How to Make Homemade Coconut Butter
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Homemade Coconut Butter is a breeze easy to make in your food processor or high-powdered blender in just minutes and once you make, you'll wonder where it's been all your life. You only need one ingredient to make it, but there are lots of fun variations to experiment with as well.
It tastes great on its own but there are also loads of ways to use it. Let the homemade coconut butter making begin.
Have you seen coconut butter in recipes and wondered what it is? Or do you use it often and are just tired of paying so much for it?
Either way, you're going to love this recipe.
Let me introduce you to coconut butter and show you how easy it is to make this otherwise very pricey pantry staple for yourself.
What Is Coconut Butter?
I still remember the day that I found out what coconut butter is. I was looking at a recipe that I wanted to make and noticed that “coconut butter” was one of the ingredients. I didn't know what it was, but had to find out.
What I found out first is that it cost a mere $13.99 for a “giant” 16 oz. container on the first website I checked. Wow. Oddly, the only ingredient in that jar was — coconut!
It turns out that coconut butter is just dried coconut that's processed to make a thick butter like nut butter, but it's hard at room temperature.
Coconut butter is useful by itself, but it's used in a low-carb/keto recipes as well.
What's Best for Making Coconut Butter — Food Processor or High Speed Blender?
The high-speed blender wins hands down and here's why.
The first time I tried making coconut butter, I used a food processor. The post that I got the recipe from said that it should take about 12 minutes of whirring in total.processor. Well, I had a heavy duty processor at the time and could make four batches of Savory Hummus at a time, 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.
Try as I might, it didn't work well. Now, I've done it since then and so it's possible, but just be careful about burning your food processor out because it can happen.
Meanwhile, making coconut butter in a high-speed blender like a Vitamix (you can also order one on Amazon), is a piece of cake. And though the price of these blenders is a little steep, once you see how much you can make with them, you'll see that it's totally worth it.
How Much Can You Save?
One 16 oz. jar of coconut butter costs approximately $13.99. One pound of medium unsweetened coconut, at the time of publishing this post, cost me approximately $1.75. That's more than an 87% savings.
How to Use
There are so many ways to use homemade coconut butter. How about…
- Spread it on crackers, bread or toast.
- Blended into smoothies.
- Added to hot drinks like coffee, a coffee substitute, or hot chocolate.
- Use in recipes calling for coconut butter, like Chocolate Avocado Truffles and these No Bake Brownies.
- Stirred into hot cereal like oatmeal or Cream of Rice.
- Added to curries for more richness.
- As a frosting by adding some coconut oil and sweetener.
- As a fat substitute in recipes. It does need to be softened first and will make your recipe a little stiffer, but it can work.
- As a substitute for nut butters in many recipes, depending on how much you're replacing and what the recipe is.
- Drizzled on ice cream to make a simple “magic shell” coating.
- Eat it with a spoon. Our oldest LOVES it like this.
Storage
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 That Use Coconut Butter
Here are some tasty recipes where you can use 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 boxed mix that has a gazillion ingredients?
- Coconut Butter Fat Bombs: 3 flavors of simple healthy keto treats.
- Chocolate Avocado Truffles: Super easy and delicious. And healthy. You won't believe these are made with avocado!
Recipe Notes
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 causes the coconut butter to not form properly.
The coconut butter 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.
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's colder than that in your home.
NOTE: Occasionally, for some reason, the coconut butter just doesn't quite work out well. 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!
Variations
Here are some fun flavors to try by adding the following to the coconut before it's done processing, or after while it's still liquidy.
- Spiced Honey: Honey plus any of the following: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, ginger, and salt.
- Maple Vanilla: Maple syrup, vanilla extract or vanilla powder, and a dash of salt.
- Chocolate/Cacao: Cocoa or cacao powder and salt. Stir in some cacao nibs after processing for a chocolatey crunch.
- Nutty: Add some nuts to the mix. Anything goes!
- Pumpkin Spice: Pecans and pumpkin pie spice.
- Fruity: Dried fruits like goji berries, raisins, dried cranberries, and more.
- Toasted: Toast the coconut first for depth of flavor and add some salt while you're at it.
Special Diet Notes
For Those With Nut Allergies: Note that coconut is not actually a nut, but some allergy groups classify it as such since it's a food that more people are becoming allergic to. Sadly, allergies are becoming more and more prevalent these days.
More Great DIY Pantry Staples
- Homemade Rice Milk
- Easiest Coconut Milk
- Homemade Powdered Sugar or Powdered Sugar Substitute
- Easiest Almond Milk
- Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter
- Powdered Egg Replacer – works amazingly well in most recipes that call for eggs.
Easiest Homemade Coconut Butter
Ingredients
- 7 cups unsweetened shredded coconut (approximately 1.25 pounds)
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil (optional for blending ease)
Instructions
High Powered Blender Instructions
- Put the coconut (and coconut oil, if using) 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.
Food Processor Instructions
- Put the coconut shreds (and coconut oil, if using) into a food processor.
- Turn the food processor on and process until the shreds make a butter, taking breaks as needed for the machine to cool.
Notes
- 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.
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
I have a vitamix 6000 automatic. Do you know which preset time I would use?
