so I tried making almond butter

[hellicat]

Hi everyone

I've had two tries at making almond butter but no luck yet.

First try - I used unsoaked raw almonds in my food processor (which has a "grind" function). It became almond meal... and I kept whizzing and whizzing, and it didn't change in texture at all.

Second try - I used soaked almonds. It just became almond pulp.

I've looked at all the suggestions on this forum, and I don't want to add oil unless I HAVE to...

Anyone have any other ideas? Thanks

[Springtime]

From what i've heard (read) making nut butters require a few things:

- A high speed high power blender (vitamix or blendtec)

- Unsoaked nuts

- Patience

The key seems to be to first grind them and blend for a while, and then keep blending for a really long time. But since you wanna avoid the heat your blender's gonna start generating eventually, you'll have to blend-wait-blend-wait until it butters up.

I tried this with sunflower seeds and a hand blender, and even though i didn't get anywhere near but butter, the idea of blending for a really really long time did make it far more buttery/oily.

Please let us know how it turns out!

[anniez]

I have a Blendtec and it makes awesome almond butter! I use unsoaked almonds and let it go for about 10 minutes. I think you need to use unsoaked almonds, from what I've read. Keep trying because it is worth it!

Annie

[T-Bird]

I've done it in my FP. Once it gets to be powdery and flourlike, you have to keep on going.

To aoid any heatup, I do only 1-2 minutes, off for 3-5, on for 1-2 etc. It will eventually ball up!

[Zella Juice]

soak then dehydrate almonds and walnuts. I always do a huge batch and keep these on hand for all my recipies. In the food processor grind the almonds and walnuts and a small pinch of sea salt. Equal parts of both nuts. Once they have turned into a flour add a table spoon or more if you like of raw coconut oil. You will have to stop and start the food processor to stir the mixture around. Keep doing this for awhile and it will turn into a thick butter. You can also add a tad of honey or agave. You use the walnuts because they are oily and they will help it turn into more of a butter.

Also if you combine dates & small amount of coconut oil with a bit of sea salt in the food processor and cacao or carob you can make a chocolate that wraps around the almond butter and makes a pretty darn good peanut butter cup tasting thing.

You can make a ton of these up and take them with you when you go out and it keeps you on the right track and totally satisfied.

[raweater]

I have a Blendtec and it makes awesome almond butter! I use unsoaked almonds and let it go for about 10 minutes. I think you need to use unsoaked almonds, from what I've read. Keep trying because it is worth it!

Annie

Firstly don't forget most almonds in USA are pasteurized with cancer causing chemicals, even though they are labeled as "raw". Very few almonds in USA are truly raw since a law in september 2007 required that all almonds be pasteurized. I now get them from Spain or Italy but they are extremely expensive so I rarely use them. I now mostly use walnuts instead which can be made into a nut butter in seconds in a food processor.

The blendtec or vitamix would have the butter cooked in no more than 30 seconds, if you let it for 10 minutes continuously it will be extremely hot and cooked. I don't think it would be possible or would at least be very hard to make raw nut butters in a high speed blender because their high speed causes them to cook thick blends in a matter of seconds.

You can make almond butter in a food processor, once it's a sort of flour and it seems like nothing's happening, let it run for several minutes, it will eventually turn to butter, but even in the food processor the butter will cook unless you stop it for several minutes of cool down once it starts turning to butter and only process for a short period.

Because truly raw almonds are so expensive and they are so hard to make into a raw butter I now only use walnuts, once in a recipe you can't really tell the difference and walnuts turn to butter in less than a minute in a food processor without cooking and require no cool down.

[T-Bird]

Where do you get your walnuts? I can't find anything but a 4 oz pack somewhere....


I need volume!


And pecans too!


DS is feeling rawsome and requested loads of nuts!

[Zella Juice]

rawfromthefarm.com

[raweater]

My grocery store has 1 KG bags of most nuts or 850 g jars.

[DebB]

I have a Blendtec and it makes awesome almond butter! I use unsoaked almonds and let it go for about 10 minutes. I think you need to use unsoaked almonds, from what I've read. Keep trying because it is worth it!

Annie

Hi Annie ~ Would you walk me through how you make your almond butter?

I've got a BlendTec and would love to make my own almond butter!

Thank you ~ *Ü*

[anniez]

My Blendtec has a lot of different speeds. My almond butter gets barely warm - it certainly does not get "cooked." I need to stop frequently at first to scrape down the sides. I add a little sea salt, but that is it. No oils, or anything else. It is awesome!

Annie

[LiveLife]

I once saw a Youtube video of someone pushing different types of nuts through one of those expensive juicers and then mix in honey for flavor. They made it look so easy and quick. My juicer can't do that I have also found that almonds in the food processor just turn to powder but maybe I haven't run it long enough.

[Funkalicious]

Firstly don't forget most almonds in USA are pasteurized with cancer causing chemicals, even though they are labeled as "raw".


Is cancer causing chemicals added or pasterurizing cause the chemical.

[jacsam]

I make almond butter all the time.....I make it in my cuisinart FP. There are instructions in the manual for it, if you don't have a manual just go to their website and you'll be able to get it. Your first try sounded like you just didn't waite quite long enough.....it does take longer than you think it should but then one second it's not butter and the next second it's there....it's like the oils just suddenly release and mix in. I also find that my almond butter is more smooth when I use a mixture of 1 1/4 cups almonds and 3/4 cup cashews....this is the way I make it now. Good luck.

[DebB]

I make almond butter all the time.....I make it in my cuisinart FP. There are instructions in the manual for it, if you don't have a manual just go to their website and you'll be able to get it. Your first try sounded like you just didn't waite quite long enough.....it does take longer than you think it should but then one second it's not butter and the next second it's there....it's like the oils just suddenly release and mix in. I also find that my almond butter is more smooth when I use a mixture of 1 1/4 cups almonds and 3/4 cup cashews....this is the way I make it now. Good luck.

Thank you jacsam for posting about making butters in your Cuisinart. I went to their site and found this (http://www.cuisinart.com/share/pdf/manuals/dlc-xp.pdf):

"To make peanut butter and other nut butters
Process up to 3 cups of nuts (12 ounces, 340 g) at a time. Let
the machine run continuously. After 2 or 3 minutes, the ground
nuts will form a ball that will gradually smooth out. Scrape the
sides of the bowl and continue processing until drops of nut oil
are visible. Taste for consistency. The longer you process the
nuts, the softer the butter will be. For chunk-style nut butter,
add a handful of nuts just after the ball of nut butter begins to
smooth out. To make butter from cashew nuts, add a little
bland vegetable oil.
Processor-made nut butters contain no preservatives.
They will keep indefinitely without separating when stored
in the refrigerator."

I have a question jacsam - when you process the nuts like this - do they stay more on the bottom of the FP, or do they tend to get plastered up the sides of the bowl, away from the S blade? *Ü*

[HappyDance]

I hate hearing that about the almonds. I can't have walnuts or cashews so I've been using almonds as a sub. So many recipes use nuts, I'm at a lost what use.