Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The almond butter that just... wasn't.

Cupcake Hero's November ingredient is Nut Butter.

Hmm... nut butter. Nut. Butter.

I didn't want to do peanut butter, because I just have to assume that any peanut butter combination I come up with will be done (and probably done better) in the round-up by someone else.

Since I <3 almond, I decided that an almond butter would be the best, sneakiest, inventive-iest ingredient on which to base my November Cupcake Hero entry. But... as you might have guessed... this is NOT the post in which I unveil my November Cupcake Hero cupcake.

I think you'll see just what kind of post this is in just a minute.

My quest to procure almond butter started in all the usual places: grocery stores, health food stores, the Saturday farmer's market. I was soundly and swiftly disappointed at each place.

Refusing to give up, I researched the process of creating almond butter. Oh, it's so simple. (They said.) Just blanch, peel, roast, and process. (They said.)

It's just a list of steps. I can handle steps, right?


1. Blanche: Bring pot of water to a boil, remove from heat, add almonds, let sit for 15 to 20 minutes.


2. Drain mucky brown water off the almonds and pop the nuts out of their wrinkly skins.

This process made me a little angsty. In a giggly way. So you guys get a video.

(I know you care. I was just in a bad place.)


3. Place nuts in food processor and let her rip. Nuts should (should) become a meal, release oils, become a ball, and finally smooth out to a butter.


Umm... this is as far as I got. Almond meal.

So... almond butter didn't happen for me. But that's okay because now I have over two cups of amazingly fine almond meal. Any recipes I should try?

9 comments:

Kate said...

I really enjoyed your video. I'm glad you decided to include it. I also now really want to pop almonds, though I won't because I have no reason to.

Anonymous said...

You could make macarons with the almond meal. I liked your little video - was strange to actually hear you talking!

Hilary said...

I can't figure out almond butter. My mum and I made it accidentally in September when we were just trying to grind almonds for a cake. And now you can't get past the ground stage... makes so sense...

Evan said...

Yay, video!

I can just imagine some kind of Yogi Berra land in which no one makes peanut butter cupcakes because they all think that everyone else will make them.

Eva said...

I would add some peanut oil (or other oil) and then keep processing! I remember trying to make peanut butter once when I was little and that's about what I had. Then I added oil and it sorta came together. Skippy is way better than what I made but oh well.

Peeling almonds looks like an activity for sitting in front of the TV.

Ash said...

I love almond butter!! But what a flop!!
I made peanut butter once... same thing, then I added just a bit of oil and it was happy again!

I would have put skins and all in the processer...just cause I'm lazy.

Jecca Andrew said...

"just wanted to share my almond-popping [squeeze! kerplunk.] angst."

i love it.

Amanda said...

haha... I'm glad you guys got a laugh out of my video.

Alica: It's weird for me to hear myself talking too... I almost nixed the video b/c it was so odd. :)

Anonymous said...

Rather interesting site you've got here. Thanks the author for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I definitely want to read more soon.

Sincerely yours
Steave Markson