Almond Butter Recipe

Homemade nut butter. I mean, that even sounds delicious, doesn’t it? This is specifically about how to make almond butter, but the directions are exactly the same for any nut butter.

Why make it yourself? Well, it’s cheaper, for one thing. A LOT cheaper. A quick check shows me that I can get organic almond butter for about $20 a pound. Organic almonds cost me about $8 a pound at the health food store, or about $5 a pound through my wholesale food co-op. That’s a heck of a price differential. Of course, if you are growing your own nuts, it’s even cheaper. Then it costs only the electricity to make.

Other reasons include; I know exactly what is in it, I waste absolutely no packaging (I re-use a mason jar, and we use refillable containers at the health food store), and the fresher the grind, the more nutrients rich it is. I make mine up a pint at a time, and leave it in the refrigerator. It lasts us anywhere from a week to a month, depending on what I’m making with it. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty, shall we?

What you need:

One pound of almonds

A glass pint jar with a lid

A good food processor

A food dehydrator (completely optional)

Helpful items:

A canning funnel

A flexible spatula for scraping down the food processor

I soak my nuts ahead of time. You do not have to, but it makes the finished product smoother, and more digestible. I soak them for about 12 hours in my largest bowl, and then rinse them repeatedly until the water runs clear. You cannot make nut butter from wet nuts. It simply will not happen. It grinds to flour, and stays there. Trust me.

After the nuts are soaked and rinsed, I spread them out on the dehydrator trays, and let them dehydrate at 135 degrees for about 16 hours. It sounds like a lot, I know, but they have to be really really dry. The extra drying time also serves as a low-temperature slow roast, and adds a lot of flavor to the finished butter. If this sounds like a lot of time to invest, it is. I do the soaking and dehydrating in large batches, about five pounds or so. This makes it worth the time, as I only have to do it every few months. I store the soaked and dehydrated nuts in the refrigerator, or in the freezer. Once they have been soaked, they are far more prone to spoilage.

Once you have your nuts all dry, you throw them into your food processor. If you do not want to soak your nuts, you would start with this step. Horse power counts here, if you have an underpowered machine (like those intended only for baby food), you may kill it. You have been warned. Close the lid, and turn it on. Then you make a pot of coffee.

I’m not kidding. This takes a while, usually about ten minutes. It will go through stages. First, it sounds like you are grinding rocks, and the almonds will break down into finer and finer powder. Then, it just looks like you aren’t making any progress, the powder (which is almond flour at this point) just kind goes round and round. Then after a couple of minutes, it starts to clump together. More and more of it sticks to itself, until it forms a giant ball of nut butter that goes round and round in the food processor. DO NOT STOP GRINDING. It actually isn’t ready yet. Eventually, the big ball starts to spread out, and becomes smoother and smoother. At this point, you can start checking it. I like mine really quite smooth, so I let it go until it stops making any difference in texture. You can add a little salt to it, but I don't.

Turn the food processor off, and scrape the nut butter into a clean pint jar. I like to use a canning funnel for this step, because I am a klutz. Do you know how hard it is to get almond butter off the rim of a glass jar without getting soap in it? Yeah.

Put the lid on the jar, screw it finger tight, and store the nut butter in the refrigerator. You will have to stir it before using it, as it separates. Depending on how well you scrape down your food processor, one pound of nuts should equal about one pint of nut butter. There may even be just a little left over for spreading on a piece of toast. Yum.

Blueberry Butter

This is lovely, rich, sweet, and ever so faintly tart with a hint of lemon. Even with such a large batch, I simply did not make enough. It's lovely on toast, waffles, and pancakes, of course, but is also amazing on ice cream, stirred into oatmeal, and spooned between layers of muffin batter and baked.

16 cups frozen blueberries

½ cup lemon Juice

3 cups Maple syrup

2 tsp Cinnamon

Run the still frozen blueberries through food processor, and grind them into chunks, but don't puree them.

Pour just the blueberries into a large crock pot, and cook on high, covered, until hot. It should steam slightly, but not bubble; about 150 degrees F.

Uncover, and continue to cook the blueberries on high until they thicken, and the butter reduces by one quarter to one third.

Add all of the other ingredients, bring back to temp, and cook down until desired consistency is achieved.

Sterilize 16 quarter pint jars, bands, and lids.

