My friend Shay adores almond butter. She has the ability to eat it day after day, smeared on toast or straight out of the jar with a spoon. And honestly? I never quite understood why she liked it so much. I always found it a bit stodgy and without the smoothness of some other nut butters I’ve tried.
But lately, the urge to make a homemade nut butters took hold and I couldn’t shake it loose. I was a little concerned that my 30+ year old food processor wasn’t up to the job, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. The motor did smell slightly overheated, but kept on chugging throughout the processing. I chose to make a roasted maple almond butter because I had all the ingredients needed. Plus, I figured that if I didn’t like it, I’d always have an appreciative audience in Shay.
I took my primary inspiration from this post on the Edible Perspective and tossed 1 1/2 cups of raw almonds with 3 tablespoons of maple syrup on a baking mat. I sprinkled a bit of sea salt on prior to roasting, because I like my nut butters to have a salty side.
After 20 minutes of roasting, the almonds took a little cool-down prior to their trip through the processor. Truly, I could have eaten the entire baking sheet just as they were (I must remember to do more with maple roasted nuts. Maybe I should make these again).
Once they were cool enough to handle, it was just a matter of running the processor, scraping down the sides and adding a bit of walnut oil to help things get moving. After six or seven minutes of processing, those roasted almonds had transformed into the most luscious nut butter I’d ever seen or tasted. Suddenly, I understood Shay’s love of almond butter. It’s creamy, nutty and just a touch sweet thanks to the maple syrup.
So far, I’ve eaten it with apple slices, spread on toasted millet bread (a friend gave me half a loaf, the recipe is from Moosewood) and straight out of the jar with a spoon. When this jar is gone (and it will be soon, I only got a little more than half a pint), I’ll be making more.
Homemade Maple Almond Butter
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of raw almonds
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- pinch of sea salt
- 1-2 teaspoons walnut oil or any other complimentary/neutral oil
Instructions
- Spread the almonds on a rimmed cookie sheet, preferably with a baking mat or sheet of parchment underneath them. Drizzle the maple syrup over the almonds and toss the nuts with your fingers so that they get evenly coated. Roast them at 325 degrees for 20 minutes, tossing at least once during the cooking process.
- When the nuts are fully roasted, remove the pan from the oven and let cool for at least 10-15 minutes.
- Pour the nuts into the food processor and pulse to begin breaking them up. Add a drizzle of your oil and run the processor 30-45 seconds. Remove the lid and scrape down the sides. Continue with this process/scrape/drizzle procedure until your nuts have broken down in butter. You may not need all the oil, it just depends on the moisture content of the almonds.
- Store your homemade almond butter in the fridge, as with many things you make at home, it will not have quite the lifespan that similar store bought products have.
How do you store/keep this? Do you properly can it or just throw it in a jar & put it in the refrigerator? & also do you need to properly can nut butters??
I just keep it in the fridge. There’s no way to safely can nut butters. However, they keep for ages in the fridge.
I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time but now that I have the instructions, I can’t wait! Think I’ll swing by the market on my way home from phys therapy and try to find some raw almonds. Grandkids are staying with us – I’ll test it out on them.
I have read that homemade peanut butter freezes well. Have you found this to be true for the other nut butters?
I have almonds in the oven now… next? Cashews baby! Thank you thank you THANK YOU for sharing this recipe!!! Also, my sister has had issues with being under weight… won’t eat regular peanut butter… she’s gonna FLIP over this recipe!!!! (She’ll be able to use sf maple syrup)… Thanks again!!! Really appreciate it!!! 😀
This recipe is one that I can’t wait to try! We are in our first season of sugaring:
http://www.calicohen.blogspot.com/2012/02/soule-spile.html
What kind of jars did you use for this? I’m looking for a size suitable to give as gifts for my friends & family for the holidays…
Thanks!
I put it in wide mouth half pints.
What brand jars and what lids did you use? I was looking at the Ball jars, but they only sold the lids in the 2 pieces – I’m looking for a regular lid.
This sounds like the perfect holiday gift, love it! How much did your recipe yield? I probably will want to triple or quadruple it to make enough to give away…thanks!
This is SO yummy! I usually have nut butter for breakfast (I would probably get along just fine with Shay!), but this morning, my Trader Joe’s jar was empty. Since it’s a damp, soggy day, it was the perfect time to warm up the house with roasted maple almonds and give this a try. So glad I did…and now I can’t stop nibbling. Marisa, when you want to check out the bulk food emporium of the burbs, come for a visit and I’ll take you to “The Head Nut”–you’ll love it (bring lots of jars to fill!)
I tried this last night and it was very easy. It took my cusinart food processor about 6 minutes to go from full almonds to butter. Before I made this, I googled homemade almond butter and found this blog http://bowlofplenty.blogspot.com/2009/03/homemade-almond-butter.html where there are time lapse pictures of the process, so you know how it will look at the various stages.
Anyway, its really tasty & creamy and the maple flavor comes through. I had no idea making home made nut butter was this easy.
Can you actually can nut butters at home? I just made strawberry jam Thursday, making this today and fresh bread tomorrow, guess what’s for lunch next week LOL
I do want to make enough to can (if it’s possible) as my family of 7 goes though nut butter at an alarming rate. I don’t want to have to remake this every week.
