Today we need to talk about something important.
Something that changed my life.
Okay, maybe we should back up a bit. After a week of being MIA on the blog, I haven’t even asked you how you are. I hope you’re wonderful. I hope you laughed today and told someone that you loved them.
Maybe you’ll tell me you love me after you try this recipe. Cause guess what I made you guys?! Healthy homemade Nutella. I know how you guys feel about nutella and you know how I feel about stuffing it in cookies. Nut butters and I are soulmates,
But this… THIS nut butter is kinda my new jam. Or butter, I guess?
Before I start throwing out adjectives about just how good this is, I’m going to explain to you how to make it!
Ready?!
Start with 2 cups of almonds. I prefer roasted almonds because I like the flavor it adds to the nut butter – it’s much more deep and complex. Usually I buy my roasted almonds from Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, but any grocery store should have them.
Buying roasted almonds saves a little bit of time, but you can always roast them at home. Place them on a baking sheet, and roast in the oven at 350 degrees F for 8-12 minutes, flipping halfway through. Be careful not to burn them – you want them to have a nice crunch!
Now place your almonds in the food processor and process! After 5-8 minutes the almonds will start to look like the photo above. Keep processing, stopping to scrape the almonds down the side of the bowl if necessary.
Soon the almonds will become creamier – note it may take up to 20 minutes for this to happen, sometimes even longer! Â Continue to process until it reaches desired consistency.
I LOVE super creamy almond butter so I process mine for what seems like foreverrrrrrrr. Seriously just get done already so I can spoon you into my mouth.
Can’t handle all the creamy love.
To prepare the chocolate, just melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring consistently.
Add it to the almond butter, along with the vanilla, honey, cocoa powder, and salt. Process again until smooth, then taste it and adjust if necessary.
Now you can pour it into a jar. I love the little glass mason jars because they’re great for gift giving!
There’s no need to refrigerate this, just give it a little stir before you are ready to use.
Yes, this version is so much better for you than nutella, which is basically like frosting. Not that I don’t appreciate it, I just love recreating my favorite things.
Oh by the way I wanted to let you know that you certainly use hazelnuts to make this recipe more like the Nutella flavor, but I find that almonds are less expensive so I prefer to just use those.
A sprinkle of sea salt gives it the pretty factor.
I hope you enjoy this homemade e dark chocolate almond butter. I’ve been dipping strawberries in it for the past week!
xoxo
More homemade nut butter recipes to try:
Homemade Almond Butter with Vanilla Bean, Honey & Sea Salt
Homemade Cashew Butter with Vanilla Bean & Sea Salt
Homemade Salted Dark Chocolate Pecan Butter
Homemade Cacao Nib Almond Cashew Butter
Homemade Salted Vanilla Honey Peanut Butter
Homemade Vanilla Cinnamon Raisin Almond Butter
Ambitious Kitchen
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125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Homemade Salted Dark Chocolate Almond Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted roasted almonds
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- 1-2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I use Trader Joe's)
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Add almonds to food processor and process for 10-15 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary. At this point the almonds should start to clump together. Continue to process until you reach the desired consistency. I always process until my almond butter is liquid like.
- Melt chocolate chips and coconut oil in small saucepan over very low heat. Stir consistently until completely melted and smooth.
- Add chocolate, cocoa powder, vanilla, honey, and sea salt to almond butter and process again until smooth.
- Transfer to mason jar or container and store at room temperature or in fridge. If you store at room temp, simply give the almond butter a stir before you use it.
Holy gorgeous. I want to lick the screen, bowl, spoon & jar! I have a chocolate PB recipe but have never done a choc AB. I love that you worked in some coconut oil too. Pinned!
Yup, now I’m drooling!! I’ve never made my own almond butter before, but I’m thinking I should really give it at try. It looks seriously delicious!
Mmmm this looks lovely!
YUM! Definitely trying this! Sometimes when I add honey to my nut butter it seizes up and gets all gross, but it looks like that didn’t happen here which is good because I need this!
