Learn how to make almond butter at home! Made with just 3 ingredients, it's smooth, creamy, and nutritious. You'll love it on toast, oatmeal, and more.
I started making this homemade almond butter recipe in an effort to clear out my pantry. It sounds silly, I know, but partway through last winter, I ended up with jars and jars of different nuts in the cupboard. Pistachios left from this carrot salad, hazelnuts left from this kohlrabi slaw, and so forth. I had one big canister of almonds that was begging to be eaten, and since Jack and I had a great time making homemade peanut butter last spring, I decided to try blending them into homemade almond butter.
Let me tell you, I am so glad I did! If you’ve never learned how to make almond butter at home, you have to try this recipe. The almond butter is smooth and creamy, perfectly runny, and filled with a nutty, toasted almond flavor. It’s fun to make, watching the whole nuts slowly melt into a luscious spread, and it’s even more fun to eat. You’ll love slathering it onto toast, dolloping it onto oatmeal, and downing it straight off a spoon!
How to Make Almond Butter
To make this homemade almond butter recipe, you’ll need 4 things:
- Raw almonds – We’ll start by toasting them in the oven to bring out their nutty flavor. This step also makes them easier to blend.
- A food processor or high-speed blender – To grind the almonds into a smooth, creamy nut butter.
- Sea salt – If you like, you can skip it and make unsalted almond butter, but I highly recommend adding a pinch or two. It gives the homemade almond butter a richer, more complex flavor.
- A neutral-tasting oil – Only if you need it! If my homemade almond butter looks gritty and isn’t getting smooth, I’ll add a little oil to help loosen it up.
Once you have them handy, here’s what you need to do:
First, toast the almonds. Preheat the oven to 350°F and spread the almonds on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 minutes, or until they smell rich and nutty. Remove the sheet from the oven, and allow the almonds to cool slightly.
Then, transfer the roasted almonds to a food processor or powerful blender. From here on out, you’ll just be processing/blending the almonds until they transform into a smooth nut butter. But heads up – this will take some time, about 15 minutes total. Stop regularly to scrape down the sides of your food processor or blender and to give the motor a break.
At first, the mixture will be crumbly and chunky.
Then, it’ll thicken into a ball.
Finally, it’ll become smooth and creamy! If the mixture is still thick and gritty after 15 minutes of processing, add a neutral oil, 1 teaspoon at a time, to help it blend.
Season to taste with sea salt, and enjoy.
How to Use Almond Butter
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be happy eating this homemade almond butter straight off a spoon, but have fun experimenting with other ways to use it, too! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Slather it onto a toasted bagel or good crusty bread for a yummy breakfast or snack. Top it off with honey and flaky sea salt, jam, or your favorite fresh fruit.
- Dollop it onto oatmeal or overnight oats.
- Add it to a yogurt parfait with fresh fruit and crunchy granola.
- Swirl it into a bowl of chia pudding with a dash of maple syrup.
- Blend it into a smoothie to give it a rich, creamy texture. I love it in this coffee smoothie, this green smoothie, and this superfood smoothie bowl.
- Spread it onto your favorite quick breads and muffins. It’d be delicious on my banana bread, blueberry muffins, banana muffins, or strawberry muffins.
- Or try something savory! Use it in this almond ginger dressing, or swap it in for the peanut butter in my go-to peanut sauce.
How do you like to use homemade almond butter? Let me know in the comments!
More Homemade Basics
If you love this almond butter recipe, try making one of these homemade basics next:
How to Make Almond Butter
Ingredients
- 3 cups raw almonds
- Avocado oil or another neutral-tasting oil, such as grapeseed, as necessary
- Sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Spread the almonds in an even layer on the baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes, or until fragrant. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
- Transfer the toasted almonds to a medium food processor. Process until very smooth, stopping every 30 seconds to 1 minute to scape down the sides of the bowl, as necessary, and to give the food processor's motor a break. The mixture will be chunky at first. Then, it'll thicken into a ball, and finally, it will become creamy and smooth. The whole process should take about 15 minutes.
