Almond dark chocolate butter

I recently started having protein shakes in the morning to which I add a teaspoon or two of almond butter. I was using Fitjars dark chocolate almond butter till we were quarantined and couldn’t order anymore. All I can say is almond butter is one of the easiest and most delightful treats you can make in your own kitchen at home!

If you haven’t made your own nut butter at home yet, you are really missing out on some creamy goodness! I didn’t think my simple and basic Panasonic grinder would be able to do the job. Good news —You don’t necessarily need a Vitamix or robot coupe to make nut butter at home! I made an extremely creamy and smooth almond butter using my Panasonic MX-AC300 mixer grinder (1000 W). To make this work, ensure you have almonds, a strong grinder and a lot of patience.

You can pair this almond dark chocolate butter with so many different things — so far I have paired it with my pancakes, banana bread and protein shake. Even better, you can simply just dig straight right into the jar! A pure delight. The main things you need to make this work is a lot of patience, almonds, and a strong grinder.

Prep time - 40 minutes

Cooking time — 15 minutes

Servings — 150 g

Ingredients

Almonds — 1 cup (160 g)

85% dark chocolate — 25 g

Vanilla extract — 1/4 tsp

Sea salt — 1/8 tsp

Sweetner of choice - to taste (optional)

Ingredients for dark chocolate almond butter

1. Roast almonds in oven at 190˚C for 10 minutes

2. Allow almonds to cool down completely (~ 30 minutes)

3. In a double boiler, melt dark chocolate on low heat until melted and smooth. Keep aside and allow to cool.

4. In a small grinder (I used the smallest jar in the set to achieve the smoothest texture), add all almonds. Keep grinding till smooth. Make sure to stop in intervals to ensure your machine doesn’t overheat and to scrape down your machine to collect the mixture together. It took me approximately ten minutes to achieve a completely blended and very creamy texture. First you will see the almond turn into a powdery flour like texture —» then it will it start clumping together —» slowly it will come together and look a little grainy —» finally you will arrive at a completely blended, creamy, glossy and smooth almond butter. It’s important to be patient. It will happen, but it takes some time.

5. Once blended well, add the melted dark chocolate, sea salt and vanilla extract. Continue blending the mixture in the machine till the chocolate blends smoothly with the almond butter.

Store in a sterilised air tight glass jar and refrigerate.

Notes

— You can also make this almond butter with just almonds and completely skip all the other ingredients. Pure almond butter is delightful.

— Before consuming, remove the jar from the fridge for about ~30 minutes as the dark chocolate solidifies when refrigerated.

— Make sure your machine doesn’t overheat while you are making the almond butter. If you feel like it’s getting too hot, pause for a while and allow it to cool down.

— I used 85% dark chocolate but you can substitute this with any dark chocolate of your choice.

Almond butter with dark chocolate and sea salt