I don’t have that kind, you lucky one! Whatever you would use for a nut butter I think.
Hi is it posible to make with a freshly grated
Cocnut or does it only work with dry cocnut.
Looking forward to make some ????
It only works with dried. Thanks!
Hi! Finally got a Vitamix and tried this tonight….but my Vitamix (5200) was very, very angry with me. 😉 My husband and I thought it sounded like it was stripping the gears/ruining the blade somehow. After 5-6 min. (stopping for 1-2 min. between each minute “session”) it was starting to stick together, at least, but getting really warm and not really blending. I used 7 cups, but it was really hard to push down with the tamper, and like I said, it sounded really upset with me! After cleaning it out everything looks and sounds fine, but while the coconut was in there it was screaming, harshly. Is that what yours sounds like, too, and you just keep going, or is that a “stop and quit the experiment” moment? 🙂 Thanks!
Hmmm.. was it completely clean when you did it and did you have at least 7 cups in there? I’ve had trouble on and off but typically it works. If there’s moisture in there it for sure won’t work. I turn the “not working” batch into my No Bake Coconut Cookies: https://wholenewmom.com/recipes/no-bake-coconut-delights-sugar-dairy-egg-and-grain-free/
Yup, clean, dry, 7 full cups….it’s hardened now and usable for whatever, but I was just worried about my machine. It just didn’t sound right, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. When I use apples to make applesauce and have to push down on them with the tamper pretty hard, it sounds frustrated, but not ANGRY like with the coconut, LOL! 😉
Have you done nut butters? They react similarly to the coconut butter. Apples are much softer – :).
No, I haven’t yet…our oldest has a tree nut allergy so it hasn’t been high on my list yet. But either way, the almost-stripping-gears sound might just be normal for my machine, then? I just wish I could watch someone else do it in person! You don’t have any YouTube videos of you making the coconut butter, do you? 😉
It just might be. You can call vitamix and hold the phone to your machine to see what they think. It’s pretty loud :). No you tube – maybe I should do that. I’ve never done a video – yikes :).
So was the difference the blender/food processor you used between your 1st & 2nd attempts?
I’m not sure I understand Chaya. Could you clarify please?
Sure, sorry for the ambiguity. You said that on your first attempt you used your “seriously strong food processor” but that it was a failed attempt. And then you mentioned success with the vitamix…but later you said that once in awhile, it just doesn’t work no matter what. I was curious if you credit the vitamix for the success the second time around as opposed to using a food processor. I ask b/c I would be using a food processor. Thanks!
I can’t figure out why but I think if you don’t have enough coconut in the blender it’s a problem and if there is any moisture in there, like from cleaning it out. I have never done it in an FB and fear it would burn it out but others have done it. Good luck!
I have made coconut butter in my food processor. I pulse it in about 15-30 second increments and then scrape down the sides. Just keep doing that until it starts to get clumpy, then you will know that you are getting close. Only a little bit longer and will start to turn into butter. It only took me about 15 minutes, but I used shredded, unsweetened coconut, so it was a little bit more gritty than what people say they get using flaked coconut.
You’re using dried coconut right?
I don’t want to be a negative nancy, but I wanted to point out that in your cost comparison, does a one lb bag of coconut make a 16oz. jar of coconut butter? I would guess by your photos that 7 cups of coconut makes about 2 cups of coconut butter. And I don’t know where you live that you can buy coconut that cheaply, but I live really rural and get a 12 oz. bag of unsweetened for $3.50 or so on Amazon. By my calculations that would take almost 5 bags of coconut to get 7 cups and cost about $17 to make. Do you think that’s right?
I just checked and prices have increased somewhat. I can get a 25# bag for 47.50 so I do that. I use 7 cups which is about 18 oz of coconut (just approximating here). From that I do get about 2 cups of coconut butter. I’m thinking you would need 1 1/2 bags to make the coconut butter. Hope it works for you :)!
I just used a 10oz bag of coconut flakes in my Vita-mix and the tamper only just reached the butter to help keep it moving. I’d say 10oz is the least possible to make it work. I got about a cup in my jar, though admittedly, I did eat quite a bit that never made it to the jar. Mine was a bit grainy though. I had read elsewhere that adding a teaspoon of coconut oil helps coconut butter blend, and it worked like a charm. I can’t wait to try the fudge recipe you just posted.
If you get enough in there it won’t be grainy. But occasionally it doesn’t work for me. Glad you like it! We are hoping to make the fudge tomorrow :).
The only coconut butter I’ve ever tried was the Artisana brand and I didn’t like the taste at all. I bought it twice, thinking maybe the first jar was just old but the second jar tasted the same (in my opinion). Does the homemade version taste different? I love coconut any other way, though!
I never bought it so I don’t know. I would think it’s highly dependent on the kind of coconut you buy.
Do you know if we could freeze extra coconut butter or milk that we made?
I would think so. The milk for sure. I don’t see why not on the butter.
thanks! We’ll give it a shot 🙂
Which vitamix do you have? would a 2 speed be worth getting? I know the more speeds the better, right? lol
I have the 5200 – works great!!! What model is the 2 speed :)?