Masawu Butter

One of the best fruits I have ever had are masawu. In other places they are known as jujube fruits. They are green and turn brown when ripe. They can be eaten fresh or dried. Most of the fruit trees grow wild but you can also grow it from seed. My grandmother planted one when I was maybe five and it is now a big tree with lots of shade. The bark of the tree is covered with prickly thorns. In Zimbabwe the trees are mostly found in Mashonaland Central province where people pick the fruit to eat or sell. Some use it to make an alcoholic beverage called kachasu, maheu and porridge.

Masawu taste like masawu.  Sweet, tangy and mucusy. I had never made anything with masawu before and it occurred to me that I could try to make a butter. Like apple or pumpkin butter. The problem is that masawu are a small stone fruit and makes it difficult, rather time consuming to separate the fruit flesh from the seed.

I went old school and duri nemutswi and it worked.

First I softened the fruit by boiling the fruit in water, cinnamon sticks and cloves for about 30 minutes.

I then pounded it in my mom’s duri and mutsi. Which amazingly still works even though its falling apart.

You will not need to pound it for a long time. You can also use a blender or a food processor. I then passed it through a sieve with a spatula to get the pulp out.

I then simmered the pulp with some vanilla extract, lemon sugar and sugar.It is soooo good on bread. The butter tastes like masawu and can’t wait to try it in other things.