How to make your own almond butter
| April 26, 2012 | Posted by eryn under Cooking, Frugal Living, Natural Living |
We love almond butter, and we go through a lot of it. It’s not unheard of for us to go through more than 50 oz. in a week!
I was first introduced to almond butter by my husband when we first started dating. One of his favorite snacks at the time was a sliced apple with almond butter and cinnamon. Yum! It is now a favorite snack for all of us.
We also love almond butter with any and all of the following: bananas, blueberries, chocolate, cinnamon, coconut milk, coconut butter and coconut. It’s also delicious with celery sticks, raisins and shredded coconut. And I use it in my baking and for my son’s oat-less oatmeal.
We typically buy our almond butter at Costco, which runs us $5.99 for a 26-ounce jar. This week, I decided to make my own.
For years, we have been unable to buy nuts at Costco because they all had warning labels stating that they were packaged in a facility that also processed wheat. Since my husband has celiac disease, that made them off-limits for us. But I noticed recently that Costco’s nuts no longer contain this warning and my husband does not seem to have any issues after eating them (yay!). This is a huge cost savings for us.
A 3-lb. bag of almonds from Costco cost me $9.99. Based on my calculations, making a 26-ounce jar myself would cost me $5.41 — that’s close to a 10% savings!
You can use this same recipe for making any kind of nut butter — cashew butter, pecan butter, etc.
If you haven’t made nut butter before, you may be tempted to stop your blender or food processor early. Resist the temptation.
At first, you will end up with a lot of chopped nuts along the sides, but if you let it keep running, you will then get a big ball of almonds and then finally creamy almond butter. I like to keep my food processor running for a little while longer after I first notice it becoming creamy to ensure that I don’t have any chunks and to get it to a great creamy texture.
- 2 cups raw almonds
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper and spread the almonds in a single layer on top.
- Roast the almonds for 10-15 minutes, turning every 5 minutes or so.
- Blend in a high-powered blender or food processor for 10-15 minutes.
What is your favorite kind of nut butter?
This post is linked to The Greenbacks Gal.
Hi there! Love the recipe but have two questions:
1) do i need to roast them?
2) how much does that amount (2 cups) yields?
Thanks!
You can do it without roasting, but I think it tastes better roasted. It yields about 2 cups of almond butter.
What kind of processor do you use? I just made almond butter and melted the plastic on mine, so I obviously need to replace it. Thanks.
Ouch! Sorry. That is not good. I have a Cuisinart DFP-14BCN 14-Cup Food Processor.
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I’m sorry, but almond butter and almonds have equal calories per weight (since they are the same thing). This means a 26 oz jar would need 26 oz of whole almonds. Therefore with those prices, it would cost almost exactly the same to make it yourself or buy it by the jar…
Thanks, Ben. I looked again at the calculations and it’s only a 10% savings, so I updated my post.