Recipe Directions

  • 1. Place the almonds only (do not add the honey or salt) into your food processer.
  • 2. Food process your almonds for five minutes, stopping every 1 minute to scrape down the sides. (Almonds will just be all powdery and you'll think you need to add liquids. But do NOT add any liquids.)
  • 3. Continue processing almondsfor an additional 15 minutes.(Yes, that's right, 20 minutes total!!) Almonds will eventually turn dough-like, then whipped, and then finally, they'll turn buttery and identical to store bought almond butter if you process them long enough! (Scroll down to "Thoughts" for a minute-by-minute play by play!)
  • 3. After approximately 20minutes of food processing (could be a bit longer or a bit less depending on the strength of your food processor), your almond butter is ready.
  • 4. Transfer creamy, spreadable almond butter to a jar or bowl. Then, optionally, add the honey and salt immediately and then stir by hand.
  • 5. Enjoy immediately. Store leftovers in fridge.

The Rawtarian's Thoughts

By The Rawtarian

Raw almond butter recipes are something of a myth in the raw food world. Why won't they blend well? What's the deal with all these bad raw almond butter recipes?

But I've got a raw almond butter recipe that does the trick.

Make this raw almond butter recipe in your food processor, not your blender, not your VitaMix and not your BlendTec. (Trust me.)

This raw almond butter recipe is simple and delicious. I love it spread on apples or raw crackers. Keep it in the fridge. It tastes best when it is served at room-temperature.

Note: Do NOT soak your almonds in advance. (Use dry, unsalted, unsoaked, unroasted almonds.)

This is a great replacement for peanut butter. And much healthier, too!

Please wear ear protection, by the way! This is a long and loud process.

Note: Note all food processors are up to this task. There is a small chance that your food processor's engine will burn out during this process, particularly if you have a cheap one. Consider letting the motor pause for a few 20 second intervals during this process to let your food processor cool down a little.

Note re: photograph: The almond butter in this photograph is a bit too chunky! Keep processing until you get the texture of store bought spreadable wet butter. I need to update this photo but I haven't gotten around to it yet!

Laura-Jane's Notes using her Cuisinart Classic Food Processor:

  • First 5 minutes: Need to scrape the sides every minute or so to ensure the mixture is evenly distributed. (Important.)
  • 5 minutes: Sticky, beginning to ball together.
  • 6 minutes: Formed a big ball. (Might need to stop briefly and bust up the ball.) 
  • 8 minutes: Doesn't need any more interference from here on. Now, little sticky crumbs.  
  • 10 minutes: Big hot sticky dough ball!
  • 11 minutes: Starting to look whipped!
  • 12 minutes: Getting wet.
  • 14 minutes: Getting smooth and creamy!
  • 16 minutes: Similar to above.
  • 17 minutes: More spreadable, almost store bought.
  • 18 minutes: As spreadable as store bought!
  • 20 minutes: Yep - it's perfect! Same texture as store bought but a little lighter in color.

Recipe Photos

Nutrition Facts

Nutritional score: 89 out of 100
  • This recipe is very low in Calories, Carbohydrates, and Sodium.
  • This recipe is an excellent source of Vitamin E.
  • This recipe is a good source of Protein, and Riboflavin.
  • This recipe is a noteworthy source of Dietary Fiber, and Iron.

Amounts per 35 g (1 oz) suggested serving

NameAmount% Daily
Calories 206 8 %
Protein 7 g 13 %
Fat 18 g 23 %
Carbohydrates 7 g 2 %
Dietary Fiber 4 g 12 %
Sugars 1.7 g
Calcium 92 mg 9 %
Iron 1.3 mg 10 %
Sodium 1 mg
Source: USDA, The Rawtarian

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Comments and Reviews

All

62 votes
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Hi John, sounds delicious. What do you eat your nut butter with? Good tip about pausing and cooling!

79 votes
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I usually use it for raw smoothies. For example, I make a raw chocolate smoothie that consist of 2 bananas, 2 cups water, 2 tbsp raw cacao, 3 Medjool dates, and 1/4 cup Almond/Brazil nut butter. Sometimes I will change it up a little by adding only one date and adding 2 tbsp of Lacuna Powder and/or 2 tbsp of Chia seeds.

69 votes
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Sounds delicious John

156 votes
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My Cuisinart worked like a charm. Once it started to form a ball i turned it onto my dough setting. Tastes amazing and has amazing consistency. Thanks for the recipe. I will pass it on to many of my raw foodie friends :)

155 votes
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Awesome Leah!

