Cinnamon Almond Butter ~ YUM!

I LOVE almond buter! 

I use it all the time. I eat it everyday with my green apple as my afternoon snack, but I also use it in a lot of my recipes. Yes, you can totally just buy almond butter, but I prefer to make my own, its really not hard at all, and you can control exactly what goes into it. The price is pretty comparable to buying a container of almond butter, you get a bit more than a cup from 2 cups of nuts. Below is my personal recipe, now you can make it with all almonds if you like- this is just how I like it, its yum!

Cinnamon Almond Butter

1 + 3/4 cups organic roasted almonds
1/4 cup raw organic cashews
1-2 tsp organic cinnamon
1-3 TBS roasted almond oil

Place everything but the almond oil in your food processor and blend until it starts to become a butter. This will take a few minutes, be patient, it will happen. Once the mixture starts to come together, add in the oil a tablespoon at a time, until you get as smooth of a consistency as you like. Thats. it.

Couldn't be easier.

You can figure out if you want more or less cinnamon, or cashews....I find the cashews just give a creamier taste than all almonds, but thats me. I don't like my butter too thick also, so I add a good amount of oil as its easier to spread and spoon out when using in recipes. Store in the fridge.

I have also started making my own almond milk (pictured above)- as we don't drink cow's milk, I am not giving it to my daughter either. Most of the store bought almond milk does have a lot of sweetener in it, this just allows me to control how much of it is in there. Its pretty easy as well, and you can utilize everything, even using the pulp to make almond flour to bake with.

Homemade Almond Milk:

Soak 1 cup of organic raw almonds overnight in filtered water. The next day, drain and rinse the almonds and place them in  a food processor with about 7 cups of filtered water. Add a pinch of himalayan pink salt, and blend for  a few minutes. The almonds will blend into small pieces and the water will start looking like milk. I usually just check after a few min, and taste. Once its starting to become milk, Add some agave- totally up to you taste. I usually add 2-3 tablespoons, but you can do more or less to your liking. Blend another minute or so to get the agave mixed in, then using a cheesecloth, pour the milk through the cheesecloth into a bowl, squeeze the pulp through the cheesecloth to extract all the milk out, set aside the pulp. Then just pour your milk into a container and enjoy! You will notice the milk will separate in the fridge, just give it a shake before you use it. Its good for about a week in the fridge.

To make the pulp into almond flour, turn oven onto to 175, spread the pulp onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for about 2 hours until the pulp has dried out. Place it back in the food processor once it's cooled to blend into a smooth flour. Be careful not to blend for too long because it will start to turn into butter! Store in the fridge and use for baking. ***NOTE this is not almond meal!~ almond meal is made with blanched almonds, so using this flour will not give you the same results.

I use this for amaretti cookies, and also in some of the patties I make for Lennon as a binder instead of gluten free breadcrumbs. Just make sure when using in any baking recipe that it calls for almond flour not almond meal.**