There are some things you have to know about me. There are few things that I will never get sick of. In fact, I get sick of almost everything really really quickly. Some of you may know that I go through phases. Soup phases. Avocado phases. Apple phases. Heck, the last month and a bit was just one big, fat donut phase. I’m still kind of on it. I tried a delicious cinnamon nutmeg sugar cake donut from Paulette’s the other day. It was really good, but I still dream of my favourite: honey crueller. Tim Horton’s has a honey crueller that I love. But I digress. There is one thing I can never get sick of:
Crackers.
Is that weird?
Crackers are my vice. Specifically Premium Plus Salted Tops. The worst kind. Not even the whole wheat kind. I know, I feel a little ashamed. But they’re just so delicious. I love love looooove crackers. Great in soups. But my favourite is when they’re on their own. The crispy crunch when you bite into them, and little bursts of salt while you try to chew and swallow that dry ol’ cracker quickly enough to scarf down the next one. I usually have a tall glass of water standing by.
But I not only love crackers no matter what time of the year or hour of the day it is, I love em with peanut butter. Some of my friends don’t quite understand the love I have for peanut butter. Peanut butter is to me what honey is to Winnie the Pooh. My favourite was Kraft Smooth Peanut Butter, until I discovered the amazingness of natural peanut butter, freshly ground at my local health food store. It was a huge difference at first, but I can’t even go back to old peanut butter anymore. I have two jars in my cupboard, forlorn and uneaten, waiting to be turned into baked goods. Now that I have discovered what amazing natural peanut butter is, I no longer need the additives, the salt, the sugar, or the preservatives to sustain my peanut butter love.
And I was surprised to see how easy it is to make. I tried making almond butter instead, because as a vegetarian who doesn’t really like milk, I wanted to find ways to add more calcium into my diet. And it just so happens that almonds are a great source of calcium. Whaaaat? I know I was surprised too.
So I went to the bulk health food store and bought me some roasted unsalted almonds. I dumped em into my new favourite kitchen appliance (thank you Aunt Ty!) and I pressed purée for about 10 seconds. WHIIIIIRRRRRRR went the blades as they easily cut through the almonds. I opened it up to take a peek and I was impressed by the sheer power of my food processor. It looked similar to the almond meal I had to make for my hazelnut macarons.
I pressed it again for another 20 seconds. The almond meal was starting to pile up on the sides and weren’t going near the blades, so I started to pulse it to move stuff around. The more I pulsed, the more it started to clump. It eventually became on massive clump. So I pulsed and pulsed to break it up.
Eventually the heat from pulsing separated the oils from the nuts to create the smooth buttery texture, and voilà ! Almond butter. Took me less than 10 minutes. If you want to add chocolate, go for it! Melt some chocolate chips in the microwave, add, and then pulse until incorporated into the mixture.
 You could also add some salt for a more familiar flavour. Or even a drizzle of honey for sweetness. I bought a bag of roasted peanuts today so that I can make some peanut butter tomorrow! Because it made about two small jars full, and I ate one jar in 24 hours and gave the other jar to my mom. It’s so good it’s dangerous! And you could make it with all sorts of nuts. Pistachios, cashews. The fattier the nut, the creamier the result. Or if you have a nut allergy, you could do it with roasted soy beans. I’ve had soy butter before and it is delicious!
Fell free to stop pulsing before it gets perfectly smooth if you like crunchy peanut butter. Or keep pulsing until you have an ultra-creamy and smooth nut butter.
Yum. Enjoy!
Almond Butter
Step aside, store-bought nut butters because the homemade stuff is DIVINE.
Ingredients
- 2 cups roasted unsalted almonds (or other nuts)
- Optional: 3 tbsp melted chocolate chips (pick dairyfree chips if you want to keep it vegan)
Instructions
- In a food processor, blitz the almonds until it turns into a runny paste. Be patient! You may need to scrape down the sides a bit but it will turn into beautiful almond butter if you keep on processing it.
- Optional: if you want to add chocolate, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave before adding it to the nut butter. Continue to process until the chocolate is incorporated into the almond butter.
- Transfer to a clean container and keep stored in the fridge. It should stay good for about 2-3 weeks =)
Shoba Shrinivasan says
I have always been making cashew butter, alamond butter and peanut butter at home. There is a richness om the butter made at home nad it never stays around long enough to get spoilt! Lovely clicks Lisa.
