Do we really need a guide on how to make almond butter? Absolutely! So many things can have an impact on the end result, read texture and flavor.
I have been improving my almond butter recipe each and every time until I made the best batch I ever made.
The difference between this recipe and your basic almond butter lies in the ingredients and process. Here, we use blanched Marcona almonds that are slow-roasted for almost 2 hours with some maple syrup and salt. It results in the smoothest and tastiest almond butter. Ever.
If you have ever tried Barney's almond butter, this one is very similar but a bit thinner, and contains no palm oil or refined sugar.
This recipe is easy and requires only 4 ingredients: raw almonds, maple syrup, oil, and sea salt.
The "secret" to get super smooth and delicious almond butter is to start from blanched almonds. Leaving the skin out yields a creamier consistency (bye grittiness!) and a better flavor. When I can, I try to use Marcona almonds, which are rounder and a bit sweeter than regular almonds. Don't worry if you can't get your hands on it, this recipe works great with regular blanched almonds!
I used to blanch almonds by myself and trust me, it's very time-consuming so I highly recommend you get blanched almonds directly.
You start by coating the almonds with maple syrup, oil, and salt. As you can guess this butter is sweet and salty!
Then transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and roast for a bit less than 2 hours. Roasting time and temperature have a major impact on the flavor of your almond butter, a short roast and it will taste bland, too much and it will have an unpleasant bitter aftertaste. I had the best results by slow-roasting the almonds. By using this technique, almonds are evenly roasted from the outside to the inside. Plus you have fewer chances of burning them.
To make sure your almonds are perfectly roasted, remove one from the oven, let it cool 3-5 minutes and try breaking it. If it snaps and the inside is slightly golden brown, your almonds are ready.
Once your almonds have cooled a bit, transfer to a blender and blend on high speed for 5-10 minutes. The longer you blend, the smoother the almond butter! A food processor can be used but it won't give you a very smooth consistency.
Use this almond butter on top of oatmeal, toast, or in recipes like these Chocolate & Almond Butter Mousses, Chewy Almond Butter Snickerdoodle Bars, or for a savory recipe, these Almond Butter Sweet Potato Noodle Bowls!
Let me know in the comments if you try this recipe!
How to Make the Best Almond Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cup raw blanched almonds (Marcona if possible)
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon oil
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 240°F (115°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the almonds, maple syrup, oil, and salt. Stir to coat and transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Spread the almonds evenly.
- Roast for 1 hour and 50 minutes, stirring halfway through baking. After almost 2 hours, the almonds should be golden brown. To test if the almonds are evenly roasted, remove one from the oven and let it cool 2-3 minutes. Break the almond into two pieces, it should snap and the inside should be golden brown too.
- Let cool the almonds 10-15 minutes before transferring to a blender. Blend on high-speed for 5-8 minutes, scraping down the sides if needed, until very smooth. The longer your blend, the smoother the almond butter.
- Transfer to a clean jar and store at room temperature for a few months.
This is definitely the smoothest looking almond butter I've ever seen! At some point I gave up on making an almond butter version of my favorite peanut butter cookies, because they were never smooth enough and always got kind of crumbly and gritty. I sort of declared to myself that almond butter just couldn't work as a stand-in for peanut butter because of the texture, but I feel like your version without the skins and with slow roasting might be a game changer on that. Thanks for sharing, I'm really excited to try it out! Did you ever try it without the added sweetener?
Thank you Shannon! Well, I guess you won't find your cookies gritty with this one 😉 I haven't tried without added sweetener though, but I think it should work pretty well too. Even with the added maple syrup, it's not overly sweet and you can still use it in savory dishes.
Hi Thomas, it looks absolutely perfect !! As I am fond of low temperature cooking, I am going to do it 🙂
Do you need a super blender to do it (2000 W) or a 1000 W blender is sufficient?
Thanks for sharing !
Hi Claire,
Thanks! 1000W should be enough, mine is 1200W and the butter is very smooth! Just be patient and let it run until you are satisfied with the texture 😉
Oh my! This is the most delicious almond butter I've ever had! Or any nut butter, for that matter! Kid approved, too, btw. Even the "I don't like nut butter!" kid asked for it on bread with some homemade jelly! Thank you for the great recipe!
Awesome! I'm so happy to hear you and your kids liked this almond butter 😉
Thanks for the feedback and rating Birgit!
Work to roast almonds plain, then add the syrup, oil, and salt when starting them in the blender?
Work to roast almonds plain, then add the syrup, oil, and salt when starting them in the blender?
Update: I went ahead and tried it that way; it seemed to work well.
PS - Those on a vegan diet better supplement certain vitamins, like some of the B’s that are only/mostly in meat.
What does being vegan or not have to do with making almond butter?
The taste of this almond butter is great. I only have a food processor so I have to be happy with a more granular butter.
Glad you like it Charles! The longer you process the smoother! Also, it helps to make a double batch if using a food processor, it usually yields a smoother texture.
Hi Thomas, I’m very excited to discover your page and try things out!
What oil did you use?
Hi Jane,
Any neutral oil will work, I usually use rapeseed oil.
Thank you very much Thomas!! Your recipe banana bread Is beautiful!!
You're welcome!
