Salted Cinnamon Maple Roasted Almond Butter

That's quite a mouthful, but I didn't know what else to call it.  Just "almond butter" sounds boring, and does not do this little creation justice.  I've noticed that a lot of the peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower butter, etc. all seem to have some added sugar and oil.  So I was wondering if I could make my own without the added stuff.  This was my little experiment.  I took notes while making this little concoction, on the off chance it was good and I wanted to share it.  However, in typical Mo'Betta fashion, I lost my notes, so I'm trying to recreate it from memory.  Be afraid.  Luckily, there are not too many ingredients involved ;)

I started with 2 cups roasted and salted almonds.  You can do this yourself, or buy them, like I did (I bought a huge bag from Sam's Club).  Dump them in the food processor (I guess a blender would work too).

Process them until they form a fine crumb.  This takes a while (several minutes) - at least it did for me.  I'm assuming it depends on the power of your food processor.  Then, you can get creative.  What flavors do you like?  For plain almond butter, just keep grinding with a little olive oil (I'm sure other oils would work as well, but I used olive) until it reaches the consistency you would like.  Yes, I did have to add oil or it was very thick and too pasty to spread.  I added about a tablespoon of olive oil to mine, and it's still pretty thick.  I read that the longer you process the almonds, the more oils are released.  So, I have no idea if I did it long enough or not.  I just let it run until it looked right!  Scientific, I know.  If you like flavored almond butter, add away.  I decided on maple (for sweetness) and cinnamon - because I love cinnamon.  I used sugar free maple syrup, b/c the whole point was to not have added sugar.  (This also helped smooth out the almond butter).  I used about 2 T. I think.  Real maple syrup would be awesome, and you wouldn't need to use that much, but it's all according to taste.  Do what you like.  I added about 3/4 teaspoon of cinnamon too.  After adding your flavorings, process until smooth and well blended.

And there you have it.  You've made your own almond butter.  I was quite pleased with myself.  Not to mention I can eat it with a spoon!  It's yummy.  I love the cinnamon flavor and I have already been thinking of other flavors to try.  Dark chocolate is at the top of the list!  When I make it, I'll try to keep up with the recipe notes so I can share it.  But, I'm not making any promises....
(and I'm storing mine in the fridge...in my empty Maranatha Almond Butter jar!)

Have a great weekend!! My Mr. Terrible Two is turning THREE!!!  What will I call him now?!  I'll bombard y'all with pics later :)

Go enter my giveaway for some healthy stuff...check the right side bar under 'current giveaways'!

I'm going to link this recipe up here for Foodie Friday!  See more Blog Hops and Linkys by clicking on the tab at the top of the page (under my header).