Making Almond Nut Butter (A Recipe)
Almond butter is essentially the same thing as peanut butter (except a lot of peanut butters have extra salt, sugar, oil and goodness-knows-what-else mixed in too), but made from almonds. I love peanut butter, but I prefer almonds to peanuts, and almond butter is definitely more delicious!
However, if you want to buy it from the shops it’s quite a bit more expensive than peanut butter. I guess that’s what comes from not adding all that other rubbish in.
You can buy almond butter from health food shops and actually our local supermarkets stock it too, except the brand they stock has a plastic wrapper over the lid – and I don’t buy plastic. I did find a plastic free version, but it wasn’t great – too many lumps, oily and ridiculously stiff.
So I decided to have a go at making it in my food processor. And…it was a total success! So I won’t be buying it any more, I’ll be making my own. And I might experiment with some other nuts. I think hazelnut butter would be amazing too, and I haven’t seen that in the shops at all.
Recipe: How to Make Almond Butter
I choose to make roasted almond butter, because roasting brings out the flavour.
This recipe makes approx. 1 cup almond butter.
Ingredients:
2 cups raw almonds
Method:
First roast the almonds. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Spread the almonds on a baking tray so they’re not on top of one another and cook for 20-30 minutes. (I cooked mine for 30 minutes and they were very well roasted – possibly a bit too much!)
Leave to cool completely. They will continue to make popping noises even once they feel cool to touch, so wait for this to stop.
Once the almonds are cold, place in the food processor or high powered blender, and turn on.
After a minute, the almonds will have turned into crumbs.
Keep blending, and the crumbs will form a dough.
Continue to blend, and the dough will form a smooth glossy paste, which is almond butter.
Scrape into a jar – I store mine in the cupboard, and a jar lasts 2-3 months. It will keep longer if stored in the fridge.
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What food processor did you use?
I had a magimix and it worked really well. If you don’t have one with such a powerful motor, you’d probably just need to take a bit more time and pause now and again to ensure it doesn’t overheat. And you can always chop the almonds roughly with a knife first to help it on its way…
I’m looking at the Magimix 3200. Is this powerful enough to make almond butter.?
Great!! I think Im sold on a Magimix!!
They’re not cheap but they do last (the motor is guaranteed for 25 or 30 years). I bought mine second-hand on Gumtree which saved quite a bit, and when I ended up replacing it I was able to sell it for the same price as I paid – they don’t depreciate either!
Hello, would this work for cashews as well? I’m guessing it probably would, so I’m willing to try it out.
Definitely Michael! But the results are very different. Cashew (and macadamia nut) butters are quite sweet and buttery. I’d recommend roasting whichever nuts you use though unless you have a very powerful blender or you will struggle to release the oils.
Hi I can’t make my mind up would the Magimix 4200xl be powerful enough to make almond butter,many thanks
Hi Tania, I made this in a Magimix but I can’t remember now what model I had. One thing I will say, if you roast the almonds, you’ll be fine. Raw almonds are much harder to blend, and will take a good few minutes even with an amazing blender. As Jen suggested below, blend for a minute, and then leave for a few minutes to cool down if you’re worried about the motor overheating.
Good luck!
Hi Tania, I made almond butter in the magimix 5200 xl which is 1100 watts as opposed to the 4200’s 950w, but it’s not a huge difference, so I’d imagine you’d be ok with the 4200. You could always try letting it cool down after a few minutes if it doesn’t come together right away?
Hope this helps!
Hi Jen, thanks for being so helpful with your quick reply! I used a Magimix but don’t remember the model now. Magimixes can handle most things! Plus I would have said the same as you – leave to cool if you are worried. Thanks!
Confused about how plastic food processors = plastic free living?
Especially with regard to nuts since those eventually lead to the transference of plastic INTO the nut butter by way of wearing and scratches from the blending process.