Making nut butter is really simple with a high powered blender (I use a VitaMix) and it works out to be cheaper than buying it from the shops. PLUS you can add whatever you like to it and you know exactly what's in it, so it's a win-win situation! It can be as simple as one ingredient or as complex as you want.
ALMOND BUTTER INGREDIENTS
- As many almonds as you like (I only make a small jar's worth at a time to avoid the nuts going rancid, so usually use about 1.5 cups)
- Optional: add-ins such as cinnamon, maple syrup, vanilla, cacao, coconut, sea salt or other nuts
When my almonds are sufficiently roasted I then pour them into my blender and blend on low speed. After they become the crumbly texture shown in the third photo I up the speed a little, and this makes the almonds start to release their natural oils.
I then vary in speeds between low and medium and use the tamper to push the almonds down from the sides, and doing this consistently results in the second last picture. Many people would stop at that consistency but I prefer a super runny almond butter (as shown in the last image), so personally blend it on medium-high for a further 2 minutes.
Your last step should be to add in any extras (such as vanilla, maple, cinnamon etc.) and give it a quick blend to make sure they're all evenly distributed. The whole blending process should take about 10 minutes!
When it comes to clean up, there's usually quite a bit of almond butter left in the bottom of the blender that can't be scraped out. So, being a waste-hater, I like to make a simple Almond Latte!
ALMOND LATTE RECIPE
- Leftover almond butter in the blender
- 1 cup of non-dairy milk
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Blend all ingredients until the milk becomes frothy on the top. This can be served as is, or you can heat it up either in the blender by blending it for longer or microwave it.
So that's it! Very simple recipes for almond butter and an almond milk latte.
Hope this was useful!
Lisa xxx