Maple Pecan Nut Butter

Our local market was having a special on pecans. With plenty of nuts left after Thanksgiving recipes, I wanted to look into making a nut butter. I found a good starter recipe but we wanted to make a few adjustments. We were pretty satisfied with this tasty spread that definitely will be great through fall and winter.

You'll need: (amounts used in this recipe in parentheses)

• Pecans (3 cups)
• Maple Syrup (1/4 cup) - I think honey (incl. Hot Honey) would be interesting in this too
• Cinnamon (1/2 tsp+)
• Nutmeg (1/2 tsp+)
• Salt (1/4 tsp)
• Vanilla extract (1/2 tsp)
• Hazelnut Oil (drizzle) - this just helps to get the nuts to smooth a bit while grinding); I think other nut oils would work fine too

This amount yields about 3/4 of a wide-mouthed ball jar.

Using the oven or a pan on the stove top, toast the pecans to desired doneness. If a few happen to burn you can toss them and save the rest. It seems like 8-10 minutes on the stovetop on medium head was good toasting for our recipe, but this is definitely an area where personal preference dictates.

Put toasted nuts into a food processor or blender. Pecans turn over into a nut butter much more quickly than other nuts we've done this with. Used a tiny bit of the hazelnut oil just to get things going quicker. Ideally you want a device that you can leave on (rather than pulsing) during the process. You may need to use a spatula or something else to wipe down sides of container.

As the chopped nuts shift into butter, you can mix in the other ingredients.

Mix until desired consistency. Add ingredients to adjust for flavor preferences.

ENJOY!!