blue diamond blueberry-coconut almond butter

As part of my ambassadorship with Blue Diamond Almonds*, I was sent some of their Blueberry and Toasted Coconut almonds to test out.  First let me tell you that we’ve been buying BD almonds for …forever.  I’m a big fan of the Low Sodium Roasted Salted and Travis loves the natural ones.  I’d never tried either of these new flavored ones and wanted to do something special with them.  Think, Lindsay, think!

A muffin??  <-baking required.  plus it’s summer and you have to heat up the oven.  bleck.

Some sort of protein ball??  <-I’d eat the whole batch before the camera made its way into the kitchen.

Arrange the almonds in some sort of cool pattern on a plate (maybe like an American flag??) and call it a kid’s snack??  <-tempting…really tempting..but too lazy even for me. 

What about…..

Almond butter!

We eat nut butters every day.  Why not try my hand at a homemade version (something I’d never done before).

Apparently you need three things for homemade nut butter:  A high speed blender (or food processor), almonds and patience.

I have a Blendtec that rarely gets used.

I have these delightful almonds.

I have no patience.

Crap.

 

Reason #57 why I could never be a food blogger.  You have to have patience.  (Reason #1 would be that I suck at cooking….)

I searched and searched but couldn’t find a recipe that included prepackaged, dry roasted almonds like the ones I’d been sent.  I wanted to see a recipe where you just open a canister of almonds, dump them in, grind and VOILA – nut butter!!  Every single one required RAW almonds and sometimes you had to soak them before grinding.  What if my Blendtec caught on fire?!?!  I even texted my foodie friend Tina and asked.  She didn’t know if it could be done.

Turns out it can!

And with no soaking required!

This blueberry-coconut almond butter is crunchy, not drippy – just the way I like it!

The add-ins of coconut oil and fresh blueberries pair nicely with the flavored almonds and also provide “liquid” so your blender can handle the mixing.  You can spoon this onto crackers, pancakes, yogurt …or in our case, dunk your Teddy Grahams.  Feet first.  (it’s a little nicer that way)

Blueberry-Coconut Almond Butter

Yields 1 cup

• 1 canister (6oz) Blue Diamond Almond Toasted Coconut flavor
• 1 canister (6oz) Blue Diamond Almond Blueberry flavor
• 1-2 T organic coconut oil
• 1/4 cup fresh blueberries

Combine almonds and coconut oil in a high speed blender or food processor.  Blend for 10-12 minutes, stopping often to scrape the sides and bottom.  When the almonds turn into butter, pulse in blueberries.  Store in a glass jar.  Enjoy often!

QUESTION:  Ever tried your hand at homemade nut butter?

splendid…lindsay

*This post is sponsored by Blue Diamond.  All opinions expressed are my own.