Would you like to learn how to make coconut butter? You are honestly not going to believe how easy it is!
No fancy ingredients (and only TWO of them!), no fancy equipment (just a food processor) and it only takes 15 minutes and you have creamy and delicious coconut butter that is ready to use.
Coconut butter is such a fabulous ingredient but it has one drawback, it can be really expensive! But not if you make it yourself. 
To start with, all you need is some simple dessicated coconut. You can usually get this at any supermarket. I get it in large 18oz (500g) bags and it’s usually quite inexpensive.
So you want to add 3-4 cups of dessicated coconut to your food processor. I started off with 3 cups, but when it had processed down a bit, I added in the 4th cup.
You need enough volume in there for the blades to have something to grab onto so you can’t try and make a small batch, there needs to be enough to move around.
At the point that it starts to look as it does in the second photograph above, that’s when I added in 1 Tbsp of melted coconut oil (the second ingredient). This ingredient isn’t strictly necessary, as you’ll get there in the end even without it, but I made this the same way I make my nut butters and I usually add a Tbsp of oil to those as well, I find it just makes things go a lot faster and easier and why not I say.
So you add the melted coconut oil in while the machine is running and then it starts to look as it does in the photo below.
And you keep going keep going keep going and it starts to turn to liquid goodness as you see in the photo right above! And that’s all there is to it!
You have to stop a few times to scrape down the sides, and the entire thing takes around 15 minutes, but that’s really all there is to it!
If you’re amazed, well let me just say I was too! If you’re not amazed, well you’re heaps cooler than me! I was always savvy to the nut butter making ways of the world but for some reason did not compute that making coconut butter could be this easy! Isn’t it grand?
I hope you will love this recipe for how to make coconut butter! It is:
- Creamy
- Rich
- Coconutty
- So easy!
- Affordable!
Keep it in a sealed jar at room temperature where it will stay good for at least a couple of weeks! Use it wherever some delish coconut butter is needed (some ideas are below!).
It tends to harden unless your room temperature is currently blazing hot, so all you have to do is stand the jar in a bowl of hot water to melt it and then stir it up very well again and it will be perfect for you to use.
So what do you think of this recipe for how to make coconut butter? Going to try it? Let us know in the comments and do rate the recipe too please, it’s so helpful! Thank you so much.
This coconut butter is divine to eat as is, but it’s also used in these recipes:
- 3-Ingredient Vegan Caramel Sauce
- Vegan Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Fudge Sauce
- Caramel Fudge Vegan Chocolates
For more delicious homemade nut butters check out these recipes:
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How To Make Coconut Butter Completely Smooth!
Okay and here’s my final little tip for you (you thought this post was over didn’t you? 
), as you can see in the photos above, the texture of the coconut butter is grainy. This is not a problem at all! I assure you. And you don’t have to do anything about that. It’s totally fine to leave it like that. It’s delicious, it’s perfect, grainy is not an issue in any dimension.
But if you want to have literally exactly what you would get if you bought a jar of coconut butter from the store right now, then…. you can have that too. All you have to do is after you have processed it up in your food processor into the liquid form, then you put it into your blender and blend for about a minute and you get it totally perfectly smooth that way.
You don’t want to make the coconut butter from scratch in the blender though, you want to do it in the food processor as explained above, the blender is just for the final (totally optional, mostly cosmetic) smoothing step! These pics below show the exact same coconut butter as above, just blended up in my Vitamix for a minute. Ta da!
How To Make Coconut Butter
Ingredients
- 4 cups Dessicated Coconut (320g) finely shredded coconut
- 1 Tbsp Coconut Oil Melted
Instructions
- Add 3 cups of dessicated coconut to the food processor and begin processing. After 3-4 minutes it will start to process down and look a little sparse, that's when you can add the remaining cup of dessicated coconut in.
- Continue to process, as it starts to form into clumps, add the coconut oil as the machine is running and keep processing until it forms a liquid.
- Stop the machine and scrape down the sides when needed.
- It will take around 12-15 minutes in total to get to the liquid consistency.
Video
Notes
- Once it has reached a liquid consistency in the food processor (as pictured in the blog post), it will still have a grainy texture, this is completely fine and it's fine to use exactly as is. However, if you want it to be completely smooth, you can move it to your blender at this stage and blend it for a minute or so to get it completely smooth.
- Store sealed in a jar at room temperature, it will tend to harden, stand the jar in a bowl of hot water to let it melt, stir well and it will be ready to use. Lasts at least 2 weeks.
- This recipe makes around 1 and ¼ cups of coconut butter.
Thanks for this. I was just planning on going to Amazon, but this is so much better. It always feels better when I make things myself!
Sooo easy!
Thanks Anna!
Do you think I could use sweetened coconut? That’s all I have in my freezer.
I’ve only made this with dessicated coconut, which is the finely shredded flakes.
Could you substitute cacao butter for coconut butter?
I assume you mean for use in a recipe? They are quite different, so wouldn’t work well as a sub for each other.
Sounds great as with all your recipes! I really want to try this but is it slightly sweet and taste like coconut? I would like a butter for general use so can I use this?
I think you are rather looking for our homemade vegan butter. 🙂
Hi, can I use frozen desiccated coconut or is dried the better option. Thanks for the recipe, I will give it a go, in order to make your raw cheesecake recipe ????
I have only ever used dried so I’m really not sure! It might work fine.
thank you so much – how simple! I make DIY peanut butter but had not thought to do with same with coconut. I need this for a (vegan) lemon cheese cake recipe I’m about to try.
You’re so welcome Sue! 🙂
Can I use a dried coconut(dried on tree) as well for this.
Maybe! I haven’t tried that but it might work fine, let us know if you do try it! 🙂
hi, can I substitute the coconut oil with other oil like corn oil? Since I don’t have coconut oil atm.
I would rather leave it out in that case. It’s not crucial, if you process it longer, you will end up at the same place even without adding any oil. I just think using a different oil could have a negative impact on the flavor.
I only have a nutribullet so couldn’t get to the super liquid stage, but I’m happy with what I was able to get. It is being used as an addition to turmeric lattes mostly so it should blend up well and add a bit of extra fat and sweetness! Great recipe – really can’t find coconut butter locally.
So glad it worked out Lizzy, thanks for sharing and the great review! 🙂
Do you know if this would still work if I toasted the coconut? Sounds like something that would be great on toast
Hi T, I don’t think so, I think that would dry out the oils so that you wouldn’t be able to process it into a butter. It might be something you could add to the finished coconut butter if you wanted though! 🙂