Almond Butter and a tug on your heart strings.

Almonds will always hold a special place in my heart. As a child, I climbed the branches of the almond tree in the backyard of our old family home. This tree had seen three generations of our family, starting from the time my grandparents packed up and bought their children to sunny South Australia in the 1960's from England to live.
I climbed the weary branches and picked the nuts, eating the delicious insides. They have been one of my favourite nuts ever since and continue to conjure emotions that only the ideals and innocence of childhood can.

These days, apparently, I beat the shit out of these almonds. It's all for an amazing cause. Almond Butter! This makes about 2-3 cups. It's a lot cheaper than the shop bought stuff. I really didn't measure this recipe out exactly, so these are my guess-tamates. As the main ingredient is almonds, you can pretty much do this with what you have. This recipe cost me about $3 to make at home. To buy it in the shop costs about $6- $10.

Time: 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
Makes: 2-3 Cups.  

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of almonds. 
• Half a cup of oil that doesn't have a strong flavour. I used flax for the health properties but you may wish to use sunflower or canola oil. 
• A pinch of salt.

Method:

In a blender or food processor, add the almonds and grind them down until they resemble crumbs. This may take about three minutes. 

Scrape the sides of the blender with a spatula. You want to now continue to blend for three minutes and stop to scrape down the sides of the blender another two times. After this point, the mix should be quite fine. 

With the blender on, slowly add the oil through the hole in the lid until the mix reaches your desired consistency. You may wish to use more or less oil.

Add the salt and blend some more. If you like it more salty, add more salt.

If you are not getting an out come like that in the photo, continue to slowly add more oil and continue blending until the mixture is smooth.

Store in jars and keep in the fridge. 

Use as you would peanut butter. On toast, in biscuits or just on a spoon and straight into your mouth.