The Lunch Lady
Homemade almond butter
Roasted almond butter with brown sugar, a little salt and extra virgin olive oil. Blend it until smooth and spreadable, then put it on a warm biscuit.
Published
- Servings
- About 1 1/4 cups, or 20 tablespoon-size servings
- Total time
- About 40 minutes, including a brief rest after roasting
Times are estimates. Processing time and motor rest breaks vary by machine.
Give the almonds enough time
The homemade almond butter was great with our big drop biscuits. Roasted almonds, brown sugar, salt and a little extra virgin olive oil. Pretty simple ingredients, but you have to give the machine enough time to turn them into something you can spread.
My biggest advice is to use a strong food processor and keep going past the stage where you think it should be done. It looks like crumbs first. Then it clumps up. Eventually it gets creamy. Stop to scrape the bowl and let the motor rest as needed. Trying to force a small processor through a thick nut paste is not worth burning it out.
Spread it on a biscuit, put it in celery or scoop some up with an apple slice. It's a good one to have around.
Home recipe
Homemade almond butter
The Lunch Lady · Jared Veldheer
- Servings
- About 1 1/4 cups, or 20 tablespoon-size servings
- Prep time
- About 20 minutes
- Cook time
- About 15 minutes
- Total time
- About 40 minutes, including a brief rest after roasting
Times are estimates. Processing time and motor rest breaks vary by machine.
Equipment: Rimmed baking sheet, sturdy food processor with a metal chopping blade rated for nut butter, spatula and kitchen scale
Ingredients
Check off ingredients as you go.
Instructions
Roast and blend
- Heat the oven to 350°F conventional or 325°F convection. Spread the almonds in one layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring halfway through, until fragrant and a shade darker. Start checking at 8 minutes; do not let them turn dark or smell scorched.
- Let the almonds stand for about 5 minutes, until warm rather than piping hot. Transfer to the food processor fitted with its metal chopping blade. Add the brown sugar and salt.
- Pulse to chop the almonds, then process in intervals permitted by your machine's instructions. Expect the mixture to become fine crumbs, then a thick clump or paste, before it loosens and turns creamy. Stop the motor before opening the lid to scrape down the sides and bottom. Processing often takes 10 to 15 minutes of running time in total, sometimes longer; rest breaks add to the elapsed time.
- Once the almond butter is creamy, add the olive oil and process until fully mixed and spreadable. Taste and adjust the salt if needed. A little texture from the almond skins is normal.
- Spoon into a clean jar or serve with big drop biscuits, apple slices or celery. It will be looser while warm and thicken as it cools.
Recipe notes
- Use a processor whose manufacturer allows nut butter, and follow its batch-size and run-time limits. A small mini chopper is not a substitute. Stop and let the motor cool if it gets hot or starts struggling. Do not keep running a stalled blade.
- The nuts must stay in contact with the blade. If your processor requires a larger minimum batch, scale all four ingredients together within its capacity. Scrape down with the machine stopped instead of adding water to make it move.
- Starting with warm, freshly roasted almonds helps them process. Be patient with the thick paste stage. Add the measured olive oil after the almonds become creamy, as in the original recipe.