Homemade Almond Butter
Published 6/15/2022
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Learn how to make almond butter with this super simple homemade almond butter recipe that only requires almonds, vanilla bean paste, maple syrup, salt, and a little coconut oil.
What is almond butter?
Almond butter is a nut butter that’s derived from whole almonds. Almonds are placed into a high-speed food processor or blender and processed until creamy and smooth. The flavor is mild and slightly sweet. Almond butter can be used in both sweet and savory dishes.
Almond butter is commonly eaten as a snack in simple forms on fruit such as banana or apples, but also used in smoothies, chia seed pudding, on toast, etc.
Almond butter has become more popular in the more recent years as peanut allergies are on the rise and almond butter is peanut-free.
Almond Butter Nutrition
Almond butter is high in unsaturated fats and is an excellent high-protein, low-carb food. Per 1 tablespoon serving:
- 98 calories
- 9g fat
- 3g carb
- 1g sugar
- 3g protein
Almond Butter vs. Peanut Butter
Almond butter and peanut butter are very similar in that they are pulverized nuts into a nut butter. Almond butter uses almonds, where peanut butter uses peanuts.
Is almond butter peanut free? Almond butter is peanut-free IF it is manufactured in a plant without peanuts. Make sure to read the label before purchasing.
How to Make
Peanut Butter
Have you ever wondered how easy it is to make your own homemade peanut butter? This healthy peanut butter recipe is quick, simple and skips all those fillers found in many store-bought peanut butters.
How to Make Almond Butter
Roast Almonds
Roasting your almonds is crucial for this recipe as it brings out the natural oils in your almonds. Feel free to use pre-roasted almonds instead.
Preheat your oven, and line a baking sheet with tin foil. Place your almonds on the baking sheet and top with maple syrup and a sprinkle of sea salt. Toss almonds with your hands, making sure that they are evenly coated and spread out on the baking sheet.
Roast almonds for 8-10 minutes, and let cool for 5-10 minutes.
Process
Once the almonds have cooled completely, transfer them into a small food processor. Process on high for about 5 minutes, scraping the sides as needed. After 5 minutes, if your almonds have not started to become a nut butter consistency, add in a teaspoon of coconut oil at a time until your almonds become drippy nut butter. We used 3 teaspoons.
Add Flavors
Once your almond butter is at the desired consistency/drippiness, add in the paste from 1/2 a vanilla bean, and give it one last whirl in your food processor to mix it all together.
Other flavors to add to your almond butter to give it flavor include:
- Ground cinnamon
- Homemade chai spices
- Honey
Enjoy
And then store what you have left in an airtight container or jar. It’s best if kept in the refrigerator or a dark place.
And now that you have extra almond butter on hand, check out some of our recipes on Fit Foodie Finds that use almond butter. Yah welcome.
Q&A
Both almond and peanut butter are healthy nut butter options and have similar nutrition profiles.
Almond butter can be used in place of peanut butter, so you can eat it with fruit, sandwiches, in smoothies, etc.
There is no need to refrigerate almond butter, unless it recommends you do this on the container.
Often times it is not cheaper to make your own almond butter because it’s mass-produced. But, if you get a good deal on almonds then it for sure is!
If your almond butter is having a hard time getting creamy you make either need to keep processing it or add in some additional fat like coconut oil to help make it more drippy.
The most common oil used to help make nut butter smooth or drippy is coconut oil. Palm oil is also frequently used.
Ways to Use Homemade Almond Butter
Smoothies: feel free to top or add almond butter to your favorite smoothie. Try it on one of our smoothie bowls or swap it for the peanut butter in our peanut butter banana smoothie.
Almond Butter Cups: bye bye peanut butter cups. Try our almond butter cups!
Almond Butter Cookies: take peanut butter cookies to a new level and try our chocolate chunk almond butter cookies!
Toast: there is truly nothing better than almond butter on toast plus your favorite fruit on top.
Banana Bread: try our almond butter banana bread muffins for a twist on banana bread!
Storage
The shelf life of homemade almond butter is a bit less than store-bought because there are no preservatives. Stores in an airtight container for up to 3 months in a cool, dark place.
How to Make Almond Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw almonds
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- paste from 1/2 vanilla bean
- sea salt, to taste
- optional: 1-4 teaspoons coconut oil, partially melted
Instructions
- First, preheat oven to 350ºF. Then, line a baking sheet with tin foil. Place almonds on baking sheet and drizzle on maple syrup and a sprinkle with sea salt. Toss almonds making sure they are evenly spread out on the baking sheet and coating in maple syrup.
- Roast almonds at 350ºF for 8-10 minutes. Then, remove and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Once the almonds have completely cooled, transfer into a high-speed food processor. We recommend a Vitamix. Process on high for about 5 minutes, scraping the sides when needed. At this point, if your almond butter has not started to become a drippy nut butter consistency, add in a teaspoon of coconut oil at a time. We used roughly 3 teaspoons. Process until drippy.
- Once the almond butter is at the desired consistency, add in paste from 1/2 a vanilla bean and give it one last whirl to mix it all together.
- Transfer into a mason jar or air-tight container.
Tips & Notes
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Oh wow. I need to get on my nut butter making game – the last (and only attempt) failed dismally, I blame not roasting the nuts.
Flavoured nut butter is soo hard to find in the UK – think mail order or specialist stores only in London – so I always get jealous of those in the US/Canada with Justin’s!
Roasting the nuts is KEY!!! Try again and you will succeed my dear!
Sounds delicious! The Justin’s vanilla flavor is one of my absolutely favorites! Your new gym sounds amazing. I have friends who do something similar and they are always raving about it. Still searching for a place like this near me. 🙂
No “fitness home” for me yet =/
This AB looks insanely good. I’ve made vanilla bean cashew butter, now that’s the bomb dot com.
Cashewwwww buttttter is my favorite. You shall find a fitness home soon! Just keep on lookin’ 😀
If this is at all like Justin’s….. I am known to take down a few tablespoons in mere minutes!
That one is a WEEEEEE bit sweeter, but you can always add more maple 😀 <3 Justin's!
Love that you added vanilla bean to almond butter! This needs to make an appearance in my kitchen soon!
YES! It’s so much better than the extract 😀
I made nut butter for the first time this week and I have noooo idea why I waited so long. So good!
I’ve been going to the same gym for the last couple years and it’s walking distance from my apartment. LOVE it cuz there’s always something different happening 🙂
OMG! So luck you can walk. Well…I can run to my gym! It’s about 1.2 miles. Cept when I do that, I’m exhausted on the way home and usually end up walking 😀
Ahhhh roasting em? Ok- sometimes my raw almond butter does not turn out so great or creamy so I will have to try this! And of course I love the vanilla bean twist.
ROAST ROAST ROAST!
Ughhhhh Vanilla Bean Almond Butter is the BEST kind of almond butter. Regular is good, the maple kind is good, but vanilla bean takes the cake.
<3
this looks AMAZING!
LOVE almond butter! Almost to the point that I won’t let myself have it in the house anymore. It’s just so amazing. This stuff with vanilla bean sounds like a dream.
Haha. I tried that and some how it wiggled it’s way back in. Now I’m just embracing it 😀