Homemade Almond Butter

GUYS. SERIOUSLY. GUYS.

Say it with me now, ALMOND. BUTTER.
Yes. I know what you're thinking..."Okay, Maria...we get it, almond butter isn't that exciting."

But....

WHEN IT'S HOME MADE AND REALLY DELICIOUS IT IS!

Save yourself some money folks, get out your food processor, some sea salt, and a 16 oz. bag of roasted raw almonds...because that is all you need to make this creamy goodness.

Seriously.

Look...

Ingredients (yields 12 oz. of almond butter):
1 sixteen ounce bag of roasted raw almonds
Sea salt to taste (optional)

*NOTE: Depending on the size of your food processor, you may have to make 2-4 small batches and combine them in to one jar. I made two batches.

1. Process almonds in food processor (like I said, depending on the size of your food processor, you may be able to do the whole thing at once, or in a couple batches)

2. During this process, you will notice that the almonds will become flaky and stick to the sides of the food processor. Every so often when your almonds are clinging to the sides, stop processing, scrape them down, and keep processing until you get your desired creaminess. You'll be able to tell when it's in to a butter.

3. Add your sea salt to taste, process some more to mix the salt in.

4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 if you have to make multiple batches, if not...go put your almond butter on some fruit, on some paleo pancakes, or just eat it right out of the jar like I did! ;)

So the story behind my inspiration for this recipe is that last week, I was at Trader Joe's actually looking for some almond butter, and they didn't have any. I was deeply saddened...but when I looked at the empty shelf, I noticed the price labels were still there, and thought to myself, "Hmmm, that's actually pretty expensive". So I then thought long and hard and said, what if I just smash up some almonds myself? Can't be that hard, can it? Well...it actually wasn't too difficult to come up with the idea. I did have a few hiccups, I tried adding coconut oil and that didn't work out so well, and I tried adding a little almond milk (why? don't ask), and finally just did the almonds themselves with a little sea salt. I was thoroughly convinced that I needed some sort of liquid in there, but I actually didn't. Who woulda thunk it?!

Anyway, think of all the possibilities of flavors! You could add some dark chocolate, or espresso and a little bit of stevia, maybe some vanilla extract? I'm super excited to experiment with more. Feel free to share your ideas!

Enjoy!

Maria