Ohmygod! This is delicious and so much better than store bought! I blanched my own almonds cos it's cheaper and it's easy... boil them for 1 minute, run under cold water and squeeze them gently, skin will pop right off xxx
Good tip, Kathryn. I was buying the blanched almonds which are quite expensive. Thanks.
Thanks so much for your rating Kathryn! 🙂
Can I try it without maple syrup
No you can not. The audacity!
Can I use "slivered" almonds? I' m assuming just bake less time? I've tried other recipes and it didn't turn out, even with oil it was much too dry. Your recipe seems wonderful! Cant wait to try it.
I DID IT! I used the slivered almonds, It is delicious and looks just like the picture! I only baked it for 1 hr and 14 min. (first 40 min, then 30 min, then 4 min) then I was concerned that I over bake, but probably could have baked a little longer. I used my vitamix, it took no where close to 10 min, but I really don't know how long I blended it. The hardest part of this process was getting it out of my Vitamix. LOL. It was a little too sweet for me. I'll use half or 1/3 of the maple syrup next time. Thank you for this delicious and easy recipe!
Awesome! So glad you liked this recipe Cissa!
Regarding the sweetness, did you weight the almonds or used the same amount in cups for silvered as noted for whole almonds? I guess volume is a bit different.
I did not weigh them, just measured 2 C. That is actually the whole package that I bought. Fisher brand, bought at Walmart. Thanks for this recipe! My husband loves it!
I used 2 cups, the whole package that I got at the grocer, a common brand found in the baking dept. I don't know the weight, and the package is gone now. My husband loves it. It will be a staple in my home!
As long as you like it! Thanks for the feedback 🙂
Hi Thomas, have been looking for a good recipe for sometime now and tried it as per your steps and very happy with the outcome.........smooth and absolutely tasty, the best I've tasted compared to store bought varieties. Thank you for sharing. Look forward to trying out some of your other recipes as well.
Awesome! Glad you like this almond butter 😉
I don’t know what I did mines crumbled
Crumbled?
If you don’t have a powerful blender, don’t waste your time with this recipe. I wasted time, almonds, electricity and hours of frustration. I followed the directions exactly and ended with clumps of gritty and clumpy almond mush!! I tried another recipe which came out smoother, but I wanted to try a recipe using blanched almonds, in hopes of achieving a creamier texture. I wasted additional time cleaning the stuff out of my blender.
Hi Brenda,
I'm assuming the other recipe didn't include maple syrup, that tends to make the butter a bit harder to process at first, but then comes out very smooth.
I can't tell you how happy this recipe makes me! It's AMAZING! I really disliked store-bought almond butter, but this stuff is even better than peanut butter! My cheap blender struggled mightily, however, so I'm already planning on getting a new one just to make more of this.
Thank you! You should do this to peanut butter, too 🙂
Thanks Ellie, glad you liked this recipe 🙂
Regarding peanut butter, peanuts are already shelled and usually we use them without the skin already.
Have you ever canned vegan butter,, if so how?
Canned butter? I have never heard of or tried that, sorry.
Thx Thomas! After reading many nut butter recipes, I'm going with yours - I like slow roasting the almonds (vs burning ) and how creamy smooth yours looks.
I know I'm lucky here in No CA, USA to have fresh, raw almonds from a ranch nearby. Do support local farmers whenever possible, for your sake as well as theirs! These make the best almond milk. I presoak the raw almonds overnight, changing the salted (helps w/enzymes) water a few times as needed. Then the skins slip off easily too next morning.
I'll make this later today and let you know my thoughts in an update. Note: I plan on using almond extract and vanilla both.
Hope you will like it Marlene!
I'm going to add my voice to the choir of praise with this simple but oh-so-effective recipe which turned out marvellously well! I just finished my first-ever batch of almond butter, following your instructions to a fault and there it is, in my jar, smooth and tasty as possible. I thought there may be some liquid to add before the blending, but no, and I double checked the time needed, so I can testify to the fact that yes, you do need to mix it for quite a while before the almonds first turn into a coarse sand, then a flour and finally a smooth cream that tastes heavenly.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you again, Thomas, for sharing!
Petite note en français aux francophones, donc, recette extra qui m'a permis de réussir sans encombre ma première verrine de beurre d'amandes avec un goût exquis et une saveur sucrée qui n'est pas écoeurante (juste 3 petites cuillers de sirop d'érable, rien de bien méchant). J'ai utilisé de l'huile de pépins de raisins pour sa neutralité). Une vraie réussite. Je vais tenter à présent la bûche dont la recette se trouve sur le blog aussi et si c'est un succès, je vous dirai. 🙂
Avec toute ma reconnaissance,
Aurélia
Merci beaucoup pour ton retour Aurélia, content que la recette t'ai plue !
I've only got a 700W blender and it was struggling a bit so my butter isn't as gorgeously smooth as yours looks but this is a very tasty recipe. I will definitely be making this again although hopefully with a better blender next time!
Thanks for your feedback Billy 🙂
Can I use honey instead of maple syrup ?
That should work!
I followed the recipe precisely and the outcome was silky smooth golden almond butter with perfectly balanced flavours. Far better than any other almond butter I have tried. I'm so impressed I now have blanched hazelnuts slow roasting in the oven to make more nut butter.
So glad you liked this almond butter! Thanks for sharing your feedback 😉