Is there a dish you can't use nut butter in? It goes in noodle bowls, in truffles, in pastries, in ice cream, and, of course, it fits perfectly into spoons dipped straight into the jar. In fact, the only time nut butter isn't usable is when it's caked onto the bottom of the jar—dry and crumbly and not spreadable at all. (This happens most often with all-natural nut butters.)
As nut butter fanatics, we're not satisfied to just leave all that dreaminess at the bottom of the jar. So we revive it. Here's how.
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1. Stir the jar right when you get it
As soon as you crack open a fresh jar of nut butter, stir all the separated oil into the nuts. The easiest way to do this is? With a knife, which will stir the oil into the nut butter with less splattering than a spoon will. Start by sticking that dinner knife into the jar, all the way down to the bottom, in a bunch of spots; that way the oil can work its way through to the bottom of the jar. Once it starts to get evenly distributed, stir it all together until everything is smooth and integrated.
2. Store the jar upside down
To get the oil integrated most easily, people swear by storing the jar upside down. The oil sinks to the bottom of the jar—which, if the jar is upside-down, is actually the top. So when you flip the jar right-side-up to retrieve your rightful share of nut butter, the butter at the top of the jar will be well-hydrated with oil (read: creamy—though you may need to give it another stir). This is a long-term solution that prevents the layer of dry, crumbly butter from ever forming, because by the time you get to the end of the jar it will have been flipped enough time for the oil to continually redistribute and keep the nut butter hydrated and smooth throughout.
3. Stir in some neutral oil
If you're down to the bottom of a jar and the nut butter is dry and crumbly (you didn't store it upside down, huh?), a surefire way to give it life is by adding some oil. Just put in a few drops of a neutral oil (like canola or peanut) and stir to get it all incorporated. For larger amounts of nut butter, you might want to mix it in a food processor to get the oil fully worked in.
4. Or heat it up
If your nut butter is in a glass jar, some suggest adding a few drops of water to the jar and placing the jar in a pan of warm water on the stove, just until it gets loosened up a bit.
That's a good tip. But if you really, really want to get smooth-all-the-way-through nut butter—with all the nuts and spices and sweetness you want—what you really want to do is make it yourself. Trust us—it's not as nutty as it sounds.
