Learn how to make your almond butter with my easy one-ingredient Almond Butter Recipe. It's drippy, delicious, and full of nutty, roasted almond flavour!
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We've made our own delicious Almond Milk and now we are moving on to Almond Butter!
With this super easy almond butter recipe, you have a jar of drippy, nutty, toasty, deliciousness in under 30 minutes!
Mel x
Ingredients
To make almond butter you need just one ingredient. Almonds!
How To Make Almond Butter
Can't wait to make it? The full printable recipe is below, but first, let me walk you through the steps to set you up for success in your kitchen. I recommend watching my recipe video if you're more of a visual learner.
- First, as with my tahini recipe where we toast the sesame seeds first, for the very best flavour and the drippiest consistency, I recommend roasting the almonds. This enhances their flavour and helps to release their natural oils, making blending much easier. Spread the almonds out on a baking tray and roast for 10 minutes.
- Let the almonds cool down a bit before adding them to your food processor. This is really important because nuts contain lots of oil which heats to a really high temperature and could potentially melt your food processor bowl or overheat your machine. Let them cool for a few minutes until warm to the touch.
- Start blending the almonds. The first stage will have the mixture looking like damp sand. Keep going.
- It will then become a thick, grainy paste. Keep going. The key to this almond butter recipe is patience and to push through the sandy and pasty grainy phases. Don't give up. Magic will happen!
- Suddenly it will go from thick and pasty to smooth, glossy, and drippy. The time it takes will depend on the power of your blender/food processor. In my powerful Cuisinart food processor it takes about 10 minutes.
Adding Flavourings/Sweetener To Homemade Almond Butter
If you want to add other flavourings such as salt, sugar, cocoa, or spices when making this almond butter recipe, add them after the nuts have been processed into a smooth creamy almond butter.
I don't recommend adding any liquid flavourings/sweeteners because of the risk of seizing. This includes vanilla extract and maple syrup.
If adding brown sugar or coconut sugar which tend to absorb moisture from the air, be sure to use a brand new unopened bag so you know it is completely moisture-free. Don't use one that's been opened before.
When almond butter seizes it will not develop a creamy texture. Instead, it will become clumpy, lumpy, or grainy, and no matteer how long you blend it will never become drippy or smooth. Definitely a scenario you want to avoid.
How To Use Almond Butter
Wondering what you can do with almond butter? It's a pantry staple here at AVV HQ! Enjoy it spread on toast (I love it with some jam too), English muffins, banana bread, or homemade sourdough, or with fruits and veggies like apple, celery, and banana, in smoothies, or dolloped on your pancakes, oatmeal, yogurt, or overnight oats. It's also incredibly good when used in place of th epeanut butter in my peanut butter sriracha sandwiches!
You can also use it in dips, sauces, curries, or any recipe that calls for almond butter or peanut butter. It's delicious in my Peanut Noodles, Peanut Sauce and in my in my peanut butter sriracha sandwiches. Such a versatile ingredient!
Homemade Almond Butter Recipe FAQs
As long as you've followed all of my advice in the post above and haven't added any liquids or flavourings that could have made it seize, then don't worry, it's salvageable! Problems blending can happen if your food processor/blender isn't quite up to the job if the almonds haven't been roasted, or due to the quality of the almonds used. Quality, environment during distribution and storage, and packaging varies hugely and this can affect how they blend. If you are struggling, add a little neutral oil to the blender or food processor 1 tablespoon at a time until things get going and it starts turning creamy.
Roasting helps to release the natural oils in the almonds which makes blending a lot easier. If using a good food processor you should be able to get away without roasting them. If you are using a blender I do not recommend not roasting the almonds unless you are ok with adding a tablespoon or two of oil to help get things going.
Don't soak the almonds before using them. Any presence of water will make the almond butter seize, and even if you dry them thoroughly in the oven after soaking you will have washed away precious natural oils which are necessary for effective blending.
Yes. This method will work with any nut such as peanuts, walnuts, or pecans.
I haven't tried freezing my almond butter but according to Pantry & Larder who have tested this, it freezes very well. They have lots of helpful info and tips in their Can You Freeze Almond Butter article.
It is possible to make almond butter (or other nut butters) in a blender, but even high-powered machines like Vitamix and Blendtec can struggle when there is no oil being added. To get a creamy nut butter lots and lots of scraping down and tampering is needed.
Food processors are more of a workhorse and cope with jobs like this much better. They easily turn nuts into butter. Not to mention how much easier it is to scoop the finished almond butter out of a shallow food processor with a removable blade, compared to a tall narrow blender canister with the blade in situ.
Recipe
Almond Butter Recipe
Author:WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 3 cups (432 grams) raw almonds
OPTIONAL
- a pinch sea salt
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
- Spread almonds out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. They should smell nutty and toasty. Leave them in the pan to cool for 5 minutes before continuing. They should be warm but not hot when blending.
- Make sure the food processor bowl, blade, and any spatula used is completely dry. One tiny drop of water could make your almond butter seize.
- Add the warm roasted almonds to a food processor (do not add anything else) and process until completely smooth and creamy.
- Scrape the sides and the bottom with a spatula as needed for even mixing and if your food processor or blender starts getting a little warm give it a break for a few minutes. It could take anything from 7 to 20 minutes depending on your food processor/blender.
- Patience is key here. It will go through several stages. First it will look like coarse almond flour, then wet sand, then a very thick grainy paste, and then magic will happen and it will suddenly become completely smooth and creamy.
- Once the almond butter is smooth and creamy you can add a pinch of salt if desired (or other dry flavourings) and give it a quick blend to combine before spooning into jars for storage. DO NOT add anything liquid and if using brown/coconut sugar open a brand new bag. Don't use one that has previously been opened. See the section in the post above about adding flavourings/sweetener for more info.
NOTES
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Jan Vanderwall says
Going to give this a try. After refrigerating, can you move to pantry? After freezing, can you move to pantry or do you have to keep refrigerated?
Melanie McDonald says
Tips for storage are included in the post here: https://avirtualvegan.com/almond-butter-recipe/#storing-homemade-almond-butter
Beth L says
This recipe came together so easily due to your clear instructions. I used just 2 cups of nuts as I have a 7-cup Cuisinart processor and wasn’t sure if it would be overloaded- I think it would have easily handled the whole amount. I’m so happy to have good tasting, fresh almond butter! Usually what I find in the stores is so hard it won’t stir properly. Or it’s priced beyond my budget. Thanks so much!
Anna Belle says
Hello Mel,
I used to make my own almond butter but got tired of the time it took. Does baking the almonds first make the process any easier ?
Really enjoy your contributions.
Melanie McDonald says
Roasting them first makes a huge difference. It helps release the natural oils so they blend up more easily. It takes me about 10 minutes to go from roasted nuts to nut butter in my Cuisinart food processor.