Jamie and I eat a lot of almond butter.  (By a lot, I mean on average 3 – 4 cups a week!)  It is so delicious and creamy, I find it irresistible.  As you know, I bake a lot with peanut butter, but when it comes to our preference for eating, almond butter will always win.

Because we consume so much of this yummy nut butter, Jamie and I had been throwing around the idea making our own.  However, we weren’t really sure if it was economically worth it, and we didn’t know how much time it would take.  Well, after this weekend, I can honestly say that it is totally worth it!  The cost is about 50% less than buying the butter already pre-made, plus, we know what is in it (almonds) and it only takes about 35 minutes (plus the time it takes for the almonds to cool from roasting).

We stumbled around on the internet, looking for various almond butter recipes.  A lot that we found mentioned the addition of honey, salt or olive oil, but we really wanted to keep this a pure experiment, and only wanted to use raw/natural almonds.

I found a post from My New Roots, where the featured recipe was an Almond Butter & Jam Sandwich Cookie.  I became a bit distracted from my original quest and started reading the post, but it paid off, because there was a recipe for homemade almond butter hidden within!  Jackpot!

The suggestion to roast the nuts first is absolutely necessary.  A raw/natural almond just isn’t as tasty as a roasted almond, but I didn’t know I could roast them myself in the oven.  I assumed that there was some elaborate process involving, oil and salt, but nope, just throw them in the oven for 25 minutes and voila, you have roasted almonds.  I guess I am so used to buying roasted & salted almonds in a can, that I didn’t realize that they could be dry roasted at home.

After letting the almonds cool (and eating a few of these freshly roasted nuts during this time) we threw them in the food processor.  Once they started to break down (about two minutes), I stopped and took a look and taste.  They were still quite dry.  I continued to use the food processor for another two minutes and stopped again.  They had become more of a paste consistency, but still not the nut butter that I was looking for.  Back on again for another two minutes and that is when the magic happened!  The almonds transformed from a dry paste to the creamy goodness that I was looking for.  And the taste – Awesome and Delicious!

Needless to say, we will no longer be buying our almond butter at the grocery store; we will buy raw nuts and make our own.  We are already thinking of the other nut butters that we can make;

• Walnut
• Pecan
• Pistachio
• Hazelnut

Stay tuned for these recipes as we start experimenting!

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Adapted from:

My New Roots: DIY Almond Butter

Ingredients:

• 3 cups shelled raw/natural almonds
  *Makes about 1.5 cups of almond butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Spread the almonds out in a single layer on parchment lined baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes until fragrant and slightly darker in colour.
3. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
4. Transfer the cooled almonds to a food processor and blend on highest setting for 1-2 minutes to finely grind them to a powder. Scrape down the sides of the container.
5. Continue to process the nuts an additional 3-4 minutes until the oils start to be released, and a smooth, creamy, runny paste is formed.
6. Transfer the almond butter to an airtight glass container and store in the refrigerator. Keeps for 1 month.

* Note – If you want chunky almond butter, remove a generous scoop of the chopped nuts from the food processor before it turns into a powder. Set aside. Fold it to the creamy almond butter before storing.