Tips & Tricks: Natural Nut Butters + Stand Mixer

[runpunkrun]

Nut butters you have to stir the oil back into, the worst, am I right?

But last year I made a breakthrough. I'd been meaning to make peanut butter cookies for a while, but it meant I had to open a new jar of peanut butter and mix the oil in with a butter knife, and my hand gets all cramped up and the knife gets greasy and the oil splashes over the side, and it's a whole thing. So the jar had just been sitting on the counter. BUT. I started thinking about how much easier it'd be to just dump it into my stand mixer...but UGH the clean up......and THEN, it came to me:

A NEW TECHNIQUE:

1. Dump the entire jar of nut butter into the bowl of your stand mixer.
2. Turn it on low to start, then increase the velocity.
3. MIX THAT NUT BUTTER.
4. Pour it back into the jar.
5. Immediately make a thing using the already nut buttery stand mixer.

That's right: No waste, no extra clean up, and you get a food out of it. I've used this method with peanut butter and then made peanut butter cookies and almond butter followed by brownie bites, but it should work with any recipe that calls for a natural nut butter and a spin in the mixer.

It's especially worth it for large Costco-sized nut butters and, because you've mixed it up so darn good, it seems like they don't separate as quickly in the fridge, and with the oil distributed evenly throughout the jar, your baked goods will have the right amount of fat in them instead of too much fat, which can make them greasy, or not enough fat, which can make them dry.