- If the almond butter still isn't coming together after 15 minutes, add avocado oil, 1 teaspoon at a time, to help the mixture blend.
- Season to taste with salt, and serve on toast, overnight oats, oatmeal, yogurt, or banana bread. Find more serving suggestions in the post above.
I made this recipe & turned it into homemade Christmas gifts. I know my vegan family will love it!
What a nice idea!
Hi, can I use Ninja to make this almond butter? How long would be the shelf life? Thank you!
Hi Marie, a recommend a food processor because there isn’t enough liquid in the recipe to blend in a blender.
Easy to make and tastes great! This recipe is great for a diabetic❤️
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Just finished making my first batch. I only have a small food processor, so I halved the recipe.
It worked perfectly, and I didn’t need to add any oil. It made about 6-8 oz. My husband & I tried it and love it! I will be making this regularly!
Hi Diane, I’m so glad you loved the almond butter!
This was so satisfying to make and really delicious! I added in the Avocado Oil to make it creamy and it is perfect!! Thank you!
Hi Doreen, I’m glad your almond butter came out perfect!
Delicious! I don’t think I’ll ever buy almond butter again! It went through the stages exactly as you said. Thanks for posting this recipe!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Love my almond butter! Does it need to be refrigerated?
Hi Lori, yes! I would store this in the fridge.
Can you use blanched almonds to make lighter in color
Hi Carolyn, The almond butter would have a lighter color that way, but I think it would also have a much milder flavor. I’d recommend sticking with the whole almonds for this recipe.
Oh wow! I may never buy store bought again! This was so easy and it taste great!!! Thanks for the recipe!
I’m so glad you loved it!
Thanks for your recipe and instructions, I just finished my first batch and it came out perfectly! My processor is a Ninja Auto IQ, 1000 watt; it took 29 minutes but that was running for a minute, scraping down and resting for a minute (initially) and as it became smoother, I ran it and rested in 30 second increments. I didn’t need any oil, just added a tiny bit of salt. I was concerned that 3 cups of almonds may be too much but it ended up being 2 smallish jars (one for me & one for my daughter’s family).
Hello Jeanine, thanks for sharing this recipe. I finally made it today and I am so delighted…it has come out perfectly, had almond butter for the first time and it tasted great!
Thanks 😊
I’m so glad you loved it!
I have a bag of slivered almonds at home, and I’d really like to avoid buying more almonds when I already have some. Do you think that would be ok? Maybe just don’t roast them as long so as not to burn them? What do you think?
Hi Renee, you can use them – since they don’t have skins, your nut butter will just be a lighter color.
Mine is tasty but definitely not as runny as the website photo. It is more the texture of toothpaste.
Did I not process it long enough? Lost count of time as I processing 60-90 secs, then stopping.
Added 2t coconut oil.
It’s absolutely delicious but not at all liquidy.
Hi Sharon, you can keep processing, it’ll get more runny the longer you go.
This was delicious, so much better than store bought. I added about 2 teaspoons of olive oil at the end and seasoned with sea salt.
Awesome! I am so happy to have this wonderful recipe! Really easy to read and easy to follow directions. Nicely designed website, in a time when so many bloggers tell their life story before posting the recipe with 150 videos on their pages. I will actually be able to remember it. Thank you!!!!!!!!!
did you remove the skin of the almond?
I don’t
Hi! I just made this. It was so much easier than I ever imagined – and delicious too! I assume it should be stored in the fridge? How long will it last?
Can you do this with walnuts for walnut butter?
yep!
Awesome, thank you!
Would love to try this! What if I use almonds with salt already? Would this make it too salty?
It should be just fine, you probably don’t need to add any additional salt in that case.
One of my favorite snacks is a crisp sweet apple, sliced and dipped in almond butter.