Roasted Macadamia Nut Butter and Some Fabulous Macadamia Butter Cookies with Sour Cherries and White Chocolate

I have a little tab at the top of my page here called my Kitchen Wish List.  On it I have a list of things that I have always wished for to have in my kitchen.  Surprisingly, or not . . . I have been so blessed to have received quite a few things from my list.  Yes, I am one very lucky girl!

  

After practically burning out the motor on my food processor trying to make almond butter a couple of months ago, I added this to my Kitchen Wish List.  I had been eye-balling this on the Froothie page for a while.   The Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender.   It promises to be as good as any other high powered blender on the market today,  with a powerful industrial quality high speed 3 horse power motor . . . the most powerful motor for any blender!  I just knew this would be my ticket to greatness when it came to blending.  Imagine my surprise and joy when this arrived in the post just a few weeks ago!



Yay!!  And it's mine, all mine!  The motor base is solid and heavy, but the jug is amazingly light.  And it fits perfectly in the space on the counter  beneath my kitchen cupboards, so I don't have to try to find a place to store it.  I can keep this lovely creature out all the time, which means I will use it more often than I would if I had to keep it tucked away somewhere.



I love, LOVE the sleep design of the motor base and it came with a handy tamper to use and a specially shaped scraper to help scrape down the sides.   Also included were these two books . . .



A user's manual and a cookbooklet filled with lovely recipes to help me to make the best use of this lovely machine.

My sister has been after me for a long time to start eating healthier.  She is a big proponent of raw foods and fermenting, juicing, etc.  It was because of her that I spent a bucket load getting in some coconut oil and buckwheat to sprout.  (I'll get to it sis, I promise!)  She makes lovely stuff.   Last year when I was at my mom's she mailed me some of her strawberry GRAWnola bites and some raw carrot cookies, etc.  She is always sprouting, fermenting or grinding something tasty up.   I do believe this wonderful tool will be just the ticket to me following in her ways!

The first thing I decided to do was to make a nut butter.



I love, Love, LOVE macadamia nuts!  The thoughts of a macadamia nut butter were making my tastebuds tingle.   A delicious nut butter created with only nuts and salt, with no preservatives added.   I wondered how long it would take me to do it in this machine.

I took 2 cups of macadamia nuts (about 400g) and toasted them for about 8 minutes in a nice warm oven, just until I started to smell that gorgeous nutty smell.  A nut butter with roasted nuts just has to taste better than one with unroasted nuts in my opinion.  After roasting I threw them, still hot from the oven,  into the Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender along with half a teaspoon of Pink Himalayan Salt.   (Another suggestion of my sisters!)  I was a tiny bit sceptical after my experience making the almond butter in my food processor.



In less than two minutes I had THIS!  Yep, less than two minutes later I was pouring this beautifully creamy macadamia nut butter into a jar.   It was perfectly smooth, and boy oh boy . . . does it taste good!



If I had not seen it for myself, I would not have believed how quickly this was made.  I stopped it twice during that time to scrape down the sides, but it was amazing to me how very fast it worked!    I stuck a whole macadamia nut into the top of the jar for illustration purposes, so that you could tell what kind of butter it was.   Without it, it just looks quite dull and uninteresting.

*Roasted Macadamia Nut Butter*

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Printable Recipe

A delicious creamy nut butter without any preservatives.  Ready to use as is or in baking.

2 cups of macadamia nuts

1 to  1 1/2 tsp of pink Himalayan Salt

(Depending on your taste)

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4.  Spread the nuts onto a baking sheet in a single layer.  Roast them in the preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes.  

You should be able to smell a delicious nutty fragrance when they are done.

As soon as they are ready, tip them immediately into your food processor (or if you are a lucky girl like me, your Froothie Optimum 9400!) along with the salt.

Process the nuts until you have a nice smooth butter, scraping down the sides as needed.  If you are using a food processor, this will take between 5 and 15 minutes.

If you are using one of these gorgeous high speed blenders you will be amazed at how quickly it works.  Mine took 2 minutes total.  

Taste and adjust salt as needed.  I would add the teaspoon of salt at first, taste, and then if you think it needs more, add more and blitz briefly.

Scrape the butter into a jar with a tight fitting lid.  You may store this at room temperature if you think you are going to be using it up quickly.  If not, I would

store it in the refrigerator, bringing it to room temperature as needed.  

Note:  If you wanted to you could add some other flavours to this to spice it up a bit, such as ground cinnamon, or nutmeg or ginger.  Ginger and Macadamia is a beautiful marriage made in heaven.  

I could eat this stuff by the spoonful!  It's THAT good!   

  

I decided to use some of it to make some cookies.  I had in mind a cookie somewhat like a peanut butter cookie, but with sour cherries and white chocolate chips added.  

  

I adore sour cherries and thought that they would be the perfect foil against the flavour of the white chocolate chips, so as to keep the cookies from being too sweet.  

  

Macadamia Nut Butter . . . dried sour cherries . . . sweet white chocolate chips . . .  the combination sounds quite irresistible does it not???  

  

The dough was a bit stiff . . . and I did doubt for a few minutes if they were going to work out, but I crossed my fingers and went for it and was rewarded at the end with the most delicious batch of cookies I have ever tasted.  Not raw . . . but made with chemical free delicious Roasted Macadamia Nut Butter I prepared with my own little hands, and a little help from Froothie!  

  

*Macadamia Butter Cookies with Sour Cherries and White Chocolate*

Makes 30 cookies

Printable Recipe

A thick and moreish cookie containing dried sour cherries and white chocolate chips.  The macadamia nut butter adds a rich depth of flavour that is really delicious.

100g of macadamia nuts (about 2/3 cup)

100g of soft light brown sugar (1/2 cup)

95g of granulated sugar (1/2 cup)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large free range egg

210g of plain flour (1 1/4 cups)

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

pinch salt

1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

75g of dried sour cherries (1/2 cup) chopped

90g of white chocolate chips  (1/2 cup)  

(mmmm . . .  so good!)

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.  Line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.  Set aside.

Place the macadamia nuts in the food processor and process until smooth (2 minutes), scraping down the sides once.  I already had macadamia nut butter which I had made in my froothie and I used about 1/2 cup of it.  

Cream the macadamia nut butter and both sugars in a bowl, mixing them together well.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.   Whisk the flour, soda and salt together.   Add to the creamed mixture and mix it in.  The batter will be very thick, but don't worry about that.  Stir in the cherries and chocolate chips.   Divide the dough into 30 equal portions, rolling each portion into a ball about the size of a whole walnut.  Place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.

Bake each sheet separately in the heated oven for 9 minutes until golden brown.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pan for several minutes before scooping off to cool completely on a wire rack.  Store in an airtight container.   

I am really loving having this new toy to play with.  I am looking forward to creating a lot of new things with it, especially with the summer months coming up.  I see lots of tasty fruit smoothies, salad dressings, sauces, etc.  This little baby is going to get a lot of use for sure!  

To find out more about this beautiful machine do check out the Froothie Homepage.   To find out more about the specifications of it and just what it can do,  remember it's not just a blender.
Of course if you are as impressed as I am with what I have done with this machine you can just buy one now.  With a one month trial, money back guarantee which includes return postage costs from the UK, you can't lose! 

Many thanks to Froothie for sending me this beautiful machine to use.   I promise their gift will not be in vain!  Watch this space to see what I come up with next!  You may be completely surprised!