Shobha
Lisa says
I know exactly what you mean! One of those little jars lasted me about two days. It’s too delicious >< Thank you for the lovely comment =)
natalie @ wee eats says
i just made some cashew butter for the first time the other day and I swear that stuff is addictive!
natalie @ wee eats recently posted…BLT Steak Popovers
Lisa says
So true! Maybe I’ll try cashews next =)
Hannah says
I am the exact same way with food, I go through “phases”. Right now I am totally in a peanut/almond butter phase. I’ve made homemade peanut butter before but have yet to try homemade almond butter. Yours look delicious. Great blog by the way!
Hannah recently posted…Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup
Lisa says
Haha get ready because that almond butter phase might last forever. I found out that I like almond butter waaaaay more than peanut butter!
Alexander Harvey says
Nothing looks more tempting than those beautiful nut butters! Lovely photos!
Lisa says
Thank you! I’ve already made a second batch XD
PapaLos @ The Man, The Chef, The Dad says
Looks great and sounds awesome! I have a Ninja blender/processor on the way to me and I’m looking forward to turning out stuff like this!
PapaLos @ The Man, The Chef, The Dad recently posted…This Salad Weighs a Crou-ton
Billy Hoyle says
Delicious.
Mine came out darker than yours (no chocolate chips) and it never went through that ball phase, I wonder why.
Thanks for the great idea.
Danielle says
I made the almond butter and it was good an creamy and then I added honey and it made it kind of curdle. What did I do wrong? Did I put too much honey?
Lisa Mai says
My almond butter definitely got thicker when I added honey but it didn’t really curdle. I’m not quite sure what happened there!
Tericia says
How am I just catching on to this when it’s so easy! I wanted to say that when I first added my honey, about 1tsp, my butter got really crumbly also and didn’t seem to smooth back out. I added about 1cup more of almonds and turned my food processor to 2 and let it ride. I could see it thinning out once everything was warm from running. I added just a pinch of salt and it really does taste so good. Thanks for showing me how easy this was to make.
Lisa Le says
Yes the honey does make it seize up a bit but like it did for you, if you keep on blending it, it’ll smooth out once the oils release and emulsify with the honey =)
Lindsey says
Tried the cashew butter with a big bucket I had in the pantry, and it turned out more the consistency of cookie dough! I added some water but then it just became soggy cashew dough…Not sure if it was my food processor (cuisinart 4 cup mini prep) or if cashews just don’t really work.
Lisa Mai says
Hi Lindsey, cashews can definitely be turned into cashew butter. Unfortunately it just takes a lot longer for them to be turned into butter. They will definitely first become a thick, cashew dough and then with enough time and processing (and heat from all the processing), they’ll turn into cashew butter. has a great step-by-step post about how to make raw cashew butter.
Lisa Le says
Hahaha thank you for taking the time to comment and tell me that. Made my day!
Mary says
Can I use a regular blender or is a food processor necessary?
Lisa Le says
Hi Mary,
It depends on your blender. High speed blenders will be able to move stuff around well enough to heat up the almonds to release the oils. Something like a Ninja, Blendtec or Vitamix will definitely work. I’m not sure about regular blenders though. I know people have made almond butter with a stick blender. I just know that it’s easier to scrape down the sides of food processors. Hope that helps!
Tasha says
Where did you purchase the little jars from?
Lisa Le says
Canadian Tire =)
Dylan says
This post sounds to good to be true! Last time I tried making almond butter it definitely took me more than 10 minutes! Maybe 30-40 of food processing and a headache. Any tips for speeding up the process? (Maybe I need a higher powered food processor but it works great for other recipes, and kinda looks like yours).
Thanks,
Dylan
Lisa Le says
Hi Dylan! That’s too bad that you haven’t had the same sort of success I’ve had. Maybe ensure that your almonds are fairly fresh? The oils in the almonds are key in making almond butter so creamy and delicious, but if the almonds are stale, they might not break down as well as they would if they were fresh. To jump start the process, you can add a splash of nut oil, preferably almond oil, to help things moving along.
Stephanie says
Do the nuts need to be roasted? Or can you use raw?
Lisa Le says
You could use both! You’ll get a different flavour for both. For many who are health focused, almonds may retain more of their nutrition in raw form, but I prefer the flavour of roasted. It’s up to you =)