It's not often that I have a jar of store-bought raw almond butter in the cupboard. While it has many good uses, it's just not a staple I think to pick up often. I do, however, have plenty of raw almonds hanging around, pretty much all the time and every once in a while I whirr them up into a butter.

Knowing how to whip up your own nut butter is tremendously freeing. Raw nut butters are true super-foods that are often a bit more pricey and can generally only be found at speciality stores. 

Let's quickly remember why we love raw almonds:

• They're a really good source of biotin, a B vitamin that helps to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and improves hair, skin & nails
• High in Vitamin E, a wonderful antioxidant that helps to improve cardiovascular health and has an anti-ageing effect on the skin
• Contain plant sterols which are vital for lowering LDL cholesterol
• Contain a good amount of magnesium and potassium, both excellent for helping us to relax and helping our arteries to relax, aiding the flow of blood (and thereby improving blood pressure)
• High in monounsaturated fats; good fats that help to improve cardiovascular health

Now, store bought roasted almonds and nut butters made from roasted almonds do not provide quite as many health benefits. They often contain added oils & salt and the heating process damages the delicate nutrients found within these little wonders. For this reason, I like to buy only raw almonds and quickly and gently roast them at home when the urge strikes (completely dry and only until I start to smell that beautiful roasted almond aroma - about 5-8 mins at 350F). Most of the time, I eat them raw.

To make almond butter, you simply throw some almonds into the food processor and turn it on. Occasionally you need to stop and break the almonds up a bit, as they tend to ball up while being whipped around the bowl. If you read my Raw Cashew Butter post, you'll know that nut butters take a bit of time and patience (and a good quality food processor).

Almonds are a harder nut and take a bit longer to become a smooth & creamy butter, but it will happen, just hang in there. 

It'll start to ball up as it softens. You may need to stop the processor and break things up a bit.

The butter shines as the oils develop

Intervene with your fork again, as needed.

Getting close! It's just a little bit grainy, keep processing until smooth. 

This is perfect!

Lovely! 

It took about 10 minutes in total to get to this point. If you find that your processor is getting a bit warm and tired, it's absolutely OK to take a break and let it cool down at any point during the process.

Now, raw almond butter isn't eat-off-the-spoon delicious the way that it's roasted counterpart is. It is, however, an excellent ingredient in many recipes; energy balls, salad dressings, smoothies, popsicles, cookies, granola bars - the list goes on. It offers a wonderful texture and true almond flavour that seems to develop with the aid of other good ingredients. And it's hard to ignore the true health benefits that come with whipping up your own batch.

Raw Almond Butter

• Raw Almonds, enough to fill processor bowl 1/3 - 1/2 

1. Fill the bowl of your processor 1/3 - 1/2 way up with raw almonds.
2. Process, stoping throughout to scrape down the bowl, and break up the paste as it balls up.
3. Allow the processor to rest for several minutes if necessary.
4. Keep going until the nuts have turned into a soft, creamy and spreadable butter.

Enjoy!