I don’t know if you’ve ever tried making your own nut butter before, but once you go homemade…you pretty much don’t go back. I still like my Barney Butter and Maranatha, but they just can’t top the from-scratch stuff.
You guys have probably noticed how I’ve been drooling over that whipped cinnamon honey I picked up recently at the farmer’s market. I basically use it as much as I can.
Many of you guessed that I actually used the whipped cinnamon honey in the almond butter I made. I actually only used the flavor combo for inspiration. I didn’t use any of the actual whipped cinnamon honey.
Somehow, I was thinking about how much I liked the whipped cinnamon honey…
…and then I thought about how honey roasted peanuts used to be my absolute favorite style of nut to eat when I was kid…
…and then I thought about how awesome honey roasted almonds (since I like almonds better than peanuts) would be…
…and then if I just blended those honey roasted almonds up and added in the cinnamon from my inspiration honey…
…I’d get something pretty awesome.
I thought about blending up already honey roasted peanuts, but I really wanted almond butter…not to mention I wanted to be able to control the ingredients myself. I researched honey roasted almonds online and all the recipes I found seemed to stem from this recipe, which actually roasted the almonds and then did a glaze in a saute pan with lots of added sugar. I decided to try something different by using as little added sugar as possible and doing the whole cooking process in the oven.
As soon as I had enough free time, I excitedly gathered my ingredients.
The process was actually pretty hands-off and easy. Total prep time was about 30 minutes, but with only about 5-10 minutes of the total as hands-on time.
You just whisk up your glaze ingredients.
Get your almonds together.
Coat almonds in the glaze.
And bake your almonds for about 12-15 minutes.
(Let me tell you…your kitchen will smell absolutely heavenly as they roast away! Mmm)
While your almonds bake and then while they cool, you can prep your storage containers…or read blogs…or a book…or watch TV. Whatevs.
Once your almonds are completely cool (I waited an hour just because I was working on other things, but you could probably check sooner), you just blend everything up. The blending takes at least 10 minutes, so you could set a timer and multi-task again while your food processor does all the heavy lifting. Just stop the processing and scrape the sides of the bowl down once in awhile.
And then…you have this deliciousness to enjoy!
Honey Roasted Cinnamon Wink Almond Butter
This Not So Sweet almond butter is so good, it made my non-oatmeal-enjoying hubby happily scarf down a whole bowl the other day when I topped some oats with it. The flavor is lightly sweet with just a wink (a hint) of cinnamon to it. One thing I dislike about store-bought nut butters is that the sweet ones are often too sweet. So, I made this one with just a wink of honey. If you’d prefer your almond butter sweeter or the flavor more cinnamon-y, feel free to add more of either ingredient to suit your taste.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups almonds, whole and raw
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons safflower oil (or other non-flavored oil, like canola, etc.)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium-large bowl, whisk together the honey, oil, cinnamon, and salt.
- Stir in almonds and continue stirring to almonds are evenly coated. Pour almonds onto prepared baking dish and spread to an even layer.
- Bake almonds for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until almonds are golden-brown and glaze has darkened slightly. Once done, set almonds aside to cool to room temperature (Note – I waited an hour, but I was multitasking-it while the almonds were cooling – you may be able to use them sooner).
- Once almonds are cool, pour them into a food processor bowl and process for 12-14 minutes, or until almond butter has reached your desired texture. Stop the processing occasionally to scrape the sides of the bowl down with a spatula (I also found I needed to scrape the bottom of the food processor because some slightly larger bits were sticking there). Note: I stopped my processing around 10 minutes and the texture was pretty liquid-y, but I decided to go 2 more minutes to be sure.
- Optional step: Do a taste test of the almond butter. If you want it sweeter, then add 1 teaspoon of honey and process to combine. Repeat until almond butter reaches desired sweetness. Ditto to the cinnamon, if you want a strong cinnamon flavor, but I’d only add 1/4 teaspoon at a time. Remember, as my mom likes to say…you can always add more honey or cinnamon in, but you can’t take it out! 😉
Enjoy your homemade almond butter over oatmeal, spread on toast, on an almond butter and jelly sandwich, or on banana slices. 😉
You are a genius! My boyfriend would LOVE that honey-almond butter. He could live on honey and PB sandwiches! Your photos are wonderful 🙂
Thanks Emma! Did you try the recipe yet? I’d love to hear if your bf likes it!
Looks yummy.
This looks delicious and the little jars you have them in are so cute!
This looks great, but for some reason I’m doubting the power behind my food processor to make nut butter. I guess I should just try. Speaking of food processors, I love the color of yours!
