Four takes on Almond Butter

A food blog is to share recipes right? Tried and tested, true and honest recipes...

So it's crazy that I haven't shared my go-to recipe for the most amazing morning spread or fruit topping or eaten just by the spoon with you: almond butter. I am actually whipping up a batch every other month, one can easily admit, that this household runs on it ;-).

Grewing up in Germany peanut butter and nut butters in general just weren't obligatory in my life, the famous chocolate hazelnut spread yes, of course, but peanut butter - no.

The first time I actually tried real peanut butter was nooot delicious at all - it was overly sweet and don't ever tell a child during an "I don't like that" phase that it has nuts on its toast when it's actually a smooth peanut butter - I mean nuts have to be crunchy, haven't they?

We finally got hooked on peanut butter during frequent holidays in the netherlands, it's called "pindakaas" there and we were lucky to find a crunchy one, cause that's the real deal!
Since then it totally stole the hazelnut spread's crown, at least for us ;-).





But what's with almond butter as this is what the post should be about?
Let's jump right into the present because we only know each other for about two years now alias the I-finally-have-a-food-processor era. Do you know this state of mind, when you've got a new (kitchen) gadget and are just searching and searching on the internet for hours, to end up with a high pile of recipes that have to be tried to make full use of it?

That's what happened here. After several smoothie mornings, soups, ice creams and more smoothies I glanced at a recipe for almond butter. It couldn't be so simple to just pulse the almonds and end up with a nice spread couldn't it? I was curious. Truth to be told: an hour later the fresh made almond butter was nearly eaten up already. Instant love? You say it.

As I am veery experimental in the kitchen and like to have twists on the regular stuff I am always on the hunt for a nice new tasty adaption of the plain almond butter: chocolate, honey, cinnamon, herbs etc. etc. - neverending story. To give you some ideas on hand, I've included the fam's all time faves below. And now, don't wait any longer and start your love story with almond butter immediately - there will be no turning back!

Almond Butter
- 200g whole almonds, roasted or not, depends on individual likings
1. Throw the almonds into your food processor, if it's a small one you might want to consider working in batches.
2. Pulse for up to 10-15 minutes, until oil is absorbed and butter has formed, scraping down the sides from time to time (see pictures below for process). If you want a runny one then keep pulsing for up to 5 more minutes.
3. Pour into jars and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. Enjoy!



1. Cinnamon + Raisin
- 200g whole almonds
- 40g raisins
- 2 Tbsp cinnamon
1. Prepare the almond butter according to descriptions above.
2. Chop your raisins into small pieces. Add the raisins, cinnamon and optional honey to the almonds in the food processor and pulse for two further minutes until well combined. Enjoy!









2. Speculoos
- 200g whole almonds
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 pinch ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 Tbsp honey/molasses
1. Prepare the almond butter according to descriptions above.
2. Add in the spices and honey and pulse for one more minute. Enjoy!








3. Chocolate
- 200g whole almonds
- 3 Tbsp dark cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp honey
- optional: 2 Tbsp chocolate chips
1. Prepare the almond butter according to descriptions above.
2. Add in the remaining ingredients and pulse for one more minute. Enjoy!