Butters (minus the butter)

My life changed last week.

Why, you ask?  Because this product entered my life.

I know the label says “Maple Cream” but for the sake of this post title I’m referring to this product by its alternate name, maple butter.

So what is maple butter?  Gooood question, friends, and after asking at least 3 people I came up with… nothing, nada, no one knew.  This is when Wikipedia comes in handy.  Actually Wikipedia comes in handy at numerous times during my day and yes, I consider it a legitimate source.

Well, it appears no real butter is actually involved in maple butter.  What is involved, however, is magic.  Pure, sugary, maple magic.

I’d also like to point out that this is legitimate stuff, straight from New Hampshire.

Oh how I love when people pawn their maple products off on me. 

Did I mention I’ve been awaiting some cold weather so I could have some melty maple goodness on hot oatmeal?  I know I’ve been complaining about the cold weather here, but I wouldn’t mind a cool morning just so I could have hot oatmeal without breaking a sweat.  I’d like to pretend that happened this morning but after a morning run and a hot shower hot food wasn’t really what I wanted.  However, the thought of maple butter forced me to eat hot oatmeal anyways.  And I don’t regret it.

Note to self: this stuff is sweet.  Like really really sweet.  I licked some off the spoon and it was almost too much for me.  Almost.

Now on to the other butters; nut butters, obviously.  Although both of these batches were semi-disappointing.  Not so disappointing that I won’t eat them, just enough so that I won’t be sharing any recipes.

Maple Cinnamon Almond Butter

And Dark Chocolate Almond Butter

I liked this one better.  Probably because the dark chocolate masked the odd almond taste, but this is not for the inexperienced dark chocolate eater.  It tastes like “Extreme Dark Chocolate,” not that I mind.  I’ve never met a dark chocolate I didn’t like.

Made using this dark chocolate.

Is that a panther I see??  I love panthers for some reason.

Both of these nut butters had potential and I swear they are super creamy, they just don’t look that way because I had them in the fridge.  I think the almonds I used had an odd taste.  I also realized I usually use raw almonds to make butter and these were roasted.  Hmmm.  Too bad, but you win some, you lose some.

Make me feel better and tell me something good you made recently or if you really want to make me feel better you can tell me something bad you made recently.  Then I’ll know I’m in good company