roasted coconut cinnamon almond butter [vg, gf, sf]

I first made my own nut butter a few years ago, purely out of curiosity - were home made nut butters really worth the extra effort? My consensus after making my first batch of roasted coconut cinnamon almond butter was YES. Yes, it bloody was!

I've experimented with a few flavour combinations in the past but this is definitely my favourite. It was inspired by one of my favourite nut butter companies - you all know the one (and if you don't then you haven't lived). However, it's made with no added sweetener or sugar as I find the coconut and cinnamon alone is sweet enough. 

I never thought to post the recipe but one of my best friends moved to Dubai and can't get Pip and Nut out there (get the violins out) so P, this one's for you my love. Let's just hope you agree that IMO it just about pip's your fav almond butter to the post - excuse the sh*t pun.

Ingredients: 
(makes a small jar full) 

• 2 cups raw, unsalted almonds 
• 4 tbsp desiccated coconut 
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 2 big pinches of pink salt 

Method:

1. Spread the almonds onto a roasting tray and place in the oven for 7 minutes at 180ºC, turning half way
2. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before placing into a food processor
3. Add the coconut, cinnamon and pink salt and blend (it really is that simple!)
4. Once blended, pour into a sterile and sealable jar. I keep mine on the worktop so that it's still a nice consistency to enjoy straight up (rather than being solidified if you were to keep it in the fridge). It should last about a week - I'm yet to have enough self control to see if it will actually keep for longer than this so if anyone finds out, let me know..! lol

N.B. The almonds will go through several stages: almond crumb, almond flour, almond paste, a ball of almond mush (yes they will just fly around the food processor in a ball for a bit) and THEN eventually almond butter!

The key is having patience and sticking with it because I promise you it's worth it.

You may have to keep stopping the food processor and scraping down the sides periodically, especially at the beginning when the mixture is quite firm. So no leaving your almonds unattended, sorry! It will take around 6-8 minutes of blending depending on how powerful your food processor is. Mine isn't very good, as you can tell from the timing. But if you're lucky enough to own a Vitamix then you'll be done in less than 5 minutes!

Enjoy,

Jess x