Hey balor,

Here are a few uses for you

• Use as a thickener for sauces/stews; I'm talking coconut-based sauces (e.g. Thai curry) - add a spoonful or so towards the end of cooking; you could also use it to thicken desserts such as custard, or even make hot chocolate more rich.

• Use it instead of flour in baked goods if you're into paleo baking. Coconut butter contains the fibrous coconut flesh so it will bind well with eggs in batter, and will work well in things like truffles (e.g. heavy cream + vanilla extract +coconut butter, roll in dessicated coconut) or 'protein balls/energy bars'. It will give a much more moist result than flour (and I've actually heard people complain that coconut flour is too dense and dry) and is certainly more nutritious.I'm not saying that coconut flour isn't a good alternative flour, but it is still a processed food, and definitely not as nutritious as whole coconut.

• Make coconut bark - this is very versatile, very portable, great as a dessert, a snack if you're feeling peckish or even on a hiking trip (though be careful if you are hiking in very hot conditions as it can melt!) Mix some melted coconut butter with some coconut oil (enough to emulsify; if you plan on taking these bars on a trip, use less oil to make it more resistant to melting), and then mix in whatever you want - nuts, dried fruit, coconut flakes; you can even add vanilla extract or another food-grade essential oil to it (e.g. orange zest + orange extract). Put the mixture in the freezer/fridge until it hardens, and break up into bark pieces. You can even add cocoa powder to make 'milk chocolate'.

• Use to make coconut milk - There's a lot of unease about canned food, especially concerning BPA in can lining; also, canned coconut milk tends to contain additives, which can become a concern if you're eating it regularly. You can mix coconut butter + hot water in a 4:1 ratio (you can tweak this to make it more or less thick) to make coconut milk. This is also convenient if you're just cooking for one and do not want to open an entire can of CM.

• Use as a condiment on anything sweet/warm spiced: Things like baked sweet potatoes, butternut squash, anything spiced with cinnamon/nutmeg/other winter spices usually goes well with coconut butter. E.g. add cinammon & coconut butter with some mixed winter spices and roasted pecans to mashed sweet potatoes.

• Use as a sweetener of course this is subjective - to my palate, coconut butter is very sweet. So I sometimes add it to coffee, hot chocolate, even things like applesauce.

• Mix into nut butter to improve the lipid profile! It improves the taste, adds sweetness & helps mitigate the PUFA level of the nuts since you're mixing it with coconut butter, high in MCFA-rich fats :-)

Now coconut butter is like my personal crack-in-a-jar, and I don't know how you could possibly get sick of just slathering it onto your tongue...;-)

Hope this helps!

Lots of paleo love :-)

Milla

Try mashing it into bananas. :) You can even try blending it with almond butter.

It's nice enough on sweet potatoes and you can plunk it in tea or melt it into dark chocolate. (Disclaimer: I am not one of those PH'ers that is obsessed with sweet potatoes! And if I eat any more coconut flavored chocolate I may hurl!)

I mix it with a bit of coffe (like 2tbsp for 2tbs of coconut butter). Because it's warm, the coconut butter melts and becomes a pudding like consistency. Also good to melt and put on paleo pancakes like a syrup.

I would be interested to know what is the nutritional difference between coconut oil and butter. I tried coconut butter but find it more difficult to include in everyday food as it seemed to have a strong taste contrary to coconut oil which flavor disappears when cooked with something else.

Depending on your relationship status (and food budget), you could always try using it as a massage oil. And no I'm not joking, it would be pretty delicious and your partner would receive the following benefits (amoung others):

Quoting from: http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/coconut-massage-oil.html

• First of all, the presence of such a high concentration of Medium Chain Fatty Acids (Saturated Fats) makes it very stable oil. So, when you rub coconut massage oil on your skin and leave it for hours, you need not fear that it will go rancid and damage your skin or invite infections.

• Second, the presence of expert anti microbial agents like Capric Acid and Lauric Acid do not let microbes infect your skin.

• Third, the layer of such stable oil full of saturated fats, on the skin, does not let moisture escape, thus protecting it from drying and cracking. Fourth, coconut oil is rich in Vitamin-E, your skin’s best friend. It keeps your skin rejuvenated, young and healthy.

• Fifth, the coconut massage oil, gifted with a lot of anti oxidants, can keep you look young even in your seventies. These anti oxidants do not let the skin wrinkle and also protects it from other adverse affects of ageing, like sagging, peeling and de-colouring etc.

• Sixth, it penetrates the skin very easily while massaging and can serve very well if used as carrier oil for other herbal extracts, essential oils, medicines etc.

• Finally, last but not the least, its fragrance is unmatched. It is so earthly and soothing that it keeps you fresh all the day and drives away body odour.