Homemade natural almond butter with roasted almonds

Learn the tricks to make the most delicious homemade roasted almond butter ever! This easy recipe contains only one ingredient, the mighty nutty almond. This is a recipe for best almond butter made in a food processor and the grinding takes about 15 minutes or less. You can use heavy and sturdy blenders. like Vitamix blender, too! This roasted almond butter is sugar-free, sweetener-free as well and it does not contain any added oils. When you make your own almond butter you can decide what it contains.

Is almond butter healthy?

Almond butter made only with almonds can support your healthy diet in reasonable amounts. 100 grams of almond butter can contain even 21 grams of protein! Almond butter is also a good source of fiber, healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. (Source.)

Why you’ll love this recipe and why you should do almond butter at home

• You can choose your ingredients in your DIY almond butter
• You have always fresh nut butter at home
• The taste of roasted almonds is just crazy good in homemade ones!
• You can tweak this recipe endlessly.
• It’s cost-effective, sometimes you can get the raw almonds for even half of the price of the almond butter when you compare the price per weight!

About the main ingredient – the almond

Almonds contain healthy fats and that is also the reason why the almonds or the almond butter can go rancid. So when buying the almonds make sure you buy from a trusted place and that the almonds have not been standing on the shelf for ages. Sometimes going with the organic almonds is the best way. Choose quality and you get a quality almond butter. That’s simple. I will guide you later in the post on how to roast your own almonds.

Pro tips for the best result 

• Let the almonds cool before adding them to the grinder to ease up the food processor’s task and not overheat it.
• If you are doing the homemade nut butter for the first time – great! This is a very easy recipe to start with. The only hard thing is to wait for the almonds to become butter so just be patient!
• It is easy to double the recipe to do more at once, but you might need to do roasting and grinding in small batches to roast evenly and fit the batch into a processor container. I have found that 500 grams is the ideal amount to do with my food processor, but if you have a bigger container you can of course add more.
• If you have started grinding the almonds and you notice that the work is too much for your food processor, you can take a bit out to ease the grinding. Seal the almond crumble in a jar and sprinkle over yogurt, or a crêpe even!

Ingredients you need for roasted almond butter

• Almonds

Wow – that’s it. That’s the shortest ingredient list in any of my recipes so far! 

Tools and equipement you may need

Use unblanched and unsalted raw almonds for this homemade almond butter recipe for the best result. I guide you on how to roast the almonds in the recipe, but you can of course use ready-roasted almonds too. Just make sure that you use unsalted almonds and that they are recently roasted. If your almonds are close to expiring date – so is your almond butter too and it might have a bit rancid flavor.

• Oven for roasting
• Baking tray and parchment paper
• Food processor, make sure your model is recommended for nuts and seeds and that it has the power and speed needed to break the almonds
• Spoon to scrape down and mix the almond crumbles to help the mixing process
• Spatula, to scrape ALL the yummy almond butter from the food processor container
• Glass jar, or another airtight container with about 4 dl (1,7 cups) capacity

How to make roasted almond butter at home

Keep an eye on the almonds to not over-roast them! Almonds have a deep golden brown color when they are ready. Take them off from the oven and let them cool down. Beware – they will continue roasting a bit still while they are cooling down!

When the warm almonds are cooled enough to touch and hold in your hands without burning yourself you can pour them to the food processor to grind them. 

Step two – grind the almonds

When you start grinding in the beginning it makes a lot of noise – but it will calm down after a moment when almonds are more finely grind. When you see that the almond crumble makes a wall around the container and doesn’t move around hit the stop and scrape down the sides of the container. Repeat a few times when needed to help the processor succeed in its heavy task.

Step three – let it grind

Continue grinding. It feels quite a long time, but don’t despair it will take 10 to 15 minutes for the oils of almonds to start to release, and for the smooth and creamy almond butter.

First, in the roasted almond butter grinding process, the almonds become almond meal. Then, when oils start to release, the almond butter makes big chunks or almond butter balls or piles in the processor and finally it starts to look like a smooth butter heading to a great texture. Continue until almond butter is very liquid and you will get a perfectly smooth texture. Notice that right after grinding almond butter is still warm so it seems more fluid than when it has cooled down! I have taken the photos about every two minutes or so when grinding the almonds, so you know what to expect:

Step four – tweak if you like

Taste the almond butter. If you decide to give some flavor or any seasoning, add them now and let the processor spin still a few more rounds.

Step five – pour into a jar

Use a spatula to scrape all the goodness from the sides of the container to pour every last drop of your precious homemade roasted almond butter into an airtight glass jar.

Best ways to use almond butter

• Baking cookies, muffins, breads
• On the top of the toast! Almond butter spread on toast topped with baby spinach, sliced avocado, pickled red onions, and sprinkled sesame seeds is my favorite way to enjoy almond butter!
• Add to smoothies. It makes a yummy creamy texture in any smoothie.
• Use in baking granola.
• Add to the salad dressings.
• Spread on the top of waffles.
• Use as a dip for apple wedges, carrot or celery sticks, or even sweet potato fries!
• Use it in the overnight oats to give more flavor and protein.
• Add to your yogurt with some strawberry compote and müsli.

Storage and making ahead

Store the almond butter in a cool dark place for up to 6 months or even more. If you want to increase the shelf life even more store it in the fridge.  Almond butter can go rancid at high temperatures. If you have a very warm room temperature at home or at summer times make sure you keep it in the fridge to enjoy longer. 

You can freeze the almond butter as well if needed. Just pour it into ice cube trays so it will be easy to add to smoothies or thaw for a cookie recipe.

How to tweak this recipe

• Add sweetness: honey, maple syrup, dates…
• Add spices: vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, cardamom…
• Add a bit of sea salt: if you are used to store-bought almond butter, notice that you might need to add some salt to get more flavors that your palette is used to!
• Add a little bit of coconut oil to give the extra flavor.

How do you use almond butter?

What do you like to top with almond butter? What is your favorite way to enjoy the delicious almond butter? Let me know in the comments below!

Other spreads, pastes and toppings