Cacao maple almond butter

Homemade nut butters.......seriously, why would you ever buy nut butter again? I'm a big fan of activating my nuts before I use them for cooking as they are easily digested. This is so easy to do and you don't need a dehydrator to do so.

I was making a simple Almond butter and then got a bit carried away with my pantry staples and came up with this! Hope you enjoy:

You will need:

2 cups activated almonds

1 tbsp Cacao powder (or nibs)

1 tsp vanilla powder

Pinch salt

1 tbsp maple syrup

Method:

• If you don't already have activated nuts you can activate them easily at home: Soak the nuts overnight, or for at least 6 hours. Drain and pat them dry onto a tea towel. If you don't have a dehydrator, preheat your oven to 150 degrees C. Lay the nuts flat onto a roasting tray and roast the nuts for around 15-20 minutes giving them a shake every so often. Pull them out of the oven and leave them to one side to cool.

• Once cooled add them to a high speed blender and blend until the nuts are fine, add the salt.

• On a low setting slowly add in the grape seed oil, the maple syrup and the cacao powder/nibs.

• Blend until combined.

• Enjoy

Notes:

• Feel free to use a different sweetener such as honey or agave

• For plain almond butter leave out the cacao, maple and vanilla.

• This can be stored in the cupboard for around a week or the fridge for around a month.