Chocolate Almond Butter

DIY Nutella - Chocolate Almond Butter

Chocolate Almond Butter
makes almost 2 cups

Nutella is a pretty solid mood booster, except if you accidentally look at the ingredient list.  Expecting to find cocoa and hazelnuts listed first, you'll be kind of bummed out to see Sugar and Palm Oil instead.  The good news is that nut butters--even the chocolately kind--are incredibly easy to make at home!  You'll know you'll have something fresh with top-notch ingredients and you can customize it to your preferences (for example, I prefer almonds to hazelnuts and dark chocolate to milk).  Almonds are a great source of Monounsaturated Fatty Acids, which can lower your "bad" cholesterol and help regulate your blood sugar.  This blend was made up of what I had on hand so I actually subbed in about 1/2 cup of walnuts for some of the almonds.  Still delish.

2 cups of almonds
1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of sea salt

1. In a food processor, pulse and puree the almonds until you have almond butter.  This will take 5-7 minutes.  Stop every minute or two to scrape down the sides.  The almonds will get gravel-y, then almost dough-like as they form a ball, then finally will turn into a creamy--and warm--nut butter.  Let it go longer than you think you need to.

2. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler or microwave.  Once almonds are creamy, add melted chocolate to the food processor, along with vanilla and sea salt and puree until smooth.  Transfer to a mason jar and leave at room temperature for 1-2 weeks.