Oooooo. Allmoooooonndds! I've been wanting to make almond butter ever since I saw a recipe for it in my Vita-mix blender book. I knew I didn't want to do it in the Vita-mix because that would be a pain to clean sticky stuff out of it. It's great for smoothies and other things that slide right out, but almond butter? Um maybe I'll try that a different time. But food processors are PERFECT for this sort of thing!! It was similar to my cinnamon vanilla sunflower butter (which I still think is a work-in-progress because it's not my favorite) but with almonds instead, since I LOVE almond butter and have been eating it almost every day on my morning oats. For this recipe I added maple instead of agave. I had restraint in not adding cardamom because I wanted to see how it tasted without it first and then if this went well I would try adding cardamom next time!
A little maple syrup poured on top.
Ooey gooey!
Two of my all-time favorite ingredients: good vanilla and ground cinnamon!
The parchment after the almond-maple mixture had baked for about 10 minutes...
...and got poured into my food processor
Oh cinnamon how I love you. Let me count the ways.
Ready to...
....whirl!
The mixture after one minute (above).... almond meal?
After four minutes it was looking smoother. Nice! I added the oil at this point and then it.....
And this was seriously the best almond butter I've ever had! I WILL be making this again - no DOUBT about it! The little bits of salt that I added really made this taste amazing (as did all of the other ingredients but occasionally you come across a tiny grain of salt and it's like - YES!! - this big flavor explosion in your mouth that just amplifies the goodness of everything else. Heavenly!!)
Maple Cinnamon Vanilla Almond Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups almonds
- 2.5 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I might increase this next time because I'm a cinnamon fanatic... or just use Penzey's Vietnamese cinnamon which is super strong wonderful)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
- 1-3 teaspoons oil (neutral-flavored oil like grapeseed, canola, sunflower, etc.)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix almonds and maple syrup on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes (turning twice during baking time).
- Add maple almond mixture to a food processor along with the cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Process for 5-7 minutes. Add oil and blend until desired consistency.
TODAY: I had some of this on my oatmeal this morning and again I am reminded how bleeping amazing this stuff is!! [A few days ago Ryan, our most-selective eater, asked to try some and then loved it so much he asked to have some on his bowl of Honey Bunnies and milk. So CUTE!] YUM!
I had my pre-op appointment today which included blood work. Now I'm home and have spent some ime answering email, rescheduling dentist appointments, and have a BAZILLION SEEDLINGS staring me down. I have a lot of planting ahead of me because I did not have much willpower at Debaggio's Herb Farm yesterday - my absolute must-visit spring ritual for herb/veggie garden fill-ins. My pepper seedlings from seed were a big fail this spring so I bought a bunch of those (except for the jalapeno which somehow escaped the black death of peppers that I have committed this year). I still can't find Black Krim tomatoes - seeds or otherwise anywhere this season. Are these still around? Need to check with Seed Savers!
Rain, please give me a few moments to get some of these in and then you can go back to your regular scheduled spring showers. Thank you!
Oh and I had some home stuff to deal with - we're trying to get a fence (again) and had to fill out the request with our HOA. So I dropped that off this morning. Hopefully it will get approved this time! Aaaah, the joys of living in a place with a home owners association.
My belly is grumbling loudly now....so HUNGRY... need to go fix that.
And I'm OFF!!