164 votes
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I process my soaked Almonds and Macadamia nuts through our, twin stainless steel gear juicer. I then blend the butter, in my Breville kitchen whizz, which has a quade blade.
I blend it with a bit of hemp oil, macadamia oil or black seed oil ( Nigella Sativa oil). I like the texture of it being cold pressed first, then blended. Everyone who has tried it likedit too. :)

159 votes
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Sounds delicious SpiritDancer! Interesting oils, I've never tried macadamia oil

155 votes
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Just downloaded your app :)

165 votes
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Hope you like it, SpritiDancer! I find it super handy. Super duper handy!

158 votes
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I used a Cuisinart 9-Prep Food Processor. It heated up after about three minutes, so I finished the last seven minutes in 1.5 minute increments cooling the machine down in between use. I used three cups of almonds. It was VERY loud at first so I covered the machine with a towel to muffle the sound. It was dry about half-way through the process it took on a crunchy butter and then creamy butter texture. Taste good as is but added three tablespoons of raw agave nectar, three pinches of pink Himalayan sea salt, and nine drops of raw vanilla flavor. It fit easily in a two cup container. It was very crumbly when spread so to give it a spreadable texture I mixed in about .5 cup of raw coconut oil. It fit back in the two cup container to the top. It is a very good butter. Much better than any store bought variety and much cheaper too. Very yummy and well worth the effort. I made it to take on a camping trip this week. Me celery, cherries, and the woods.

153 votes
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Awesome ItalianCypress! Sounds like you progressed through all the stages beautifully.

Me celery, cherries, and the woods.    - love it lol

166 votes
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I made toasted almond butter tonight in my old Cuisinart Food Processor in about 8 minutes. It turned out great---creamy with no equipment meltdown!!
I toasted the almonds so the butter would last longer in the fridge, made about a half batch (used about 1 1/2 cups of nuts, and the BIG THING I DID Differently, was that I started with sliced almonds.
I live in a very small town , so I used the almonds available to me at Walmart--Fisher brand, Chef's Naturals. I thought I would invest only a small amount of money until I had tried the process. They were about $6 a pound.

Anyway, my result was wonderful--I am sure that starting with sliced almonds was the key.I did not add any oil as I processed the almonds, but I added a touch of salt and nothing else when the butter was done.
Thank You for your help. I would not have known that I needed to Process and Process until it became liquid if I had not read your comments.

163 votes
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Awesome Ginna!!!!

152 votes
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do I need to soak the almonds in water first?

150 votes
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Hi Sheyla, no, soaking is not required

150 votes
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With all that FP processing,does it not heat the almonds a bit?Have not tried this recipe yet,but have tried without first roasting almonds,to get them to the consistency of store bought nut butters,with no avail.

Posted from The Rawtarian's Raw Recipes App

168 votes
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Hi John - ditto! Haven't had that commercial consistency myself either with a food processor

190 votes
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hi there

thanks for the recipe! how do companies make nut butters commercially (just out of curiosity!)

thanks

189 votes
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Hi Julia, I have no idea!

179 votes
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I usually put my almonds in a plastic bag and put it on a rock slab, and take a nice
flat smooth rock that fits in the palm on my hand, and crush them on the flat
rock at the bottom, and they end up in powder and tiny chunks. Saves the stress on the
food processor. Thanks for your helpful site.
Julia

187 votes
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Plus, you get the added benefit of getting out any pent up rage. Lol Great tip Julia!

212 votes
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Please mention at the begininnof the recipe that soaking is required, some people don't assume that

199 votes
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Hi Donna, I do not soak all of my nuts. Soaking is only required when it is explicitly stated in my recipes.

211 votes
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Hi,
I was trying to make almond butter with raw almonds...I even doubled the recipe.. I got the brilliant idea of adding coconut oil to the raw almonds in the food processor since I had tasted this combination before and really liked it...well it doesn't seem to be coming out right and I'm worried I ruined the almond butter? :/ is there anything I can do to save this as I really don't want to throw it out? I did read your comments too late about adding the ingredients at the very end. Would you recommend anything for me to do? Thanks.

194 votes
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Hi Marjorie,

I agree that this is a finicky recipe and that it probably will not turn out right. Also, I do not recommend doubling this recipe because it's hard for your food processor to do so many almonds at once.

Don't throw it out though, rather, there are many recipes that you can make using the almonds. (You can also freeze what you have and defrost it for use later.) For example, you could definitely use the somewhat ground almonds in this recipe in place of the almond meal in the same quantity: http://www.therawtarian.com/raw-almond-pulp-fudge

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