Learn how to make your own Homemade Coconut Butter in 10 minutes! Just 1 ingredient! Use for cakes, cupcakes, toast, muffins, fudge. So easy and so delicious!
Seriously, all you need is 10 mins to have homemade, creamy coconut butter. Well, that and a bag of this dried shredded unsweetened coconut. Make sure to not buy reduced fat shredded coconut!! It won’t work. I use coconut butter in many recipes on my blog. It is so easy and fast to make and tastes delicious!
You don’t technically need to use Bob’s Red Mill. I just really like this brand because it is very fresh and finely ground and it worked absolutely perfectly.
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE COCONUT BUTTER
Add 3 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut to a food processor and process for about 10 minutes, that’s it! You will definitely need a good qualityfood processor. A food processor works much better than a Vitamix or blender!
If your climate is cooler, you may need to let it run twice as long. Scrape the sides as necessary. It will seem as though nothing is happening the first 2 minutes, but let it keep going. It will start to thicken as a paste, keep going, and before you know it, it will turn into silky smooth coconut butter. Please note that depending on the size of your food processor, it may require more or less coconut to process properly and the time may take longer. It should literally be a runny consistency before you stop.
Transfer to a glass container to store.
HOW TO STORE COCONUT BUTTER
Keep the coconut butter stored at room temperature in the pantry. It will keep for months. It will become very hard during storage. To use again, you will need to warm it first, so that it becomes a liquid again.
To do this, heat the glass container for 15-30 seconds just until it is soft enough to stir it around. Stir until it becomes soft and chunky. If needed, heat another 5-10 seconds and stir until it is completely liquid and melted before using in a recipe. As you continue to stir, the warmth helps it to turn into liquid. Be very careful about overheating coconut, or it will burn and be ruined.
RECIPES TO USE COCONUT BUTTER IN
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
- Vegan Mango Cheesecake
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Fudge Cake
- Vegan Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cake
- Coconut Butter Gingersnaps
- Vegan Vanilla White Wedding Cake
- Vegan White Cupcakes
- Easy Vegan Fudge (3 Ingredients)
- Sweet Potato Toffee Fudge
- Fudgy Coconut Butter Brownies
- Pumpkin Cake Brownies
*This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy here.
If you make any of these recipes, be sure to leave feedback below and share your pic on Instagram or Facebook and tag me @thevegan8 #thevegan8!
How to Make Coconut Butter (And Recipes to Use In!)
Ingredients
- 3 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut (use the whole 12oz bag if you have an extra large food processor) DO NOT USE A DEFATTED or REDUCED FAT coconut
- I use this food processor.
Instructions
- Just add to a food processor and let it run 5-10 minutes and voila, coconut butter! That's how fast it goes for me in the summer. If your climate is cooler, you may need to let it run twice as long. Scrape the sides as necessary. It will seem as though nothing is happening the first 2 minutes, but let it keep going. It will start to thicken as a paste, keep going, and before you know it, it will turn into silky smooth coconut butter. Please note that depending on the size of your food processor, it may require more or less coconut to process properly and the time may take longer.
- Keep the coconut butter stored at room temperature in the pantry. It will keep for months. It will become very hard during storage. To use again, you will need to warm it first, so that it becomes a liquid again. To do this, heat the glass container for 15-30 seconds just until it is soft enough to stir it around. Stir until it becomes soft and chunky. If needed, heat another 5-10 seconds and stir until it is completely liquid and melted before using in a recipe. As you continue to stir, the warmth helps it to turn into liquid. Be very careful about overheating coconut, or it will burn and be ruined.
Hi Brandi. I want to make the coconut butter but what quantity of butter i.e. how many cups or tablespoons, do you end up with using 3 cups coconut? TIA
Easy to make! Can’t wait to use it. How long will it stay in the refrigerator?
Hi Kara! I don’t store it in the fridge. It will get hard as a rock. Store it in the pantry and it lasts weeks and weeks and doesn’t spoil.
Brandi, I just tried to make the coconut butter and it just looks “pasty”, not liquid. Can I still use it?
You need to keep blending it until it turns to a liquid like in the photo. As noted in the directions, “It will start to thicken as a paste, keep going, and before you know it, it will turn into silky smooth coconut butter.” So, you are right on track, just keep blending! 🙂 Some processors take longer or if you are in a colder climate, it will take longer.
