magical

It has been one of those weeks.  Lots to do, not a lot of (free) time.  And as a result, my creative juices were not flowing in the least.  As made obvious by this recipe I am about to share.

What it lacks in creativity though, it completely makes up for in pure magic.  Like, mind-blowing magic.

When I was young and naive, I loved watching the cheesy Magic Show Specials that came on.  You know what I'm talking about - the David Copperfield specials.  With him getting hand-cuffed and straight-jacketed and locked in a car and the car getting put through the big car-grinder thing.  Just when the car would nose into the grinder, it would cut to a commercial.  Riveting.  Then it would come back on and he would magically escape at the last minute.  I ate this stuff up with a spoon.  Another one of my personal favs:  the love-story-slash-magic-trick where he would quasi-dance with his assistant to bad 80's music and then strap her onto a table and cut her in half with a huge rotating blade.  Awesome.

I was/am easily amused.  Sometimes all it takes it a little bit of 80's music and magic.  Other times, I am good with Almond Butter.  Which is what I made this week.  And it only takes one ingredient and about 16 minutes.  Really.  This isn't a joke.

For this next fact, you should probably sit down: Almond Butter at the store can cost anywhere from $10.00 to $50.00 (for real, I looked it up).  For 12 ounces.  This recipe costs less than 5 bucks.  You are welcome.

Here is the disclaimer - because, let's face it, something this easy and cost efficient has to have some kind of con, right?  Patience.  You're gonna need it.  16 minutes sounds tame enough, but after about 10 minutes I started to get kind of paranoid.  What if my almonds were bad?  What if I was doing this wrong?  Should I add some oil?  The answer: The almonds were fine, I was doing it right, and no extra oil is needed.  I promise!  Out of nowhere the ball of weird almond dough/paste completely transformed into a creamy butter - almost instantly.  It took it about 12 minutes to get there, and then I added about four more minutes for a nicer consistency.  You just have to ride it out...it is worth it.  Plus it is such a cool trick - "Watch me make smooth creamy spread out of nothing but dry almonds!"

I enjoyed this for breakfast on toast with a drizzle of honey - yum.  It would be awesome on some apple slices too.

This was just what my less-than-great week needed.  Something magical.  And lucky for you, I am a magician not afraid to give away my secrets.

Almond Butter

1 cup almonds

1.  Put almonds in food processor and pulse until almonds are finely chopped.  They will look like this:

                         

2.  Continue to pulse...this will take a lot more patience than you think...after a couple of minutes it will look like this:

3.  Keep going!  It will start to look like this:

4.  The almonds will form into a ball that looks suspiciously like Play-Doh...don't let this fool you.  Keep going, you are almost there.

5.  Finally it starts to look like an actual spread...keep going a few more minutes.

6.  TA-DAAA!  Pretty good magic trick, huh?