This is a personal favourite. I make homemade almond butter fairly often, since I love adding it to smoothies or enjoying it with some sliced apple. I don’t make it every day because it is good to mix things up (and there are some environmental concerns when it comes to almonds that I won’t get into in this post, but do your research) but I do love having some on hand as a pretty regular addition to my snacking game. As I always say, it’s about balance and not perfection.
Here are the ingredients for an awesome homemade almond butter:
1 1/2 cups almonds
1-2 tsp maple syrup (depending on how sweet you like it)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Equipment: A food processor
The first thing you want to do is toast your almonds. I set the oven to 350, and I toast them for about 10 minutes. Watch them closely! Almonds (or nuts in general) tend to burn quickly. Once they’re toasted to your liking, toss them into your food processor. I like to toss in the other ingredients at this point, because once your almond butter reaches the desired consistency, you don’t want to be adding ingredients and then end up over-mixing it. I’ve made that mistake many times. As long as you’re not adding much (i.e. don’t go overboard on the maple syrup) then your food processor should still be able to break down the almonds properly.
Once everything is in the food processor, let it whirl! It can take up to 10 minutes, depending on the speed of your food processor, for the almond butter to become creamy. At first you’ll see large chunks, then a flour consistency, and then it will start to climb the sides. Once it starts climbing, you’ll want to pause the food processor and use a spatula to push down the sides. You’ll probably end up doing this a handful of times before the oils pull out of the nuts and turn the mixture into butter.
As SOON as you see the mixture become a smooth butter, STOP THE FOOD PROCESSOR! It is really easy to over-mix almond butter. It can get tough and grainy very easily. If that happens to you, don’t panic. Just add some coconut oil (a tbsp or so) and mix until your desired consistency returns. However, it’s best to avoid this because you want the almonds to be the source of the oils in your almond butter.
Once it’s done, turn it into a jar and enjoy! This will keep at room temperature for a few weeks in an airtight container.
