I had an unsuccessful experiment today. I tried running
hazelnuts and dried apricots through my Champion juicer.
Shortly after starting, it was obviously that the juicer was
bogging down too much, and I terminated the experiment.

Hazelnuts alone work quite well, making a rather runny
nut butter. I was hoping to create a more interesting
flavor combination, with the apricots adding a little
tartness and sweetness that the hazelnuts alone don't
have. I didn't want to use apricot jam or preserves,
because the hazelnut butter itself is runny enough.
If I could make it a little stiffer, that would be nice.
Also, I want the most concentrated flavors I can get,
hence the dried fruit.

I was alternating a small handful of nuts with a small
handful of apricots, pushing them along with the tamper.
Once I ran into trouble, I noticed the motor bogging
down even without pushing more in with the tamper.
At that point, I gave up rather than risk damaging the
motor. Upon disassembly of the head, I found a very
stiff deposit of mashed up apricot and hazelnut, just
like what I was trying to create.

Any suggestions how to proceed further? What sort
of machine could handle dried apricots, turning them
into a paste? I could perhaps make the hazelnut butter
in the Champion, then combine it with the apricots
made using some other machine, if I knew what that
machine was. Perhaps a meat grinder?

I considered dicing the apricots before adding them
to the Champion, but the problem seemed not to be
reduction of the apricots from whole, but the formation
of the stiff paste inside the head.

I've been considering buying a commercial Waring
blender, but I'm doubtful that would be useful for this
purpose.

I've been thinking maybe I could freeze the apricots
solid, then attack them with some sort of machine
optimized for reduction of solids. But what would that
machine be? Certainly not a grain mill.