Carolyn Cesario

Nut Butter
Over 50 Clean and Simple Recipes to Fuel a Healthy Lifestyle
by Carolyn Cesario; Julie Sullivan
Andrews McMeel Publishing

The authors are more than business women and nut butter makers. They had a vision to provide women with business knowledge, skills and eventually empower them. Their business hires women, teaches them from where they are and in the process produces interesting delicious varied nut butters that do not include peanuts, are healthy and for the most part plant based.

Why did I want to read and review this book? Because I have been making peanut butter since I moved to Lebanon in 1978 and could not find it on the grocery shelves. At that point in time I didn’t branch out much but it was a mainstay and something I made weekly...along with ketchup.

There are peanut butters with chocolate and jelly and honey and other things but this book has some very unusual flavoring ideas that include espresso powder, rose water, cardamom, hot pepper and...others. There are recipes for basic spreads but also variations and suggested additions. There are recipes for breakfast, snacks, dressings & sauces, savory, sweet treats and at the end there is a list of items to stock in the pantry. There is information on how and where to store nuts, what does and does not work, what to put the finished product into and wisdom shared from the many versions they have tried.

I believe this would be a fun cookbook to add to my collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars… (más)

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

I love nut butter and use it almost daily in making batch recipes for my breakfasts. I love making it from scratch, and using store-bought versions. To my delight, this book meets all my needs! Nut Butter is written by the chefs behind a nut butter business out of Portland, Oregon. Not only do their nut butter and baked goods sound divine, but they sound as if they are doing tremendous work within the women in their community as well. That positive pass-it-on vibe made me all the more excited about their recipes.

The book begins with the basics, talking about different nuts, how to store them, how to roast them, etc. To my surprise, I learned some new things, like how glass is best for storing nuts, and how most all nut butters are actually shelf-stable for up to a year--so they don't HAVE to be refrigerated, despite what the package says! From there, it goes into different nut butter recipes, all of which sound delicious. I intend to try several.

After that, the book shares recipes with different ways to utilize nut butter. As noted in the book's cover copy, "All recipes [are] peanut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and refined sugar-free." These range from the standard smoothies to savory recipes, including a mock alfredo recipe that fascinated me. There are pictures throughout, and the recipes are formatted in a way that makes them easy to read.

This is definitely my kind of cookbook.… (más)