I made this coconut butter in preparation for the vegan coconut pumpkin cake brownies (which were delicious by the way!) My question is, no matter how long I pulsed the coconut flakes, although they did turn to a liquidy substance, there was still a bit of grit in the butter. Is that normal? I ended up using coconut oil for the brownies so I didn’t mess them up and want to ask before I use this butter for a second round. Thanks Brandi!
Hi Denise! I’m so happy you loved the pumpkin brownies! That will happen with some food processors. I use this Cuisinart one and it gets totally smooth. Not quite as perfect as store-bought, but very close. If it was turned into a liquid, a little bit of bits of coconut leftover is totally fine for the brownies. Especially since it’s not a large ingredient. https://amzn.to/33DJaNd
Thanks for the coconut butter recipe! Who knew? I’ve also bought three of your books. I gave one to a friend and one for a white elephant gift exchange. It was popular and kept being stolen lol.
I love your recipes!!!
Happy Festious!
~Lea
Hey any vegan dog food recipes? 🙂 Or cookies!
This is so cute to hear Lea, really made my day!! Love that my book was so popular, lol!! Oh gosh, I don’t have a dog or really wouldn’t even know where to begin with something like that! Haha! I bet there are some yummy ones online!
I will bake the Ginger coconut cookies today . I can’t wait to taste them :O)
Thank you!!
Wonderful Joy, oh yes, those are so delicious! Can’t wait to hear!
I made your cake this weekend as a test run run to bring to an upcoming dinner party. It turned out great! It was delicious and my husband gave it a 10 out of 10. I did have a jar of coconut butter that had hardened up a bit so I tried your trick of melting the butter in microwave. It didn’t work so great, but I added it in anyway and it still worked. I am going to try the homemade way next time. Love, love, love your recipes. I also made your double chocolate muffins and they were super easy and scrumptious. Making your enchilada fingerling potatoes for Super Bowl party. Keep the recipes coming. You’re my newest go to site!
Just tried this for the first time and it worked great! However, am making it so that I can make your raw vegan cinnamon coconut New York style cheesecake, and that recipe says to melt it into liquid. I am trying to melt it but not having success. Put it in a pan over low heat and it started to brown almost at once. Then I put the smaller pan inside a larger pan with water in it, to make a double-boiler set up. Same result– browning, but not melting.
So how am I supposed to melt coconut butter??
Oh yes, don’t melt it in a pan! I always warm the coconut butter in the microwave maybe 30 seconds or just until it’s melty and liquidy. Stir really well until it’s all mixed and smooth and the consistency similar to an oil. However, if you just made the coconut butter in a food processor, it should already be in the liquid state, in which case you don’t need to heat it up. It is only needed to heat up if it has hardened, as coconut butter will harden once it cools in most environments, especially in colder weather. Hope that helps!
I just updated that cheesecake with melting directions as well. Comment there after you make it letting me know how it turned out, thank you!
Can you make this butter with the low fat shredded coconut?
Hi Amy, I doubt that would work because it is the fat that makes it moist enough to turn creamy and into a butter. I just think it would become more like a powder and never into a butter that way.
THANK YOU! You are gem.
Any idea for how long it would store? can it be frozen for later use?
Hi, thanks for sharing this recipe. My question is….it states on bob’s red mills packet that it is “dried and shredded coconut” but I saw you mention that you advised against desiccated coconut as it’s dried…
Wasn’t sure what the difference was?
Hi Amy! When I first created this recipe, I think I was confused at the actual definition of desiccated since I had read so many different definitions and different types of flakes and shreds of coconut out there, lol! I have updated the recipe above. As long as you use a dried, shredded, unsweetened coconut, you should be fine. I always use Bob’s Red Mill and have made it dozens of times with no problems ever! Hope that helps! 🙂
So, I’ve been wanting to experiment with coconut butter and after looking into buying some, I though there has to be an easy way to just make it right? Of course there is and you would know! Lol! I’m going to start playing around with some recipes, I’ll tag you when something works out yummy and link to your coconut butter when I post! Lots of love your way!
