Pining For Toasted Pine Nut Butter - Nut Allergy Safe

Pine nut butter on toast (or anything you would spread peanut butter on) is a simple special treat for someone in your life with (or without) nut allergies.  Pine nuts, as it turns out, are not nuts - they are seeds!  Therefore, pine nuts do not need to be avoided by people with nut allergies.  Hooray!  And, because pine nuts are so soft, they are incredibly easy to turn into nut butter - just whizz the toasted pine nuts and a touch of vegetable oil a few quick times in a food processor. 

Hummingbird Cupcakes with Pineapple Almond Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

It seems that outside of the South (some people think of St. Louis as the South - but we're definitely Midwest), no one has heard of hummingbird cupcakes.  You are missing out!

My hummingbird cupcakes are everything that banana muffins wish they could be.  The hummingbird cupcakes have a strong banana flavor, but so much more complexity.  The addition of pineapple adds moisture and the sweetness of nature's candy.  The cupcakes have a nutty flavor (thanks to the pecans mixed throughout), but even if you happen to get a nut-free bite (unlikely), the nut flavor will still be there; I baked my hummingbird cupcakes using almond flour rather than the more typical all-purpose flour (bonus - the almond flour means these hummingbird cupcakes are gluten-free!).

Because banana is the most intense flavor in the cupcakes, I wanted to play up the pineapple in my cream cheese frosting.  When you add real pineapple (as opposed to pineapple flavor) to frosting, it tends to make the frosting too wet to pipe.  The natural tendency is to add more powdered sugar to compensate - making the frosting well above sugar levels I can tolerate.  For this frosting, I used almond butter as the thickener, which gave the frosting a pipeable texture (with enjoyable nutty undertones) without adding too much sweetness.  I'm in love.


What are Hummingbird Cupcakes?

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough That's Safe to Eat

 

Why does cookie dough always refer to chocolate chip cookie dough?  For that matter, why does 90% of cookie dough ice cream use a vanilla ice cream base?  In the name of variety and a flavor combination that's hard to go wrong with, I present a recipe for peanut butter cookie dough that's safe to eat raw (no eggs!) and a recommendation that you mix it into chocolate ice cream.

When making peanut butter cookie dough, you needn't worry about ingredient order, mixing speeds, temperature, or times.  You aren't going to bake the cookie dough, so you can say, "Nanny nanny poo poo," to the laws of baking chemistry - just mix and eat!

Carob Cupcakes with Chicory, Dates, Figs, and Almonds

These carob cupcakes contain none of the key ingredients in carrot cake or zucchini bread and yet, as each taster took a bite, they would question whether carrots or zucchini were involved. The cupcakes actually contained chicory, dates, figs, and almonds, and had an almond butter frosting.

Regardless of the contents, tasters enjoyed the cupcakes. I certainly did! They were moist and very breakfasty - the perfect cupcake to have in the morning (perhaps with some Teeccino - the product that inspired the cupcake).

Who Will Make These Cupcakes?

This carob cupcake recipe is a Cupcake Project original. While I loved it, I would be shocked and thrilled if anyone else makes it since it requires so many unusual ingredients. However, there is one reader who should definitely make these cupcakes:

Fluffyhelen was the only reader who said that she had every unusual ingredient on my list.

A very (as in tonight) recent review of Cupcake Project on Is This Thing On said:

For Thanksgiving this year, I tried out CP’s Sweet Potato Casserole cupcake and it was one of the best cupcakes I have ever made. I love to read about CP’s crazy concoctions, but my budget and location in Maine make my list of wacky ingredients rather short. Because of this drawback, I give Cupcake Project 4 out of 5 sprinkles.

I understand the complaint, but if using wacky ingredients is the one thing to make me lose a sprinkle, I'll take it!

Carob Cupcake Recipe

Makes 18-20 cupcakes

• 2 C flour
• 1 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 T chicory
• 2/3 C sugar
• 3/4 C butter, room temperature
• 1/2 C sugar
• 1 C barley wine (if you don't have any, you could just use your favorite beer)
• 1/2 C carob molasses
  
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 C plain yogurt
• 1/4 C fig jam
• 1/4 cup baking dates (dried dates pitted and smashed)
• 1 C slivered almonds

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and chicory.
2. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs and yogurt.
4. In a small bowl, mix barley wine and carob molasses.
   
5. Alternately fold in flour mixture and the barley wine/molasses mixture, ending with the flour.
6. Stir in the fig jam, dates, and almonds.
7. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
8. Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes.
   

Almond Butter Frosting Recipe

The almond butter frosting recipe was the same one that I used on my apricot cupcakes. You can find the recipe in the apricot cupcake post. I dusted the top of the cupcakes with chicory and some sprinkles for color.

Roasted Chestnut Butter Frosting

Roasted chestnut butter frosting is the perfect topping for any Christmas cupcake and there is no open fire needed - although you may find yourself seeking one out as you eat it. The chestnut frosting is not overly nutty, and it has a mild flavor and a smooth buttercream texture.

While peanut butter has it's fans, chestnut butter is the nut butter of choice for the season. I loved it in the roasted chestnut butter frosting, but it is also great on a piece of toast or in a chestnut butter and cranberry jelly sandwich!

This post covers how to make chestnut butter and then how to make chestnut butter frosting.

To start, you'll need roasted chestnuts.

