Almond Butter
The subject of Almond Butter came up in a post a few days ago and I thought I would explain how to make Almond Butter. I made Almond Butter by the 10s of thousands of pounds when I was in the Almond business. Hopefully that gave me some insight to how a person can make Almond Butter at home. I used a large machine machine that works very much like a blender so I figure a blender would work just fine only make less at a time. I looked at some of the information online about how to make Almond butter and was surprised at the errors in information that I saw. Anyway here is what I did to make three pounds of Almond Butter.
1st I roasted 3 pounds of Almonds in the microwave 4.5 minutes. Next time I think I'll roast them 5 minutes. The almonds seemed to be a little bit under roasted. After roasting the Almonds let them cool to room temperature. To tell how well the roasting is break one of the nuts open. The nut should be a light brown right to the center of the nut. If the nut is under roasted the middle will still be white. The skins on some of the nuts will split length ways and the two halves will separate in the middle.
Next fill your blender half way up with the nuts and turn it on. My blender just made a paste out of the nuts and it stuck to the side of the blender. The blades didn't have any thing to chop because of this. I poured this meal/paste out into a bowl and let it cool over night. The next morning I put the meal/paste back in the blender and I had Almond Butter in nothing flat. The Almond Butter I made will pour right out of the blender. I think that maybe I could have made Almond Butter the first round if the Almonds had been roasted a little bit more.
Variations: You can make raw Almond Butter just keep chopping it up in a blender and then dumping it into a bowl to let it cool before you put it in the blender again. Sooner or latter the raw Almonds will turn to butter it just takes longer. You can make Almond Butter with Blanched Almonds, Almond Pieces, and different varieties of Almonds. When you have made your Almond Butter try it with some honey. There are some people who like it with Mustard also. To make a chunky butter just add some nuts at the end of the blender cycle and chop them up a little bit.
Here are a few things I saw on the internet that you don't have to do. You don't have to add any oil. It will make it faster and easier but isn't necessary. You don't have to use blanched Almonds to make creamy Almond Butter. The skins don't end up as fine grit if it is made right. I have never store my Almond Butter in a fridge or had it go rancid.
Last of all you can make Nut Butters from all different kinds of nuts so start trying all the different kinds of nuts that you like. Pistachios make a green butter.