Recipe #33... Roasted Sunflower Seed Butter... First foray into nut butters

Note:  Why go to all this trouble over a little nut butter when they sell a variety of options in the store?  One reason behind my interest in alternative nut/seed butters is due to my developing a peanut allergy in college... A serious bummer when your friend's bachelorette party incorporates a cooking class featuring a delectable and healthy array of thai-style foods (yum! but... oh dear...).  Those thai-folks love their peanuts... and I digress... A few more reasons to experiment on nut butters in your home laboratory... almond butter is spendy... there are strange ingredients and extra oils in some of the store-bought butters, and also... I'll make up any excuse to use the vitamix.

Roasted Sunflower Seed Butter
Makes 8-10 servings
Add the following to the blender and blend on high speed... 
Use the "smushing tool" - technical term - to push the ingredients down into the blades

2 c roasted sunflower seeds 
**buy the nuts raw and give them a tan in your oven
1 1/2 tbsp honey or maple syrup 
1 pinch of salt
(If you go with honey and feel adventurous... add 1 tsp ginger)

Vitamix warns not to process nut butters for more than a minute.  I felt my Vitamix beging to veer off into overdrive-mode and so I stopped it.  It took me two passes on high speed to actually get this to a nut butter consistency... Not sure I can taste the sweetness, though... You could add a little more honey or maple syrup if you like.  Store in an airtight container...  Food for thought... buying raw sunflower seeds costs $.25/oz, sunflower seed butter is $.42/oz while almonds cost $.50/oz, almond butter at $.85/oz... Now who doesn't like a little extra change in their jar...  -A