Almond butter
Roasted and ground in small runs through the year, from the old hard shelled local almonds. It separates in the jar, which is what unstabilised almond butter does.
What is in it
Almonds and a pinch of salt. There is no palm oil, no added sugar and no emulsifier, which is why it separates.
The almonds are our own, the old Durazia and Côco types described on the almond page. They are hard shelled with a poor kernel yield, roughly a quarter of the weight of the nut against a third or more for a modern variety. That is the main reason this jar costs what it does. It takes a lot of cracking to fill one.
How it is made
We crack in small amounts rather than all at once, because an almond in its shell keeps for a year and a cracked one starts going stale in a couple of months. Kernels are roasted at a moderate heat until they smell of almond and are just colouring, then left to cool completely, then ground.
Grinding takes about fifteen minutes and goes through three stages that look like failure before they look like butter. It goes to crumbs, then to a stiff paste that climbs the sides, then suddenly it loosens and runs. Anyone who has given up at stage two knows exactly what we mean.
We grind to a coarse butter rather than an ultra smooth one. It has some texture to it.
It separates, and that is fine
Oil rises to the top of the jar within a week or two of standing. That is not a fault, it is what happens without an emulsifier. Stir it back through with a knife. Storing the jar upside down for a day before you open it makes that easier.
What it is good with
- Toast, with a little of our honey on top.
- Whisked into a dressing with lemon juice, water and salt for roast vegetables.
- A spoonful into a pan sauce for chicken.
- Straight, which is what happens to most of it here.
How long it keeps
Six months in a cupboard, and longer if you keep it in the fridge, though it goes very firm when cold. Roasted nut butter with no preservative will eventually go rancid rather than mouldy, and you will smell it before you taste it. If it smells of old paint, it has gone.
How to order
There is no checkout on this site. Send us an email saying what you would like and how many, and we will reply with a total including postage and how to pay. Orders go out on Tuesdays.
Email hello@nossoparaiso.com, or use the form on the contact page if that is easier.
Minimum order is six jars or bottles, mixed however you like. Postage within mainland Portugal is 6.50 euros for up to six, 9.00 euros for up to twelve. Mainland EU is 18.00 euros for up to six and 26.00 for up to twelve. We do not ship outside the EU. Full detail is on the questions page.
Availability
Made in runs of thirty to fifty jars whenever we are running low, so it is one of the few things that is available most of the year. The exception is a bad almond year: after the 2025 crop, which was half of normal, we made less and it was out of stock for six weeks in the spring.