i don't know about anyone else, but i am a big fan of peanut butter. BIG fan! it's kind of salty and savoury but slightly sweet, sticks to the roof of your mouth yet is gooey and melty all at the same time. i do like it a LOT! i haven't gone so far as to start incorporating it into smoothies and biscuits and cakes and whatever else i can think of, partly because i prefer it straight, and partly because, well... it's not that great for you in larger doses. well, ok, even smaller doses aren't that great either. despite many sites claiming it to be high in protein (and it is!) and therefore good for you, i tend to disagree, largely because while the protein content is pretty good, it's not much chop for anything else. it doesn't have the range of nutrients that other nuts have (leaving aside the fact that it isn't a true nut, but a legume, but hey, we call it a nut and treat it like a nut so i may as well go with the flow!) and as it is so high in fat and calories, you want good nutritional bang for your buck. so... what are the alternatives? other nut butters of course!!!
so off i merrily go to the local supermarket to hunt me down some nut butter, and lo and behold, one tiny jar costs more than double my jumbo jar of peanut butter. i mean, $10 for 375g?!?!?! i do NOT think so!!!! so home i head with a large bag of whole almonds, thinking 'stuff it, i'll just make some myself, surely it can't be THAT hard'! and it's not... but it is time consuming, so bear with me...
you will need... almonds and a food processor. really.
i started with 2 cups of almonds, i wasn't sure if my little old food processor could handle any more, but i think you could easily do anywhere from 1 to 3 cups at a time depending on the capacity of your food processor. i lightly roasted them in the oven for about 10 minutes to get the oils going and firm them up a bit. it gives the resulting paste a slightly deeper flavour, but you could do them untoasted for more of that raw nutty flavour. once cooled, add into the food processor and start blitzing!
it will be very noisy at first but this only lasts a few seconds, as the processor starts to break down the nuts. keep the food processor on for a good minute or two, then check.
this is when you will need a spatula. scrape down the sides of the processor and check to make sure the blade is still touching the bottom (mine started to lift a bit and the almonds started to gather underneath meaning they weren't getting processed at all). turn on again for another minute or two, then re-check, scrape, and repeat.
keep processing, stopping occasionally to check and scrape. it seems like this will go on forever and that the processor isn't breaking them down. stay with it. after a good 5-8 minutes the almonds will start to release their oils and the mixture will gradually start to clump.
keep processing. you shouldn't need to stop and scrape so often now. keep going for another few minutes.
it will eventually start to resemble a speckly paste and look oily and buttery. keep going for a few more minutes, i promise it will continue to break down.
after a good 10-15 minutes (depending on your food processor) it will start to look glossy and smooth. this is where i stopped. or rather, this is where my food processor could go no further. you see, after some googling, i learned that eventually it should thicken up even more and truly resemble peanut butter. but mine never did. it just stayed a thick glossy paste no matter how much extra processing i gave it. and that's ok, i'm more than happy with that! you can now give your food processor a rest, and using the trusty spatula scrape/pour it into jars (as you would with jam) and let cool. once cooled enough to handle you can pop them into the fridge where they will keep for a good month or two.
lastly, you can FLAVOUR the almond butter! YUM! so with my batch, i decanted half the mixture plain, then with the half left in the food processor i added in about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and half a teaspoon of vanilla paste. approximately. as always, i didn't really measure, i just went by taste, i wanted something relatively subtle that wouldn't overpower the almond-ness. experiment. follow your tastebuds. i imagine honey or nutmeg or cardamom would all work well! and you can keep your $10!
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