Follow this easy tutorial on how to make coconut butter at home, and you’ll never need to buy another jar of coconut butter ever again.
Have you ever tried coconut butter?
People say it’s one of the most delicious foods in the world, even if you don’t like coconut!
The smooth taste and melt-in-your-mouth texture will make you feel more like you’re eating shortbread than actual coconut.
I could easily go through half a jar of coconut butter in a day, and there have been times where I’ve done just that. But at an average of $10 or more for a single jar, buying coconut butter on a regular basis can be pretty expensive!
To save a ton of money in the long run, the simple solution is to make your own homemade coconut butter, which will yield the same amount of coconut butter for a fraction of the cost.
The only ingredient you need is shredded coconut. Just throw it into the blender and watch as it magically turns into butter.
Homemade Coconut Butter – Tips & Tricks
Be sure to use regular, unsweetened shredded coconut, because low-fat or added-sugar varieties don’t tend to work as well.
I recommend using at least 12oz for best results, and the recipe for how to make coconut butter will work in either a food processor or a high-speed blender like a Vitamix or Blend-tec. Some readers have reported good results making a smaller batch with an immersion blender or Magic Bullet. If you try one of those methods, definitely let me know how it goes!
Every now and then, you might encounter a bag of coconut that just doesn’t want to turn into smooth coconut butter. If that happens, I’ve found adding a few tablespoons of coconut oil to the blender fixes the issue. Coconut butter is solid at room temperature but will turn to butter again when gently heated. If your coconut butter ever seems too dry when you’re trying to melt it, stirring in a little coconut oil will help in that situation as well.
Above – Watch the video how to make coconut butter!
The video above shows how to make coconut butter, if you’re a visual person like I am.
Also please feel free to ignore the fact that I can’t even get the coconut into the food processor when it’s right under the bowl. You can probably guess how good I was in basketball growing up.
Once you’ve made your own coconut butter, the possibilities are endless.
You can use it as frosting
Eat it straight from the jar with a spoon
Blend a spoonful into to Banana Ice Cream
Freeze it in candy molds
Or sweeten as desired and stir in cocoa powder to make chocolate coconut butter
How To Make Coconut Butter
Ingredients
- 12-16 oz shredded, unsweetened coconut
- optional 2-4 tbsp coconut oil
- optional sweetener of choice
- optional cocoa powder if desired
Instructions
- Blend the coconut in either a food processor or high-speed blender until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. It can take anywhere from 3-18 minutes, depending on desired smoothness and your machine. If your coconut just doesn’t seem to want to turn into smooth butter for some reason (climate, elevation, or just a naturally-lower-fat bag of coconut), add a few tbsp coconut oil to the blender, and that should fix it! After it’s done, you can sweeten or add cocoa or other flavors as desired. Stored in a covered container, leftovers will last a few months and need no refrigeration. Coconut butter is solid at room temperature but will turn back to butter when heated – be sure to heat it gently so it does not burn.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Uses For Coconut Butter:
Coconut butter makes the MOST amazing frosting. Try it on top of cakes, cupcakes, muffins, toast, or banana bread – and the coconut butter is so rich that you might find you don’t even need to add any sweetener!
It’s especially delicious on my Healthy Banana Bread or on the chocolate version above.
Or use it as a frosting for the cinnamon roll baked oatmeal above – one bite and you’ll refuse to believe there’s no butter in the recipe.
You can also stir melted coconut butter into your morning bowl of oatmeal (such as this Banana Oatmeal Recipe), or melt it right into the oats as they’re cooking.
Because it’s solid at room temperature, you can use coconut butter to make all sorts of healthier no-bake desserts, such as the almond butter freezer fudge above or the vegan chocolate fudge below.
Use it as frosting for my Coconut Bread or these Easy Cinnamon Rolls.
Have you tried coconut butter? If you have any favorite ways to use it, please feel free to mention them in the comment section, to give ideas to other readers!
Wow wow wow! This is delicious! I didn’t know coconut butter was a thing! I used my Blendtec Twister jar that comes with an insert that you spin while blending. It clears the sides and pushes the food into the blades. My coconut butter was all finished in less than a minute!
I made it so I could put the coconut butter in a frosting for some of Katie’s brownies with black beans. When I tried to sweeten it with maple syrup, however, it seized up and became thick like almond paste. Maybe it doesn’t like the added liquid or the syrup was too cold. But I still managed to spread it on the brownies and it was so tasty!
Same thing happened to me with room temp agave. Fed doesn’t like cold liguid lol
Wow! Sorry, I don’t have an actual answer, Nina, but your question/comment just took me back about 30 years. I never got my Jamaican (ex-)mother-in-law’s recipe & directions for West Indian style “Rice and Peas” but another woman showed me how, starting with that same creamed coconut — I think it came wrapped in foil, or foil+paper (the way butter & margarine are sometimes packaged) with an outer box, about half the size of a 4-stick (1 lb.) package of butter, but didn’t need immediate refrigeration.
