Freeze-dried bananas are the key to transforming an otherwise straightforward walnut butter into banana bread butter. The freeze-dried bananas offer a concentrated hit of banana flavor, while also absorbing some of the nut oil yielding a thick and spreadable butter. Regular old banana chips won’t work here but play around with other freeze-dried fruits to invent new flavors of your own.

By toasting nuts at a moderate temperature, we can make sure they get golden brown to the core, yielding the nuttiest flavor and deepest brown color. Take care to toss along the way, so every nut has a chance to become the most flavorful version of itself. If you only have sliced, chopped, or blanched nuts, you can use them as a one-to-one substitute by weight. Avoid pre-salted nuts and be sure to give pre-roasted nuts a short toast to freshen up their aroma.

Whenever making any nut butter, patient processing is key. The nuts will go from flour to paste to gritty butter before finally growing silky and smooth. Be patient and just keep processing. Do not add any oil or fat until you’ve achieved creamy nut butter glory, which can prevent the butter from getting totally smooth.

Read more about this technique here, so you’ve got the confidence to take nut butter off-script.