hamilton Beach cheapie blender didn't seem to be cutting the mustard so to speak when I started blending the coconut flakes. But, I persisted, and after about 15 minutes of blending and shaking and scraping the sides down I came out victorious! My homemade Coconut butter (which I'm going to use for fat bombs) is beautiful! Creamy, delicious, and divine smelling! Thanks so much for your detailed instructions!
YAY!!!!
Do you think it's possible to make coconut butter by mixing coconut flour and coconut oil (given that coconut flour is essentially ground, defatted coconut flesh)?
I guess but I have no idea what the proportions would be.
Yes a Vitamix would be awesome, but alas I don't have one. I make small batches of manna in my coffee grinder. I have to keep adding bit by bit but works like a charm.
Great tip! You must have a really good one!
Great recipe tip! Never would have thought of this.
Have you used it as a substitute for butter in cookies/cakes or pie crusts? How did it fare?
Thanks! Coconut butter is a sub for a nut butter but not for a fat in a recipe. I'll share more about it soon, hopefully!
Nice article. Thank you for taking the time to share the recipe. I wanted to know if it is possible to extra coconut butter from fresh coconut. I have been searching the net on that and not had much luck with it. Where i live fresh coconut is cheaper than shredded coconut. So any thoughts on this would help.
If you dry it first, yes you can.
Ridiculous idea to believe that this lady is saving by making her own coconut 'butter' having to but for the making of it nothing less than a Vitamix!!! but worse of all is that it is so hard to find natural, preservative or additive free coconut flakes in the first place
Hello Carmen. I'm sorry that you think this is ridiculous but it isn't at all. I can easily find these coconut flakes. They are on Amazon (affiliate link) like here: https://amzn.to/2igMpXe . We buy from Azure and Country Life Natural Foods and several of our local stores have them.
I don't totally understand your comment but it sounds like you think I bought the Vitamix only for coconut butter. I did not. I've had mine for years and years. We make Homemade Coconut Milk almost on a daily basis, in addition to Homemade Powdered Sweeteners and Nut and Seed Butters, Chia Puddings, Ice Creams, and More. We've easily made up the cost of the machines many times over.
Hope that helps.
Is coconut butter the same as coconut manna? It sort of looks like manna. Here in London Nutrix manna costs a fortune. Double what you pay at least. I don't have anything but a mixer and a hand mixer so would need to make a smaller portion. How much manna do you get form 2 cups or 3 cups? Thank you.
Yes, it is the same. You can see the approx yield from the recipe info in the post. Hope that helps!
I would think one could add a bit of "coconut oil" to the mix to get it going and get it creamy if it's not happening for you. Just a thought!
Can you use fresh coconut to do this? And if so, do you have to go through the shred & dry process first, or just shred it?
Thank you!
You would have to make chips first - like this: https://wholenewmom.com/homemade-shredded-coconut-homemade-coconut-chips/
I used my magic bullet, it strained a little so I added a bit of water to get it going.. It did fine. I surely can't invest in a vita mix on Social Security. Maybe I will find a used one at a good price. but until then the magic bullet will do the job. thanks for the recipe and I will be enjoying this for sure.
I might add that there is a coconut butter that is used as a lotion so it has other ingredients in it ... beware.
Oh great to hear!!! Maybe you can check Ebay for a Vitamix? I hope you can get one!! Yes, sometimes there are cosmetic things that sound like foods, but they are not. Thanks for bringing that up!
I wished I could buy coconut for $1.75 a pound!!
Can you tell me what region of the country you live in? Have you looked at Azure? Country Life Natural Foods has very reasonable prices.
Hi
How / where do you store this and how long does it last please?
Thanks
Sue
Hi Sue. I don't typically make shelf life claims, but you store it at room temp. It gets really hard in the fridge. I would typically consider it to have the same shelf life as coconut. Enjoy!
Is this the same as cocoa butter?
No - that is from cocoa beans. This is all coconut.
I need a Vitamix food processor, how can I get it and what does it cost.
Hi Frida. I have some links in the post that should help. I recommend the refurbished models if you are on a tight budget. I had a refurbished model for years and it worked great. There were links up that weren't working, but they should be working now!
I was so frustrated. I used my vitamix, followed your recipe and hints, and it never became butter, just coarse ground coconut...
So sorry - did you try doing 4 cups first? Was your blender perhaps damp?
Made this tonight in my black and Decker food processor with 2 bags of shredded coconut. It came out perfect with no harm done! Thanks for the recipe
Good to hear! Great money saver, isn't it?
I also used my Magimix Food processor - took 9 minutes and I had smooth, creamy coconut butter