I bought my roasted chestnuts at Whole Foods. However, if you want to take the effort to roast chestnuts yourself, Kevin of Closet Cooking has a great post on how to roast chestnuts.

Next, you'll need to turn those roasted chestnuts into chestnut butter.

Making nut butter is easier than you might think. You just need a food processor. My favorite food processor to use is my mini Cuisinart. Simply grind the roasted chestnuts in your food processor and then add vegetable oil 1 tablespoon at a time and continue to process until it has the consistency of a nut butter. Since roasted chestnuts don't have much oil in them, you may need to add up to 1/4 cup of vegetable oil per cup of chestnut butter produced.

Now, you can make the roasted chestnut butter frosting.

• 1 C roasted chestnut butter
• 1 C butter
• 2 C powdered sugar

1. Place the butter and nut butter into a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer.
2. Gradually mix in the sugar.
3. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.

What's the cupcake under the frosting?

The cupcake under that frosting is my mulled wine Christmas cupcake! The recipe is coming soon!

Pecan Butter Frosting with Chocolate and Bourbon

Related Posts:

• How to Make Nut Butter
  
• Chocolate Cupcakes with Bourbon and Pecan
• Almond Butter Frosting
• Macadamia Nut Butter Frosting
  

The tricky part about pecan butter frosting is getting your hands on some pecan butter. Pecan butter is not something that is sold in most stores. It is, however, fairly easy to make nut butter yourself - but there is a trick.

Pecans don't have as much oil as peanuts or even cashews, so you will need to add in a few tablespoons of vegetable oil as you make it or it will take forever. By forever, I mean over 3 hours (which is how long Jonathan spent trying to make pecan butter for me the first time I made this frosting). You could, of course, make this frosting with any other nut butter you happened to already have sitting around. However, the pecan butter is so yummy!

Pecan Butter Frosting with Chocolate and Bourbon Recipe

• 1/2 C butter, softened
• 1 C pecan nut butter (check out my instructions on how to make nut butters)
• 1 T milk (more or less to taste)
  
• 2 T bourbon
• 2 T cocoa powder
  
• 2 C confectioners' sugar

1. Place the butter and pecan nut butter into a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer.
2. Gradually mix in the sugar and cocoa.
3. When the frosting starts to get thick, incorporate milk and bourbon one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable.
4. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.

Note: The color variety in the frostings in the photo comes from using different varieties of chocolate and more or less milk.

Magic Bullet vs Ordinary Blender: How to Make Nut Butter

Do You Need a Magic Bullet To Make Nut Butters?

I wanted to make some macadamia nut butter for my Vere inspired banana, chocolate, and macadamia nut baby shower cupcakes. Several people told me that the best way to do it was to use a Magic Bullet. Luckily, Groom 2.0 owned a Magic Bullet, so I borrowed it and gave it a go.

What Are You Talking About? What is a Magic Bullet?

Contrary to what the name sounds like, the Magic Bullet is not a vibrator. It is a super intense mini blender/chopper that is featured on late night infomercials. They tell you that it is great for grinding coffee or even making nut butters.

The Magic Bullet Put to the Test

I loaded up 8oz of macadamia nuts into the larger cup of the Magic Bullet. I'd been warned by Groom 2.0 that he had already broken one by blending for too long. "Use short pulses," he said. Clearly, he understands the importance of foreplay. Don't go too strong too fast.

Groom 2.0 also had suggested that I might end up having to use the smaller cup because nuts would get stuck on the side of the big cup and not blend.

I pulsed maybe 10 times or so. Each time, I felt like I was playing a game of Trouble (the one where the dice are in the plastic sphere that you press to make them roll). The Magic Bullet has no on/off switch - you just press the bullet to make it go. Awww, yeah.

The nuts did, in fact, get stuck to the sides. There are no problems with nuts when using a vibrator.

I moved some of the nuts to the smaller cup and pulsed some more. I had to keep pulsing and then shaking the nuts off the sides.

And then...


After 10 minutes or so, I did have a smooth nut butter! This was quite the exciting climax!

Enter the Ordinary Blender

Jonathan came into the kitchen to watch the Magic Bullet fun. What guy wouldn't want to watch? He asked an important question, "Why not make the nut butter in an ordinary blender?"

We loaded the blender up with 8oz of macadamia nuts and used the same pulsing technique. It had the same problems of nut butter getting stuck to the sides and we had to keep sticking a spatula down in the blender to push the nuts to the middle. After 10 minutes, we had smooth, creamy macadamia nut butter.

If your blender is wimpy and can't even crush ice, I wouldn't recommend using it for nut butters. I would, however, recommend getting a new blender over getting a Magic Bullet. Due to its size, your blender will likely be much more useful to you than the Magic Bullet. Size does matter.


Nut Butter Lessons Learned

1. If the nut butter you're looking for is available fresh at the store, I'd recommend buying it rather than making it. All of that poking and prodding in the blender was a bit of a pain.

2. Making your own nut butter is definitely doable and there is no need for any special product like the Magic Bullet.

3. If you like smooth nut butters, keep going even when you think that you're done blending. When I made my macadamia nut butter frosting, I discovered some small nut bits that hadn't gotten blended. These clogged up my piping tip and were an overall nuisance.

Got your own tips for making good nut butter or disagree with my stance on the Magic Bullet? Let me know in the comments.

Do forgive the dirty talk - I couldn't write about nut butter and the Magic Bullet without going there.