Recipe of the Month: Home-Ground Almond Butter

From GRP skier Adam Martin.

Spread it on toast, mix it into a myriad of treats, or eat it by the spoon - almond butter is a tastebud pleaser. Home-ground almond butter is great because it’s fresh, you have complete control of what goes into it, and purchasing raw almonds is cheaper than store-bought nut butter.
This process highlights almond butter, but the method works for other nuts just as well. (More on that at the end.)

You will need:
1lb almonds (3 cups whole)
A food processor or high speed blender with a tamper
Optional: salt and/or other spices

Method:
1. Bake the almonds. Any moisture makes it difficult to grind nuts into butter. Even if you don’t want roasted almond butter, baking the almonds at 300-350℉ for 6-8 minutes will dry the almonds out and make the grinding process much easier. Of course, if you do want the flavor of roasted almonds, it doesn’t hurt to bake them a little longer (as long as you don’t burn them).

This is 3 lb of almonds roasted for 30 minutes.

2. Allow the almonds to cool. This helps prevent the grinding appliance from overheating.

3a. Grind the almonds using a food processor.
i. Add the almonds to a food processor. 1lb of almonds is the right amount for a 14 cup bowl; if you have a smaller container, you may need to process the almonds in multiple batches.
ii. Using the S-blade, begin grinding. This will take some time. Each of the pictures below is separated by roughly 4 minutes of processing. The almonds will progress from meal, to a big lump, to butter like paste, to smooth butter.
iii. Once or twice in the grinding process, use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the container.
iv. If the nuts fail to transition from paste to butter, try adding a small amount of flavorless oil.

3b. Alternatively, grind the almonds using a high speed blender with a tamper.
i. Add the almonds to a blending jar. For the 64 oz container below, I used 2lb of almonds. It’s important to use enough almonds for the blender to work effectively.
ii. Blend on high speed using the tamper to push almonds down into each corner, and brace for some loud noises. This process is much faster: less than a minute of blending time separate the pictures below.
iii. Once or twice in the blending process, turn the blender off and use a spatula to push out any air pockets that have formed near the blade.
iv. If the nuts fail to transition from paste to butter, try adding a small amount of flavorless oil.

4. Optionally, mix in salt. I like about 1/2t kosher salt per pound of almond butter, but adjust as you wish.
In addition, one of the benefits of making your own almond butter is the ability to experiment with different spices. I enjoy 1t of ground ginger or cardamom mixed into 1 pound of almond butter.

Fresh home-ground almond butter ready to be slathered on toast with raspberry jam or dollopped on a bowl of steaming oatmeal.

Other Nut Butters:
This method will also work with other nuts. Walnuts and pecans grind into butter more quickly than almonds, while cashews and pistachios take even longer.
Cinnamon walnut and chipotle pecan are two spice nut pairings worth trying.

Previous Blogs in This Series:
Chickpea Cookie Dough
Homemade Corn Tortillas
Banana Ice Cream