Mine definitely seized up. It is not the creamy, gooey goodness I was hoping for. I’m not sure if it was the honey, but this makes me think so. I also had a hard time getting the nut butter smooth and creamy first. In fact, I gave up and thought adding the chocolate and oil would help smooth it out,but it did not. This is the first time I’ve made nut butter with almonds, so that may be the problem.
Oh no, sorry to hear that Elizabeth! It sounds like you didn’t process the nuts long enough. Sometimes it can take up to 20 minutes depending on your food processor.
I’ve heard that if you add all the ingredients to the food processor to start that it will eventually all smooth out. I’ve seen people use honey roasted peanuts for honey peanut butter and hey get a really smooth peanut butter at the end. I guess it’s all about trying different things!
Sometimes the smoothness is dependent on the amount of oils the nuts themselves contain and how deeply you roast them I’ve found sometimes the almonds just don’t have enough natural fats to blend up creamy other times they will. You could try adding a little oil to smooth it out if it happens again
Super idea, I just never think how easy it is to make from scratch. Pinned!
I have all of the ingredients to make this! You better believe I’ll be digging a spoon into a jar of this tomorrow–cannot wait.
Holy cow! Just give me a spoon and I am good to go. This looks ammaaazzziinngggg 🙂
Happy Blogging!
Happy Valley Chow
I kind of just want to swan dive right into this. SO YUM.
Wow! I can't wait to try this recipe. I'm sure I'll need to make a double batch. I know a few kids (and parents) who will be addicted! Thank you.
Uhhh….yeah
Feel free to send some my way
Wow, stunning. The pictures are so inviting, I need to lick that jar clean!!
I just made some. It’s delicious! One question. I wonder if I over spun the butter. Mine is more like a paste and not nice and gooey like yours. I’m thinking I might put it back in the food processor and add a little more oil. Maybe that will loosen it up a bit? The kids think it’s great too. They were rolling it in to balls and eating it like it’s candy!
Sounds like you didn’t give it enough time! Did it turn extra creamy when processsed… before you added the chocolate, etc?
Looks like I answered my own question. I added a little more melted coconut oil and it worked like a charm! It’s beautifully gooey and glossy and it tastes wonderful! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
same thing happened to me too. Mine is like cookie dough and I did it for about 15 min before adding the choco.. when i added the choco mixture it got hard. how long did you process it after you added the choco. i stopped at 8 min and thot i did something wrong. the machine was getting hot haha
Oh no, so sorry! Try adding a teaspoon or two of coconut until it smooths out a bit.
That totally did the trick big time! smooth as silk! 🙂 thank you!!!!
So delicious!! I can’t wait to make it.
It’s so great that you used almonds instead of hazelnuts so then you don’t have to skin them first!
Ooooh, I am ALL about this.
the instructions say to add chocolate, cocoa, etc. after melting chocolate. Recipe does't call for any other chocolate but chocolate chips. Is this a typo??
Hi! Yes, you add the melted chocolate chips. 🙂
This looks amazing! I just made a vegan chocolate hazelnut spread and used it to make brownies. I will have to try this chocolate almond butter and maybe use it in my brownie recipe! http://cloudthyme.com/2014/01/26/nutella-brownies-with-hazelnuts/
Can you use another oil? I don't like the flavor or smell of coconut oil…even in small quantities.
Yup! Any flavorless oil should work just fine.
You said it, sistah.
Can hardly wait to make this. I think that it would most certainly be wonderful flavoring a cheesecake or a cake. Need to get whole almonds and chocolate. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Just made this! Yum! May reduce the salt next time – I know, I know, it’s SALTED chocolate, right?! Otherwise: delish!
I just made this, and it tastes amazing. However, mine is really thick – as thick as cookie dough. Do you have any thoughts on what I could add to it that would make it more like the consistency of your photos? I don’t want to use coconut oil, because it’s solid (at least in my house right now…yay winter!). Olive oil would be too strong…any other ideas?