Thanks Sophia!! Yes, it’s sooooo easy! I make it monthly. I make my popular brownies with them and they blow any brownie out the park!
Here is the recipe using my coconut butter: https://thevegan8.com/2014/01/28/fudgy-coconut-butter-brownies/
Do you think it will work with dried desiccated coconut?
A couple of readers have said it worked for them, but I haven’t tried. You just definitely want to make sure it isn’t sweetened coconut.
I truly wish you had a ‘like’ button so that I won’t crowd you inbox with comments…this is fantastic! Could it be any simpler????
Thanks so much Tonette!! Yes, it is so easy, yet so delicious and wonderful in my brownie recipe!!
It took me sooo long but I made it!!! It’s creamy, tasty and smells very nice!! I have it in a jar! Where do you suggest keep it? In the fringe or not?
Not sure if you got an an answer, but it can be stored in the pantry. 😉
Thanks a lot!!!
Oh Dana! I apologize, I saw your comment in my admin panel and it cut off your last sentence (your question). You can store it in the pantry. It would get very hard in the fridge!
Thank you Brandi!!!
I’m anxious to make the fudgy coconut butter brownies, but would love suggestions to substitute for the maple syrup. One cup of maple syrup is alot and I need to use a low glycemic sugar instead. Honey won’t work and agave is”ok” but I think it adds a funny taste. Any ideas?
Hi Robyn! 1 cup sounds like a lot overall, but that is for the entire pan, so when you calculate it down to one brownie, it’s only 1 tablespoon per brownie. 🙂 However, if you still want an alternative and don’t want to use the other liquid sweeteners of agave or honey, then that really only leaves coconut nectar which should work I’m assuming since it is sweet. It definitely needs to be a liquid sweetener, since that is how I wrote the recipe and the liquid is needed to achieve the right texture. You shouldn’t notice an off taste of agave after it’s baked and with all the other chocolate and ingredients, if you wanted to try that too. Those are my best suggestions, as those are all the major liquid sweeteners. If you try it with coconut nectar, let me know how it turns out. I know it is stickier than maple syrup, so I’m unsure exactly the texture, but I’m assuming it would still work!
Hi, Brandi that recipe of the brownies is no there anymore. Did you erase it?
I love your recipes!
Hi Anabell, so sorry about that, I’ve fixed the link now! Here it is as well: https://thevegan8.com/vegan-fudgy-coconut-butter-brownies/
Hi Brandi,
I was wondering if you can use the coconut meat/flesh instead of the undesiccated coconut? I’m in a small regional town in Australia and the health food store doesn’t have it but the oriental store does have tinned coconut meat….
Wanting to make your spicy carmel lemon bars for all my super health conscious friends- they look AMAZE-balls!
Hi Christina! I am not sure, I’ve only tried it with the dried coconut shreds. The coconut meat/flesh might have too much liquid in it and not sure it would reharden afterwards. I think it would work, but you would first have to dehydrate the coconut meat I believe….from everything I’ve seen online.
Ok, thanks for that!
Do you know if this will work in a high speed blender such as a vita-mix instead of a food processor? Looks delicious. Thanks.
Hi Allan! Actually, it won’t work in a blender because there isn’t enough space and room for it to whirl around like in a food processor, it would just get clumpy and stuck in the blades. It works brilliantly in a food processor in just a few minutes…especially in a warm climate. Sorry! Hope you have a food processor too!
amazing!! I love this idea! Love your blog too; I like to keep things simple, have few ingredients on hand – and then, turn those ingredients into something wonderful, just like this!! I’m heading to the kitchen right now to try this out!!
Thank you so much Linda! Let me know how it turns out! You may need to scrape the sides down several times..especially depending on the size of your processor. But let it keep going and even if it takes several minutes ( humidity can affect the time and result) alas, you should have coconut butter. 🙂
AHHHHH my absolute fAVORITE!! LOVE your new blog!
Thank you so much Kelly!! 🙂
it’s amazing what the mighty food processor can do. i just bought my first jar of coconut oil (love the stuff so far!) so it’s pretty awesome that i can make my own coconut butter at home this easily. thanks for the tip, brandi!
YEAH, I WAS IN BEWILDERMENT AS IT TURNED FROM DRY COCONUT TO SMOOTH, SILKY BUTTER!