For the Love of Butter!

I can feel it, it's happening...I'm becoming that person who makes everything from scratch. This wasn't my intention but I was left with no choice, honestly. After reading the ingredients in Earth Balance's soy-free plant based butter and seeing palm oil, I couldn't go back, there was no way to un-know that information. I'm disappointed in them as a company- they know as well as I do that there is truly no such thing as sustainable palm oil. I know they have the ability to create a delicious soy-free, palm oil-free butter because I made a delicious soy-free, palm oil-free butter (in under 15 minutes... and I'm no professional)!!

Last time I made some I gave a little container of it to a friend who texted me after saying 'this butter is so good I just ate a tablespoon of it straight from the container', later she emailed me asking 'How do you make it, exactly? I want it to taste just like yours'. She insists it tastes better than Earth Balance. The best part about this is it is made with coconut oil, which has a huge list of amazing health benefits, and most impressively slows the progression of, and can even prevent, Alzheimer's disease.

1/4 cup + 2 teaspoons almond milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon refined coconut oil
1 tablespoon canola, safflower, or sunflower oil
1 teaspoon liquid sunflower lecithin*
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

Place the almond milk, apple cider vinegar and salt in a small cup and whisk together with a fork. Let it sit for 10 minutes (this is very important, don't skip this!)

You want the coconut oil to be borderline pourable. Since I live in South Florida where it's always hot, my coconut oil is always on the verge of liquid. If you live in an area that's colder you may have to run the jar under hot water for a minute or two until it becomes borderline pourable, barely melted. Add it, along with the oil, to a food processor and pulse it a couple times until it's combined. Next add in the almond milk mixture from above, along with the lecithin and xanthan gum. Process for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides halfway through. Pour into a small container or a cleaned left over jam jar and place it in the refrigerator to solidify, within an hour the butter will be ready to use. Store in the refirgerator for up to 1 month or in the freezer for up to 1 year.

This makes roughly 1 cup of butter; recipe adapted from here.

I usually quadruple this recipe, divide it into little glass containers and freeze them, this way when I use up the one in the fridge I always have backup.

*For the lecithin, I use this and just cut the capsules open and squeeze out the lecithin into the measuring spoon. You can buy liquid through amazon, which I'm sure would be easier.

What is sunflower lecithin and what are the nutritional benefits of it?
Why use sunflower lecithin instead of soy lecithin?