Hello! You could definitely use a little more coconut oil, just melt it for a bit in the microwave. 🙂
Did you use almonds with the skins on or blanched almonds? Does it matter?
Just made some today and it is delicious! I have a lot of walnuts and pecans lying around the house and I was wondering do you think I could use one or both in place of the almonds next time? Thanks for the great recipe!
I know for a fact that walnuts work great. However, I am not sure about pecans.
And here's a great looking recipe for the Cocoa Almond Spread needed for those cookies I can't wait to make
The recipe doesn't note where to add the vanilla.
Amazing!!!!!!!!One of the best healthy Nutellas I have ever tasted (and trust me, I've tasted quite a few!!!!)!I just made it, only using hazelnuts instead of almonds and it is g-r-e-a-t!!!
I'm wondering how this recipe would work with raw almonds. Raw almonds are much healthier for you because the roasting starts to break down some of the healthy fats in there.
If you make sure to use organic/healthy dark chocolate chips with minimal added sugar, and substitute dates for the honey (adding the dates to be pulsed before the almonds on their own, otherwise they might not get smooth enough), then you could consider this recipe to be ENTIRELY healthy and sin-free. (I don't consider quality fats like coconut oil to be unhealthy.)
How long with this keep?
I have a brand new jar of organic almond butter in the fridge. Can I use that instead of processing almonds myself?
It was good at first but after an hour it turned rock solid…
OMG just made this and it is out of this world delicious! Super yumminess!! Had it on some apple slices and it was the perfect healthy snack. Need to try with banannas next. Thanks Monique for the great recipe and instructions. Followed your directions to a T and it came out perfect. My husband and I are eating clean and I’ve been looking for ideas for healthy snacks with a touch of sweetness when I found your site. Can’t wait to try some of the other nut butter recipes you have created.
Just made this for a gift for my mom, soooooo yummy! How long do you think it lasts in a sealable glass jar? Couple of months?
YEP! I recommend keeping it in the fridge.
For being such a diy freak, I’ve never made my own almond butter. Followed your recipe exactly this morning with results so great, I’ve been converted! The only difficult part was making sure I scraped every delicious bit out of my processor! Thank you!
Yay! DIY nut butters can be daunting, but once you give it a shot it’s so worth it 🙂
I’ve made this recipe before (a bunch actually…), but it has been a couple years and I’ve had a baby and am fully blaming her for why I can’t remember, haha. What size mason jars did you use? I want to give these as Christmas gifts, but I don’t want to buy the wrong size jar!! Thanks so much!!
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed this one! I think an 8 or 12oz mason jar should work 🙂
This is my go-to almond butter recipe. We go through a jar a week! I buy the roasted salted almonds at Costco and they work very well. So Good!!
Amazing!! Love this one. And roasted salted almonds sound delicious!
I just tried a trail butter during one of my runs which was chocolate, coffee almond butter. It was perfect for a several hour trail run. Do you know how I would go about adapting this recipe to add coffee? Do you think I could just add a few tablespoons of ground coffee or do you think I would have to adjust the other levels?
Thank you!
That sounds like the perfect trail snack! I think ground coffee would be great in here – you just might need to add a bit more coconut oil.
try this on apples!!!
Can I substitute the honey for something else? Can I omit it completely?
Feel free to use maple syrup instead! If you omit it the almond butter might not be sweet enough, but let me know if you try it.
Can you save time and start with a good almond butter?
Sure! Feel free to stir the mix-ins into plain almond butter if you’d like.
This is so good! My almonds were already roasted and not releasing much oil. I added additional liquid coconut oil and almond extract. Yummy! I doubled the recipe and made two jars! Then my blender broke! It was bad. I quickly turned it off and unplugged it. All is well. Readers, DO NOT USE A BLENDER. Please get a nice food processor so there are no surprises. The almond butter is also very good made with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa!