Thursday, January 19, 2012

Home Made Almond Butter

Home Made Almond Butter

I have been trying really hard to eat healthier lately & learn how to make my own less processed foods that I will enjoy & that actually taste GOOD to ME. It has been a fun adventure so far. I think its totally Awesome when people can make their own stuff at home. I have yet to do anything complicated, only easy stuff, so no worries, if I can do it, you can do it easily!

I was on Pinterest Yesterday when i saw this Delicious breakfast that I had to make called Almond Banana breakfast Oats. I didn't even know the ingredients, i just saw it and was like "Oh Yeah." One of the toppings was Almond Butter (I had never heard of Almond Butter before) The Author of the blog (Caitlin) posted the recipe told me how to make it. *YAY* Seemed Simple so I tried it out. I also made her oatmeal per her instructions on her blog. Tasted Great! Even without the Almond Butter! But of course I still had to try it just the way her recipe states.
This is what you NEED.
Almonds. As many or as little as you want.
*Oven * (PreHeat to 300 Degrees)
*Blender
*Airtight Storage Container
Take as many almonds as you want & spread them evenly on a pan.
(I had a quart bag full of almonds that I used)
Now you need to bake your almonds for 10 minutes.
Take them out, turn them over
& bake for an additional 10 minutes.

See how they are darker? They are Now Toasted Almonds.
If you are wondering why you need to toast them, its because they get soft so they will blend a lot easier. I was wondering the same thing until I ate one of the toasted almonds and was like, "Oh, they are soft." LIGHT BULB MOMENT
Now its time to blend them. You are going to be blending A LOT...
like, A lot.. A lot..!
So make sure your blender is up for this. If you don't have that great of a blender I would borrow someone else's blender or get a new one. (I am speaking this from experience... as I bought myself a new blender today because my little mini blender couldn't handle making this last night so I had to put my almond butter on hold! I was not a happy camper!)
Okay, now start blending. This picture above is "In Motion" & I took this right after I started blending, a good 3-5 seconds in -this is is what my almonds looked like. Its kinda crazy how fast they blend in the beginning.
About 2 minutes later.
4-ish minutes later.
Oh,  i should tell you, I didn't blend them all at the same time, I put half of my toasted almonds in the blender to start off with - the other half I added in the picture above but had previously blended them in my other mixer- (the one that didn't want to keep up with how much I was blending)
Okay, now after a while the almonds will start to clump together a little. From what I understand it does this because the oils are slowly starting to come out of the almonds.
This is a good 10 minutes into "blending", the Natural oils are starting to leak from the almonds making it pasty. But its not done yet. 
Its getting there but its still not done.
Almost Done.
You will know when its done. You can just tell. You can see the natural oils in it and it is very smooth. Looks like Organic Peanut Butter. Only it tastes SSsOOooooo much better!
Now put it in your airtight container, when you are done tasting it 500 times like me.

I am a HUGE Nutella Lover. I could eat a jar of it without trying easily. But its not very good for you so I try not to. haha. but I always find myself eating it when i want something sweet. I could replace any kind of junk food for a jar of Nutella.

 Okay, so This is what I did, I left about 3/4 cup of almond butter in my blender & added 2 tablespoons of Nutella.  YUMM... This tastes soo good... Not a huge nutella taste but definitely noticeable. You could always add more...... ;)
Now we have Nutella Almond Butter too!
So if your craving chocolate, Voila! you have a little bit of a "healthier choice".
I play mind tricks on myself so knowing that there is nutella in here I will probably choose this as my dessert of choice. :)

Home Made Nutella Almond Butter & Almond Butter
I totally love how when I am taking pictures in my glass bowls it makes a reflection that looks like a heart. So neat.

Tips, Hints & helpful thoughts

You can make your own "Butter" out of any kind of nut. You would think I would have known this before yesterday but no, I didn't. Didn't have a clue you could make something like this at home. When my Nutella is out I am going to try and create my own with Hazelnuts!

Be creative, I added Nutella to some of my Almond Butter but you could easily add Cocoa Powder, Cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, just about anything. Or just leave it plain. Seriously, I am loving making my own stuff. I feel so Awesome about myself right now! :)

4 comments:

  1. yay! what a great post! i love all the pics ;)

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  2. YUM this looks so easy and delish! Thanks for linking up to Craft Monkey'n Monday, I pinned your project and shared it on the Craft Monkey facebook page!

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