Making Nut Butters At Home

What I love: waking up in the morning and throwing some frozen fruit, non-dairy milk, and some nut butter into my Vitamix for smoothie. My husband has an apple with almond butter almost every morning...such a creature of habit :) We also have really enjoyed carrots, zucchini, and radishes with almond or cashew butter as a snack (good way to get the raw veggies in there :).

What I don't love: paying $8-$19 dollars for high quality almond butter or $6 for "Sun Butter" (sunflower seed butter) and not being able to control exactly what goes in them (for me- usually too much sugar).

So if you also want to be able to control what goes into your nut butters and you don't want to spend an arm and a leg every time you want to make an AB&J, then this post is for you :)

A couple of cheap ideas for nuts:
1. Trader Joe's has a very nice selection of bagged nuts for relatively cheap. They even have raw almonds, pine nuts, cashews, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sometimes walnuts! In my opinion, they beat out Whole Foods for price and selection.
2. Costco has a 3 lb. bag for around $12-$16 last I checked. 1 lb of nuts will make a 16 oz mason jars worth (a little bigger than the jars you buy in the store), if that gives you any indication of the 3 lb. bag being right for you.
3. And if you don't live near either of these stores, Nuts Online has high quality nuts at reasonable prices in bulk. Amazon sometimes has deals as well.

So here it is....how to make nut butters at home! You don't have to just use only almond- play around with other varieties of nuts or mix several kinds up together. The pictures are of almonds but this recipe can be used for pretty much any nut variety. I make mine simple, but I will also share my favorite recipes from other bloggers that you can use as inspiration to jazz up your nut butter too! Also, this recipe is just for nuts only- I will be posting another recipe for Sun Butter.

Basic Nut Butter Recipe

Yields: 1 cup

Ingredients

- ½ pound of nuts (about 2 cups)

- 1 ½ oz (3 Tbsp) oil- I use a combo of 2 Tbsp grape seed oil and 1 Tbsp coconut oil for sweetness (I don’t recommend using olive unless you are making a savory butter )

Method & Tips

For Raw Nut butters:

- Make sure you buy unroasted, unsalted, raw nuts, and throw them and the oil into a food processor or high powered blender

- Blend in food processor (or Vitamix on power 7, using tamper) until creamy and butterized- about 5 minutes.

- You may have to add more oil as needed for raw nut butters, but make sure you blend them for at least 3-5 minutes before deciding to add oil.

- If using a food processor, you may have to scrape down the bowl a few times.

For Regular Nut butters:

- Try to buy the best nuts you can, unsalted. I still try to buy mine raw and organic so I know they haven’t been processed that much.

- Toast in the oven on 350° for 15 minutes.

- Let cool for about 10 minutes (its OK if they are still warm).

- Blend in food processor or Vitamix (on power 7, using tamper) until creamy and butterized – about 3-5 minutes

Here are some more great ideas for getting creative with nuts!

- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Almond Butter from The Edible Perspective

- Savory Smoked Paprika Almond Butter from The Edible Perspective

- Homemade Healthier Nutella from Heather Eats Almond Butter

- You can also add cinnamon, honey, stevia, dates, coconut flakes, maple syrup, vanilla- the possibilities are endless

Happy Nut Butter Making,

Eryn