YIELD: AROUND 3/4 CUPAvoid all the additives in commercial almond butter and make your own in seconds. It's cheap, easy and delicious!
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup roasted almonds
pinch sea salt (optional)
honey (optional)
olive oil (optional)
METHOD:
1. Place roasted almonds and salt (if using) into a food processor.
2. Blend until nuts are broken into smaller pieces, then continue on medium for 30 seconds or so.
3. Remove some of the chopped nuts for later (if making crunchy almond butter).
4. Larger batches take longer, so blend until the remaining nuts become smooth. At this stage, the almond oil will begin to appear on the surface. It will be thicker than peanut butter, so add some honey and/or olive oil to your liking. Taste and add extra salt if you like. You now have smooth almond butter!
5. Stir the remaining chopped nuts back into the almond butter to make crunchy almond butter!
NOTES:
- Roast almonds by spreading them onto a tray and baking for around 15 minutes at 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit)
- Keep an eye on your food processor motor – if it gets warm, turn off and wait to cool down before using again, or refer to your manual
- Smaller batches are quicker and better – large batches may spoil before being used up
- Try a combination of almonds, brazil nuts and cashews
- You can use other nuts too – try peanuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts or a combination
- Add other ingredients such as coconut, coffee, lemon juice (or zest), orange juice (or zest) or a splash of vanilla
- Chocolate almond spread: add cacao (or cocoa) powder to taste
- Chocolate coconut almond spread: add cacoa powder and dessiccated coconut to taste
- Coffee & orange almond spread: add orange zest and instant coffee to taste
- A little honey or maple syrup is nice, too
- Store almond butter in an airtight jar, in the refrigerator and use up within 8 weeks
- Serve with apple slices, raisins and some apricots or peaches
- Find your almond butter is too hard in the fridge? Add 2 tablespoons of your favourite oil (i.e. extra virgin olive oil) to the almond butter before putting into a jar and refrigerating