"Make Your Own" {Almond Butter}

Recently I was doing some quick shopping while Jack was at CCD. On impulse, I bought the most expensive jar of Almond Butter imaginable.  But boy, it was worth every penny.  So proud of my find I sent my older sister a text and asked if she had ever tried it.  And to my dismay she said, "I make my own nut butters.  You're the little homemaker, make your own."  

I had been officially challenged.  I tried to talk my way out of it, stating I didn't have a fancy schmancy blender.  Too bad, my little duet blender/processor would do the trick.

Now my pricy butter is maple flavored, but all I had was pancake syrup and that would not do.  So my first batch of almond butter was sweetened with the best honey on earth.  Seriously, you need to check out Erica's shop, you will NOT be disappointed.

Honey Almond Butter

1    Cup Unsalted Roasted Almonds*
1    TBSP Honey (or to taste)
1/2  TSP Salt  (or to taste)

Place your almonds in the bowl of your food processor or fancy schmancy blender, if you have one, and set them spinning.  This is not a quick process.  In fact, I was pretty sure I was going to burn out the motor on my food processor.  But somewhere around the 12 minute mark, magic happened.  The almonds had gone from a powder, to a paste, and finally to a beautifully smooth and creamy butter.  At this point add in your honey and salt.  Store in an air tight container in the fridge.

My food processor is small and could only handle about a cup of nuts.  However, if you have a full size one, you could easily do 2 to 2.5 cups of nuts, no problem.

I used this in so many ways; on sliced apples, in my morning oats, and mixed into Greek yogurt.  It's pure almonds, nothing scary, and SO tasty.

*There is no need to buy raw almonds, because the mixing process takes awhile the processor/blender motor heats up quite a bit and will end up cooking your almonds anyway.