I was skeptical, too. And every time I make nut butter, when it first starts grinding those almonds, I think it’s going to break because it’s so loud! lol
Thanks! The color comes from the Martha Stewart collection!
Yum! I think I’d eat the almonds straight from the oven!
hehe…I totally did! Just a couple though. 😉
Swoon. This almond butter stole my heart. If only I had a food processor 🙁
I wonder if a blender would work?
Absolute genius recipe! Almonds are my favorite nut. MUST try to make this now!
Hope you like it! 🙂
this looks soooo good! can’t wait to try it!
Love the drippy goodness!!! 🙂
This almond butter must be amazing! Need to try!
If I wasn’t allergic to almonds, this nut butter would be made and gone in less than 24 hours. P.S. I love your TCL aqua food processor! I have the same one in yellow 🙂
Maybe you could do it with a different nut? 🙂
So tasty looking! I need to get brave with homemade nut butter creations!
This looks delicious! What food processor do you use? I’m trying to find a good one 🙂
It’s the Martha Stewart Kitchen Aid one! I love it! Mostly the color. hahahaha
Sounds like the perfect indoor activity for what’s to be a rainy day in the QC. Going to try it in a blender since I don’t have a food processor. I hope it works…
Glad you ended up making it and liking it! 🙂
PS Thanks for letting me know you tried the recipe on my Facebook page! I love Facebook comments! 🙂
I made this today and added more honey and cinnamon as I processed it. Adding more honey did make this a lot thicker, so I would maybe add a little more oil as you process it if you like the texture a little thinner. This is sooo good, though! Thanks for the recipe!
You have just made my husband very happy! We are with the military abroad and its been hard to find almond butter
Hi Diana – I’ve been processing this butter for over an hour now….it is not going past the powdery stage to get more creamy / liquid. I am using a GE 14 cup food processor. I initially wondered if the quantity is too less and the blades are not touching it. So I doubled up on the quantity and re-ran it constantly scrapping down. I really don’t know why it won’t work. Maybe it’s my crappy food processor. 🙁 Any ideas?
Hey Anitha! I’m so sorry you’re having technical difficulties with the recipe. I’ve posted questions about this on my twitter and Facebook wall to see if anyone else ran into the same issue. I’m wondering if it has something to do with the size of the food processor, though, I would have thought adding more nuts like you did would fix it. I just checked my food processor and it’s a 12-cup processor, so I’m thinking the size may not be the issue. I’ll keep researching. Sorry again!
Btw, what type of blade are you using? Mine looks like this: http://www.kitchenaidtstore.com/KitchenAid-Precision-Replacement-Blade-for-12-Cup-Food-Processor
Hey Anitha – A couple people posted a couple more ideas on my TCL Facebook wall: http://www.facebook.com/thechiclife . Were the almonds maybe old? Did you try adding any oil (just a little bit)?
I persevered! 3.5 hours of processing / scrapping / waiting / and I have a pretty creamy almond butter. Totally didn’t work out the way I thought…lol… I think I just have a bad food processor…..no wonder it was only $50 when all the good ones were $150+
http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/12311468/ge-14-cup-digital-food-processor-reviews/reviews.htm
Woohoo! I hope you enjoy eating the almond butter. I love mine in oatmeal, on toast, or in PB&J sandwiches.
I’m sorry you had to go through so much effort to get your almond butter, but I’m glad it all paid off in the end. 🙂
I just bought a bunch of almonds from Whole Paychex – I’m going to have to try this 🙂 Looks delish!
Just made the nut butter as a christmas gift for my landlords. I added a pinch of cardamon 🙂 It’s a faint flavour but delish.
Hi Kathryn! It’s so cool to hear this is being made as a Christmas gift! I hope they like it. Love your idea of adding a pinch of cardamom. Merry Christmas! 🙂
how long can you keep this ?? And do you need to store in in the fridge ?
Hi Kel, To be honest, I’m not really sure. It didn’t last long enough in my house to see. 😉 I didn’t see many sites with info on storing homemade almond butter, but I did find this thread (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/893213) suggesting to store it in the fridge and to try use it within 2-3 weeks. I think the homemade type doesn’t last as long as store bought. Hope this helps! Thanks, Diana
Hi, i tried the recipe and followed each step mentioned in here but it didnt come out like yours, i dont know what i did wrong. it was really dry and looked like ground almond instead of almond butter. help please.
Thanx
It sounds like it may not have been processed long enough. It takes a really, really long time to turn into almond butter. I think mine took 13-14 minutes. Can you try processing it longer?