Homemade almond butter

Almond butter is a very versatile food and can be used with imagination in the kitchen, tasty and also easy to prepare.

For those who follow the vegan or vegetarian diet is a fundamental food, as it is rich in valuable nutrients - including proteins, mono and polyunsaturated fats, vitamin E, iron, calcium, phosphorus and B vitamins - and can replace the animal butter in many recipes, from tart to frollini, passing through sweet and savory creams, creams of risotto, smoothies and spoon desserts.

If prepared at home it is also decidedly cheaper than the one bought.

So, unless you are allergic to almonds, get yourself some nice almonds, even better if organic, a good blender and a few minutes to prepare it and keep it for at least a couple of weeks.

Almond butter recipe

Ingredients for a medium-sized jar :

> 350 grams of shelled almonds with or without skin, as you prefer

Preparation : put the shelled almonds in a non-stick pan and heat them slightly for a couple of minutes over very low heat; then place them in the blender, mixer or food processor, operate the blades at medium speed and let them turn until you realize that the almonds are starting to release their fats, turning from granular flour to a fine powder, to become a fantastic soft cream and smooth.

In blending them, turn off when you see almond residues on the walls of the blender, bringing them back to the center with a spatula or pan-fritter and reopening everything. Transfer the cream thus obtained into a jar or airtight container.

Variations of the basic recipe of almond butter

Almonds can already be salted or sweetened or flavored (with vanilla or cinnamon, for example) depending on what will then be used. Leaving the neutral cream as in the recipe, you can also flavor it later.

The almonds can also be roasted previously, for about five minutes in the oven at 40 ° C, turning them a few times. In doing so, however, they acquire a more pronounced taste and can lose some of their precious nutrients.

You can also create a sweet almond cream to spread on toast or biscuits in the morning, simply by adding a few dates, raisins or maple syrup.

storage

If you do not use it immediately for your recipes, the almond cream thus obtained can be kept for about a month in the refrigerator, in jars tightly sealed.

Curiosity

Rich as it is in vitamin E, the almond cream thus obtained, even more than almond oil, can become an excellent aesthetic product, or a natural mask for devitalized and damaged hair, simply mixing it with the pulp of a well-ripened banana crushed.