Do me – and more importantly, yourself – a favor: stop buying almond butter at the grocery store or online! Make it yourself and revel in your own ability to make something more delicious – and less expensive – at home. Plus, you can add any flavor enhancement(s) you like: maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, and melted chocolate are just a sampling of the endless possibilities!
I shared this recipe on The Back Burner yesterday, but wanted to give you a play-by-play of making almond butter at home via photos.
First step: roasting the almonds. Trader Joe’s has the best price around for raw, unsalted almonds; I stock up just for this purpose. When nuts are perfectly roasted, they will emit a rich, toasty aroma and be lightly golden brown.
Dump those roasted almonds into your food processor, and let it whirl for 10-15 minutes (be patient!).
After about 2-3 minutes, you’ll have almond meal on your hands. You’ll have to stop the food processor often during these first few minutes to scrape the bowl, as the meal climbs up the sides.
Around 3-5 minutes into the processing, the natural oils inherent in the almonds will start to come out of the meal and turn the contents of the bowl into a paste.
At 5-7 minutes the paste will start to form into a ball…
and then to break down into a butter around 7-10 minutes in.
Finally, around 10-15 minutes after starting the processing, you’ll have a drippy and creamy almond butter that is perfectly delicious as is… but aren’t you tempted to add some flavor enhancements?!
For this recipe we’re using a vanilla bean. Yes, you can sub in pure vanilla extract, but the seeds give a nice aesthetic appeal to the almond butter and you can find vanilla beans on the cheap at stores like Home Goods, Marshall’s, and T.J. Maxx (in the kitchen sections of the latter two).
Slice open the vanilla bean and carefully scrape out all of the seeds with the back (dull edge) of a knife.
For a bit of sweetness, we’re adding in some brown sugar. Maple syrup would also be a lovely addition to this almond butter!
Add the vanilla bean seeds, brown sugar, and a pinch of Kosher salt into the freshly made almond butter, and process until incorporated.
Voila!
Super easy almond butter made right in your own kitchen. Seriously SO GOOD!
Make it.
Vanilla Bean Brown Sugar Almond Butter
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Keywords: roast side snack vegan vegetarian almonds
Ingredients (1 small jar)
- 2 cups raw almonds
- 2 tsp brown sugar, packed
- 1 vanilla bean, slit lengthwise and all seeds scraped out
- 1/8 tsp Kosher salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300°F. Lay almonds out in an even layer on a baking sheet. Roast almonds for 15 minutes, or until fragrant and golden-brown, stirring a couple of times throughout.
Place roasted almonds into the bowl of a food processor. Process until nuts break down into a smooth butter, scraping down the sides as necessary, about 10-15 minutes.
Add in the sugar, vanilla bean seeds, & salt, and process until incorporated.
I store my nut butters at room temperature. Some natural oil separation may occur; simply give the almond butter a good stir before eating.
