Once I found out that all I needed to make almond butter was almonds and a food processor, I was game to try. And since I started making my own, I haven’t bought any from the store.  I think it tastes much better,  and depending on your almonds, it’s less expensive too. Just make sure you process the almonds long enough to make it creamy!

Almond Butter

  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 2 cups raw almonds
  • 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions

  1. with banana croppedBake the almonds on a baking sheet at 350ºF for about 10 minutes until slightly toasted
  2. Cool for 5-10 minutes, then place in food processor with the salt
  3. Process for about 5 minutes, stopping occasionally to break up any big clumps and re-distribute the almonds (now almond meal)
  4. Keep processing (maybe longer than you think) until it becomes creamy.



Lessons Learned/Advice:

  • To buy almonds, I order 25 pounds of organic Carmel almonds from the Anderson Family Farm in Hilmar, CA.  You place your order by phone and they usually ship the same day; it’s a wonderful tiny way to stay connected to our farms.  The almonds also taste great on their own.  Of course, you can always buy almonds at the grocery store instead.
  • This batch makes a little more than 1 cup of almond butter (I think)
  • Toasting is optional but I compared almond butters made with raw and toasted almonds, and I prefer toasted; when toasting, you’ll be able to smell the almonds – this will indicate that they are done, or close to it
  • My preference for salt is a very coarse sea salt. You’ll be able to taste it in the almond butter, but I’ve yet to hear any complaints (and I’ve shared many batches)
  • I think the processing takes longer than you might expect. My first batches weren’t creamy because I thought the butter was “done” — but one time when I was busy in the kitchen, I left it on longer than planned and voilà! I had creamy almond butter
  • Perfect to add to my almond cinnamon smoothie
  • If you want crunchy almond butter, I suggest you take some of the batch out of the processor when it’s in small chunks, and then add that back at the end. Otherwise, if you stop processing when it’s all crunchy the whole batch won’t be very creamy or spreadable. I haven’t tried making crunchy yet — please let me know if you do!
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