Funny you should talk about this, I have been making peanut butter for a while and cannot stop eating it, yesterday I tried making almond butter. I did not roast them, just put them in the processor with home made golden syrup, salt and sunflower oil. It is nice but not as nice a peanut butter. I will try your version – it sounds lovely. I eat the nut butters on rice cakes with sliced fruit for breakfast.
Sue
This is wonderful! I love nut butter and on the look out for more, thanks.
making this. now. thank you. 🙂
Looks and sounds absolutely delicious!
Nuts love salt, I think if you were to up the salt a bit, the roasted flavor of the nuts would make a person love almond butter like I do! Adding honey or maple syrup, that is inspired.
I love almond butter–I slather on my toast nearly every morning. I have been busy bookmarking recipes to drop into my future food processor–I can’t wait make this one. Thanks for the lovely recipe.
how long does it last in fridge??
At least a week or two.
I made this today – the taste was fantastic, but I couldn’t get a very creamy texture. I am wondering if this was due to the almonds or a sub-par food processor.
Justin – it’s shockingly easy and fast to unskin almonds. Just pour boiling water over the almonds and let them sit for 2 or 3 minutes. The skins slide right off.
Awesome…thanks for telling me how. Maybe I’ll give it a try!
I’m sorry to hear you couldn’t quite the get smooth texture. Maybe a bit more oil would have done the job?
Ooooo, definately going to try this!
Oh yum! That sounds absolutely amazing and very easy to make. Thank you!
This looks fantastic! I always thought you would need one of those expensive blenders to get good texture, but your butter looks great. Do you think it would work as well using honey instead of maple syrup?
Though I haven’t tried it, I think honey would certainly work as well.
Great post! I’ve been wanting to try nut butters as well.
I’m curious how much of a gritty texture the brown skin contributed to the butter? I assume store-bought almond butter must be done with blanched almonds (no skin) because it doesn’t seem to have brown specs. Did you find it gritty at all? I vaguely remember finding instructions somewhere for how to de-skin almonds (buying them that way is more expensive).
I’ve been wanting to make cashew butter for awhile (cause it’s $9.99/jar to buy it). Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find inexpensive UNSALTED cashews–even pieces and I think that much salt would be too salty. I suppose I could probably wash and dry the salted ones.
I didn’t peel my almonds and didn’t have any issue with the presence of the peel in the finished product. As far as the cashews go, you could go online and see if you could find a good price on pound or two of unsalted nuts.
Maybe you can find them at Winco???
mmm, I love almond butter.
I still haven’t taken the plunge into homemade nut butters. I really want to but for some reason I imagine they will be more expensive to make than buy. I have to try this, though it looks so good!
Looks divine, Marisa. Great pics, as usual.
So far, I haven’t been a fan of almond butter (and I have two containers in the fridge going bad to attest to that. We made them this past summer). I think you pegged why..I do need that slightly sweet taste to it and this is DEFINITELY something we’re going to try this week!
The slight sweetness of the maple syrup really transforms this butter.
I love homemade almond butter and might not have believed the difference between it and store bought until I made it. The difference in flavor and freshness is acute – homemade is the best. And it’s naturally gluten free, a plus for me!
We have a friend in common. I don’t want to name names….he goes to Clark University as a grad student and is friends with your sister. You know who I mean? We had dinner with him a few months ago and we realized the connection after I talked about my blog (http://www.glutenfreediva.com).
Keep up the good work!
Ellen
http://www.glutenfreediva.com
I’m glad you’ve been bitten by the almond butter bug:) Oh Almond, how do I love thee, let me count the ways!
Lady, next batch I make I’ll bring some over for you.
Wow – that sounds amazing! Must try!!
Oooh, this sounds just divine! I can’t wait to try it.
Yum, this does sound good.
Hmm. This would make for an awesome gift, I think.
I have always been curious about how many nuts it takes to make nut butters and how much you really get for the end product. We have both almond and peanut allergies here among other things so I routinely buy both sunflower seed butter, and almond butter in addition to real peanut butter. I may have to try this one!! Good to know that 1 1/2 cups of nuts yield a small jar. I was envisioning it taking more nuts.
Oooohh I can make this! Why you ask,because I got a new food processor for Christmas. It’s the little things I tell ya.
Y U M! I can’t wait to try this. I love putting nut butter on apples for an afternoon snack. This will be the perfect addition to my new herbal candy!
I will definitely try this at home. My 4 year old daughter, bless her lil’ heart, is allergic to peanuts, and I always feel like she’s missing out when her sandwich has only jam on it. I recently bought a jar of almond butter at the store and it was just okay- hard to justify the $5.00 price tag for a smallish container.
Oh, my. All I need are the almonds. And I drive right past the farmer’s market tomorrow.
Thanks!
Paige, I think the maple syrup really helps here. I found this almond butter was so much better than what you can buy at the store.
Yum! I made a bunch of butters last month because my fiance was on a limited diet and it was a good way to save money. Cashew butter was perfect, but others not so much. The texture was there with all of them and it was really fun to watch the nuts transform into powder, then sticky crumbs, then a big blob, and finally smooth down into a smooth butter. BUT the flavor was not right with many of them. I made 3 different batches of almond butter; raw, roasted until almost burnt, roasted less than that, and none of them were right. Not sweet enough, maybe? Same with the tahini I made. Definitely edible! But not the same as the jarred stuff. I really want to figure out how to make it perfectly, because making your own is such a money saver, especially for fun flavor combinations!