Spoon the hot blueberry butter into the jars, place on lids and tighten the bands to fingertip tight.

Process in hot water bath canner for 10 minutes (15 for high altitude), then remove the canner lid and let jars cool in the canner for 5 more minutes.

Remove the jars, and set on a wire rack to cool.

Leave them undisturbed for 12 hours. Check all of the seals before storing. 

As always, can at your own risk.

Banana Butter

This is a long-awaited and much-promised recipe. This stuff is amazing. I wanted to show you a beautiful full jar, but, well, I just can't seem to keep it in the house long enough to photograph it. This was as close as I could get. When spread over the top of buttered toast, it tastes like a cross between banana bread and cinnamon rolls. It is, by far, the most favorite recipe in the house. It's also perfect for using up those few leftover mushy bananas. You can throw them, unpeeled, into the freezer, and just thaw and peel them when you have enough. This recipe is easily multiplied, but as bananas don't really have a season here in the Northeast, I honestly don't bother.

1 ½ cups Mashed Ultra-ripe Banana (about 4 whole bananas)

3 Tbsp Maple Syrup

¾ tsp Lemon Juice

1/8 tsp Vanilla Extract

¾ tsp Cinnamon

1/16 tsp Nutmeg

1/8 tsp Salt

Pour mashed banana into crock pot, and cook on low, with lid off, stirring about every half hour to an hour, until banana is slightly drier than desired finished product. About 8-10 hours. The idea is to slowly caramelize the banana, before adding any other ingredients.

Add remaining ingredients, and stir thoroughly.

Adjust consistency if necessary by cooking down or adding water. Cook on high, covered, until banana butter is steaming.

Sterilize one 8 ounce jar and lid.

Pack banana butter into the hot jar, leaving ¼ inch head space. Cover with lid, screw band to fingertip tight, and let it cool completely on the counter. This is not shelf stable, so just place it in the refrigerator.

Peaches and Cardamom Preserves

So, about that case of peaches. I have made a discovery. I'm sure it's not totally new, I'm sure that I'm re-inventing the wheel here, but peaches... were MADE for cardamom. I'm in love with this jam. It started on a whim. I made a nice big batch of peaches and honey preserves, nothing special, just the recipe inside the Pomona Pectin box. Really nice and sweet. But my canner only holds 12 jam jars at a time, so while I was processing the first batch of filled jars, I decided to throw a bit of cardamom in the pot of left-overs. I had a jar rattling around in the spice cabinet, bought for gluten free pepparkakor cookie experimentation (which I still haven't gotten quite right). Why not, right? It smelled nice together, and I really do love cardamom.

Holy cow. Yum. Like, galactic yum. I'm eating this stuff out of the pot with a spoon. I'm going to have to develop a decent gluten free shortbread cookie recipe JUST to showcase this jam. I think you get the drift here, I'm a fan. And to top it all off, it's easy to make.

I blanch my (very ripe) peaches in hot water, until the skins just started to flake, then dump them into cold water in the sink. At that point, you can just rub the skins right off. Easy peezy. I remove the pit, chop them into large chunks, put them all into a large bowl, and just give them a few squashes with a potato masher. My mom likes her peach preserves with nice-sized chunks in it, so that's what I make. If you like it smooth, run it through the food processor or use an immersion blender. Just make sure that you measure it after you mash it.

Peaches and Cardamom Preserves

3 cups Lightly Mashed Peaches (peeled and pitted)

¾ cup Honey

3 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1 Tbsp Calcium Water

3/4 Tbsp Pomona Pectin

3/8 tsp Cardamom

Sterilize 4 half pint jars, lids and bands.

Mix honey and pectin thoroughly in a bowl.

Bring peaches, lemon juice, cardamom, and calcium water to a boil in a large pot.

Mix honey-pectin into peaches, and stir to dissolve pectin.

Bring mixture back to a boil, then remove from heat.

Ladle hot preserves into hot jars, leaving ¼ inch head space.

Cover each jar as filled, and tighten bands.

Process jars in hot water bath canner with the lid on for 10 minutes (15 for high altitude).

Remove canner lid, and let jars sit in open canner for 5 minutes.

Remove jars and place on cooling rack.

Let sit undisturbed for 12 hours. Check seals before storing.

Remember, can at your own risk.