Homemade Almond Butter-what did I do wrong?

[Cherise]

Last week I tried making almond butter for the first time. I used my food processor, and ran it for several minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides several times. The consistency never got creamy at all, very very thick and grainy. My almonds were from the freezer, and had probably been in there a good year or so. I added some canola oil, thinking that would help the texture, but it did not. I also added a little honey to sweeten it up. It tastes fine, but the texture is much like spackle, thick, crumbly and hard to spread, even at room temp.

I didn't expect it to be really creamy like commercial peanut butter, but this was really rough. Is that just how it is? Or maybe that my nuts were old/frozen? I though about adding water to thin it out some more, but wasn't sure if that would really be a good idea. Any advice from this wise bulletin board? I would like to try again, with almonds or some other nut. Thanks.

[RebelYell18]

While I have never personally made it many of the methods I see around call for at least 10 to 15 minutes in the processor. Perhaps you didn't let it go long enough?

Other than that, I have no clue but wanted to throw that out there!

[amarante]

Have you ever had almond butter? I get it from Trader Joes and it's not particularly creamy and tends to get extremely hard - I used to have it on a toasted English muffin so the heat would soften it.

I don't know if that is what you are describing but the texture is different than even the TJ peanut butter - at least in my experience as that's the only kind of almond butter I've had.

[Cherise]

No, I haven't actually had commercial almond butter before. I suppose that would be helpful so I'd know what to expect, right? Wow, 10-15 minutes, I didn't think it would take that long. I definitely didn't run it that long. I guess next time I will try longer for sure. Thanks for the responses so far.

[hAndyman]

Cheryl, I've made hazelnut butter but not almond, and it does take a while to make it creamy and will warm up quite a bit from the lengthy processing (much as hummus does as I tend to go with 4 to 5 minutes processing with it). I've never added oil to it but have read that that may be necessary so you were on the right track but it's likely the amount of time that you processed that is your issue. Another thing - did you toast the almonds? The almond butter I buy has only dry-roasted almonds as an ingredient. I toast the hazelnuts, then skin them, and it makes a very smooth butter, but the almond butter I buy does have the skin bits in it and isn't as smooth - skinning would make for a smoother butter.

[Cherise]

Thanks Andy. I'm thinking it's my processing time that was too short. It just seemed like the consistency didn't change even after a few minutes, it just sort of stayed the same, so I thought it was done. Strangely enough I just popped over the The Pioneer Woman's site, and what's the recipe of the day on the tasty kitchen part, almond butter of course. So I looked at their photos, and mine stayed at this stage looking like this.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7099/7...205d3eef_z.jpg

It never got to the creamy stage like theirs. Like this.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7213/6...c85a42c2_z.jpg

So either that or the nuts being old, or both. Either way it tastes good, but just not very spreadable. I will definitely try again, once this is finished. Somehow I always seem to overbuy nuts for Christmas baking, and then stash them in the freezer, and they pile up that way! Also, no I did not remove the skins, I thought about it, but didn't want to hassle with it. The only way I've done it with almonds is to blanch them in boiling water, and it's a pain. I've tried the oven roasting with hazelnuts, but never almonds. Does it work similarly? Another thing to try I guess. Thanks!

[hAndyman]

You could throw it back in the processor and process longer - I see no problem with doing that except for the added cleanup
Almonds take longer to roast than hazelnuts, especially if you're looking for them to show some browning inside as I usually want (we just love them like that for most uses, except some where they will be cooked in the oven some more). I roast in a pie plate or cookie sheet on a rack near the top of the oven (same as where cookies are baked) at 350 deg. F about 10 minutes then stir and roast and sample and stir up every 2 to 3 minutes after that, spooning an almond out each time until the almond, cut in half, is the colour I want, usually 13 to 15 minutes in total.

btw I can relate on the Xmas nut purchase!

[jjlmay]

I make almond frequently.....Yes, you did not process it long enough. I like it like crunchy pnut butter, so after I get it good and smooth, I take it out, and process some almonds coarsly and mix it with the smooth almond butter. I get a 3 lb bag of salted roasted almonds and a 3 lb bag of unsalted almonds, and mix them to make my butter. Just right. (get my almonds from Sams Warehouse.) If you process it long enough, it can even look a little oily.