It has been crazy busy around here lately, so I haven't had time to post as often as I'd like. I am trying to slow the pace down a little. Here's hoping...
May-May was busy making cookies this evening when she realized we were almost out of peanut butter -- a key ingredient in her recipe. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Especially when it's late and you want to put the toddler to bed, not make the 35 minute journey into town for a jar of peanut butter...
Have you ever looked at the ingredients on a jar of peanut butter? Now, if you buy the standard American peanut butter, you probably can't pronounce half the stuff they put in there. It's a wonder it even tastes like peanuts at all. But we buy the all-natural stuff. The ingredient list is: Peanuts, Salt. Easy enough.
A trip to town with four kids in tow = about an hour and a half. A fresh batch of nut butter = about 10 minutes. I decided it was far easier to make a nut butter than to get everybody ready and head out the door for a new jar.
If you've never made fresh nut butters, you don't know what you're missing. The flavor is outstanding and it is super easy to do.
I didn't have any peanuts today, so I made almond butter for May-May to finish her recipe. And I even made a little tutorial for you, in case you're curious.
What you will need: Nut of choice (not a family member.... a real nut. I used sliced almonds here, because that's what I had on hand.) The nuts should not be roasted or salted -- just plain, natural nuts. Salt (I used sea salt) Food Processor
Oh, wait. That's it.
Dump the nuts into the food processor. I never measure this. I just dump it in. I have about 2 1/2 cups of sliced almonds in there:
Process on high. At first it will look like this:
At this stage, it is almond meal. Keep processing. You can even go do something else like, say, start a pot of tea because it's been a long day and you need to regroup. Or something.
You will need to stop and scrape the almonds down every so often. Eventually it will start to clump up, like this:
You are almost there. Keep scraping and processing. (Almond butter takes about 10 minutes from start to finish, so be patient.) And suddenly, it will look creamy and wonderful, like this:
At this point, add salt to taste. It doesn't take a lot of salt. I used about 1/8-1/4 tsp. sea salt. Mmmm! By the way, a sliced apple and a tablespoon of almond butter make a great snack when you've got the hungries but you don't want to blow your healthy lifestyle.