I left this page, and went down an ADD rabbithole — I mean, I did a search for the different types of coconut products– and “got lost” looking at several different websites. Here are 2 that explain it well: https://www.kindearth.net/what-is-creamed-coconut-versus-coconut-butter-and-coconut-cream/
and https://www.type1kitchen.com/creamed-coconut-coconut-cream-coconut-milk-what-is-the-difference-and-how-to-make-one-from-the-other/#comment-4878
So I tried this in the vita-mix last night with dried coconut. It whizzed it on High for several minutes, dutifully pushing the 6 cups of dried coconut flakes into blades… but it was a dry mess. I added coconut oil… not really helpful. Then I added water and coconut oil and that made it better – but it never became runny like the coconut butter in the jar. Anyone else run into this? My coconut was very dry – should I reconstitute it in water before blending?
Hmm, what brand of coconut did you use? And what kind of climate are you in? Also just in case you didn’t see this: https://lett-trim.today/2012/06/30/coconut-butter-and-coconut-oil/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I used nuts.com Unsweetened Coconut Chips – they are larger pieces, like shaved coconut instead of grated. I live in a cooler climate in Alaska, but it was about 80 degrees the day I made it (and no a/c, because… well, Alaska). I’m going to try mixing it with more coconut oil and see what I get. But right now, sitting in the pantry, it’s the consistency of library paste.
This was IMPECCABLE – added a dash of vanilla extract & cacao powder…literally tastes like frosting (but 10 times better for you, and without all the added sugar). Thank you!
Can I use fresh coconut to make coconut butter?
Be sure to report back if you experiment!
How much sweetener do you use? Is sugar ok? IF I add it(doubtful), would 1tbsp be enough?
Yup, sugar (and that amount) works!
I guess I am one of the people that this didn’t work for. I bought bulk at a health food store. It was flakes rather than shredded. I have now added a lot of coconut oil and my Cuisinart keeps heating up. The coconut mush is warm. I have been working now for way more than 13 minutes. It tastes bad-oily and dry. I am very dissapointed ): Do you think that maybe its just that some people end up with old dried coconut? Or maybe old food processors can’t cut. Mine tastes ok before processing.
Hi Katie,
sometimes your recipes refer to ‘video above’ but I can’t see a video anywhere. This is one of those cases…. I swear I am not blind! (and I can often see your videos). Any idea? Thanks!!!!
Hmm that is very strange, do you have an ad blocker? What browser are you using? Hopefully we can figure this out as to why it’s not showing for you!
Jason (media relations)
I am not sure what’s going on but this didn’t turn out good at all. It mixed this first with a good processor for like 20 min. Added about 2 or 3 tablespoons of coco oil because it would not get soft. Since it got stuck on the sides in the food processor every 10 sec I moved it into a magic bullet. Well it worked almost fine until I added coco to make chocolate. Now it’s a dry mess again. Not smooth at all and I didn’t use much coco powder.
I recently started a Keto diet and have been trying out a lot of different ingredients. I just made coconut butter using a 12 oz bag because that is all my processor would hold. It took close to 15 minutes of blending including g scraping time before it came together – probably because my processor is not heavy duty! It was interesting to see the transformation and I’m now looking at your recipes to see what I can make with it. Thank you, Katie! I appreciate your expertise and am proud to have had you for a cul se sac neighbor!
This stuff sucks all the spit out of my mouth. Even with butter and coconut oil added, it is moist looking and creamed, but sucks all the spit out of my mouth. DRY
That is how coconut butter is supposed to taste. You didn’t do anything wrong.
can i add normal oil if i dont have any coconut oil?
Hi. How do you use the coconut butter as a glaze. I couldn’t get it to melt. I put some in a pan and put it on low heat but it wouldn’t melt just started to burn. Thanks.
Melt it very slowly! Katie’s recommendation is to put it in the oven after you’ve baked something and the oven has already cooled down somewhat. You want to very gently warm it so it doesn’t burn. If you lived in a super humid/hot environment, it would already be soft!
Hi! Is shredded coconut the same as dehydrated coconut? Will it work with dehydrated coconut in shreds?
Thank you!
I tried making this in my food processor for 20 mins to no avail. Popped the desiccated coconut into my nutribullet and it blitzed it up into butter in a minute or so! Success!!
My turned out “grainy”. I don’t know if it was supposed to turn out completely smooth or not but, mine didn’t. It is very tasty though! Tastes like the inside of a mounds candy bar! TFS
I’ve had that same problem. It had been recommended to me to use wide coconut chips instead of the desiccated coconut.
Coconut butter is so delicious! It costs me around $4 to buy a pound of unsweetened coconut in bulk. I never can get it out of a jar easily, so I let the coconut butter harden in a flat pan, then break it up and eat it like shortbread. I eat so much of it, probably 8oz a day. You would think I would pack on the pounds but I’m actually very skinny. I follow a high fat (especially saturated fat), high calorie (2500-3000), low carb diet and avoid PUFAs. Coconut butter is a staple food for me.