We love almond butter around here and use it a lot for baking, smearing on apple slices and spreading on sandwiches. Unfortunately it's ridiculously expensive to buy so we make our own, which is still not cheap, but cheaper at least.
Now I admit, the process is a bit of a faff, with lots of standing around and fiddling with a food processor for 20-odd minutes, but the results are good, so give it a go if you love almond butter as much as we do.
Ingredients
- Roasted almonds (I buy the 1KG bags of roasted almonds from Countdown when they're on special, and throw the whole lot in the food processor. This makes 1L of almond butter.)
- Sea salt, to taste
Method
1. Place the roast almonds in a food processor and cover.
2. Hold a hand towel over the food processor when you first turn it on, to dampen the rattling noise as the almonds first start chopping up.
3. Keep the food processor running as long as it will keep blending and moving the almonds around. To begin with, the chopped almonds are quite dry, so they will start building up on the side and you'll need to turn the food processor off and scrape them back into the middle.
4. Sometimes the blade might pop off its course and you'll need tip all the ground almonds into a bowl while you reassemble your food processor. Grind in some salt each time this happens, and use the opportunity to taste test for saltiness as you go.
5. After reassembling your food processor, put half the ground almonds back into the food processor and start the motor running before spooning the rest of the ground almonds back in through the top nozzle. That way, even as the mixture builds up on the side, you'll be adding more ground almonds to get processed and won't have to stop/start so much.
6. As the almonds start releasing their oil, blending will get easier and you won't have to stop/start/scrape so much. You might notice the mixture start to heat up a little too, because of friction. That's normal.
7. The mixture is ready when it is smooth and buttery, like you'd expect almond butter to be. It shouldn't be crumbly.
8. Taste and add more salt if necessary, using the food processor to blend it through again before transferring your freshly made almond butter to a glass jar. (I store our almond butter in a 1L Agee jar in the fridge to keep it fresh and prevent the oils from going rancid.)
That's the whole process. Do you think you'll give it a go?
Hey Emma, how are you? I have just trained as a Thermomix consultant, and am loving trying out all sorts of new things in my Thermie - can't wait to give this a go. Is there a reason you like to use roasted rather than raw?
ReplyDeleteI just like the taste of roasted almonds better.
ReplyDeleteIf I did make them with raw, I would soak the almonds overnight first to break down the phytic acid and increase the enzyme content. Although the heat that occurs when you make the almond butter might kill off the enzymes so you might have to have lots of breaks in between blending to give the mixture time to cool down.
How does the Thermomix work? xx