Raw pure almond butter

Method
Prep:40min  ›  Ready in:40min 

1. Tip almonds into a robust food processor. Process the nuts continuously until the ground nuts begin to rise up the sides of the processor. Stop the processor and scrape the sides back down with a spatula. Keep repeating this process until the ground nuts begin to spontaneously fall back down from the sides to get reprocessed. This may take 15 to 20 minutes or more. Be careful not to overheat the processor and allow the mixture to stand for a while if you are concerned about overheating.
2. After the ground nuts begin to fall back down from the sides they start to clump into small lumps inside the processor. Keep stopping the processor to break up these lumps with the spatula. Eventually one large lump will form which trundles round the processor quite fiercely, making a thumping sound. Keep stopping the processor to break up this lump and distribute the ground nuts evenly. This stage may take 15 minutes or more.
3. With repeated breaking up of the large lump it will reduce in size and start to blend into a smooth paste. Initially it will be unbalanced with a lot more paste to one side of the processor. Eventually the paste will even itself out and suddenly you will have a lovely smooth even circle of almond butter, distributed perfectly around the blade. This can take up to 10 minutes.
4. Transfer your nut butter into lidded containers and store them in the fridge.

Tip

The almonds are not roasted in this recipe but if you prefer to roast them which speeds up the making of butters and produces good flavour results, you can roast them 15 to 20 minutes on a flat tray in the oven at 150 C / Gas 2.