Coconut Butter Healthier Alternative to Coconut Oil Recipe

coconut butter the coconut oil alternative

How to make coconut butter from fresh coconut. Unlike coconut oil this butter is not just the extracted fat and retains all of the fibre. This means it’s a less refined ingredient but isn’t as smooth as coconut oil. Coconut butter is a great way to consume fewer calories compared to coconut oil as the fibre is more filling.

Pure coconut butter is easy to make yourself at home.  It’s made from just 1 ingredient – desiccated/shredded coconut with nothing added or taken away. At room temperature it sets solid but heated at about 40C it becomes a runny liquid.

homemade coconut butter liquid

You can replace coconut oil with coconut butter in any of my recipes. Coconut butter is used in so many of my recipes such as Nutella style healthy fudge and in chocolate avocado frosting on my chocolate quinoa cake.

Coconut Butter Video Recipe

Play on Youtube.

I often use coconut butter in recipes but list it as coconut oil in the video as its more common ingredient and not everyone wants to make their own coconut butter.

You may notice in the video recipes for my Nutella Chocolate Fudge and Mocha Chocolate Cheesecake the liquid coconut is white. This is because I used coconut butter. Coconut butter stays white even when liquid whereas coconut oil becomes clear.

Always use coconut that is not sweetened or toasted when making coconut butter. This is suitable for a raw and an oil-free diet.

easy coconut butter recipe

This is great to replace normal butter on hot and toasted goodies but it is a bit more difficult to spread as it takes longer to melt. You can add a pinch of salt while still a liquid if you are just going to use this as a direct replacement for butter.

I use this mostly for raw cakes and frostings. It is just like coconut oil as it dries hard and is a useful way to make dairy-free raw-vegan cheesecakes and similar deserts set.

oil free coconut butter

I tend to make a big batch every couple of months then store in either the fridge or freezer where it seems to last months without degrading.

It will turn into a liquid while blending but once its left for a few hours will turn into a solid just like coconut oil.

This coconut oil is raw and I’m confident that in the future we will be able to say that a small amount is healthy, like just about every fruit, veg and nut/seed.

pure coconut butter

I’m using a 1500w blender to make this in about 8-10 minutes. You can make this in less powerful blenders or food processors but it will take longer to go liquid and the sides will need some scraping.

Don’t lose faith if you’ve been blending for a while – once a small amount starts to go liquid the rest quickly follows. Although you don’t need a powerful blender, if you have a cheap one do be careful as you can burn the motor out.

Coconut butter is a healthy alternative to coconut oil. Just made from 100% pure raw coconut and blended until creamy. It sets solid at room temperature and is liquid once heated above 38 degrees. All the fibre of coconut making it a great replacement to coconut oil #rawvegan #healthyeating #whole30 #healthydiet
Yield: 2 jars coconut butter

Coconut Butter

homemade coconut butter liquid

Coconut butter is a healthier version of coconut oil as it's made from whole coconut without anything taken away. It retains all of the coconut fiber and is not just the coconut fat like coconut oil is. It's solid at room temperature but melts at over 40 degrees making it a great ingredient for raw vegan cheesecakes to make them set. Also great to add to dishes after cooking to enhance the flavour with this raw fat.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 5 cups / 300g desiccated / shredded Coconut

Instructions

  1. Place coconut in a powerful large blender.
  2. Blend for 8-10 mins until a liquid coconut butter is formed, you may need to scrape down the sides several times.
  3. Use as it is or pour into a jar coconut butter will set solid.
  4. Store your homemade coconut butter in the fridge in an airtight jar and it will last many months.

Notes

Always use unsweetened coconut for this recipe.

Shredded and desiccated coconut are the same thing.

You can't make this from fresh coconut as it needs to be dried first and have a low moisture content as it won't go liquid with a high water content.

Nutrition Information

Yield

20

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 68Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 43mgCarbohydrates 8gFiber 1gSugar 6gProtein 0g

There’s some debate as to whether coconut oil is healthy or not. It’s high in saturated fat so like everything you want to consume not too much of it, about a tablespoon a day.

But many of the studies that have linked saturated fat to heart issues have been flawed and studies showing that coconut oil is unhealthy seem to be done on heated and refined coconut oil rather than raw virgin.

Tags: , ,

13 thoughts on “Coconut Butter Healthier Alternative to Coconut Oil”

  1. I went to the store today and bought dried unsweetened shredded coconut. I used my Nutribullet and it came out just like your video. The trick using the Nutribullet is to turn the blender to the side as the coconut starts to make a paste.

  2. Hi, I tried to make the coconut butter in my Vitamix but it just didn’t turn liquid. I had to blend again and again during 24 hours bcs the blender kept overheating. Now, after two days, all I have is dried, concocted coconut flour. What could I use it for? Any idea?
    I wonder whether I should have added coconut oil or water…
    Thx for your advice, Claudia

    1. Hi there, you definatly shouldn’t be adding water or oil. I guess it might not work in some blenders/bowls. The most important thing is to add enough – you need quite alot in for it to go liquid. Don’t stress your blender. If you have lots in and it isn’t working it might be best to call it a day and be happy with lots of coconut flour ready for recipes. I think the coconut could make a difference also, I just use 100% dried coconut.

  3. Hi, I didn’t succeed in making the coconut butter. After blending the shredded coconut in a Vitamix, the blender got overheated a couple of times but the shreds had only turned into coconut flour.
    Any idea as to why that happened? And how I could avoid it in the future? Vitamix not powerful enough? And what could I do with all that coconut flour? Any idea? Thank you so much, Claudia

    1. Bastian Durward

      I haven’t tried this method for a fresh one but think it should work! I’ve seen people in SE Asia make coconut oil from fresh coconut

  4. Hi! I made coconut butter using this method in my Vitamix, using dry, flaked coconut. While it did process down into a spreadable fat, it never got very runny. It still had kind of a chalky texture, and was more the consistency of dry nut butter (like when most of the oil separates and you’ve got the thick, dry stuff at the bottom of the jar). Tried adding coconut oil (heard this trick works to make it more liquid), but it didn’t do a thing. Any ideas of what might’ve gone wrong?
    P.S. Love your Instagram!

    1. Ah sorry to hear it didn’t turn out for you. Usually people go wrong by not adding enough coconut. But that might not have happened here. The trick I find is to keep scraping a blend, once the coconut starts to release a bit of oil it very quickly goes from dry to wet. I do find a food processor works better than a high speed blender

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *