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I’ve been seeing jars of chocolate almond butter available on grocery store shelves for several years now, but I’ve never been able to justify spending $10+ dollars to try one– especially when I’d probably devour most of it in one sitting. I’ve never had much willpower around chocolate.
This homemade chocolate almond butter was actually the result of one of my recent chocolate cravings. I had just finished making a batch of homemade almond butter (because I won’t spend $17 on a jar of organic almond butter at the store, either), and I decided to try out a chocolate version. I didn’t want to risk ruining my whole batch of almond butter if my experiment went poorly, so I started with just 1/2 cup and added small amounts of cocoa and sweetener as I went. I figured with this method, I couldn’t go wrong!
And I was right. Since you can taste this mixture as you go, you’ll always wind up with the exact chocolate flavor you’re looking for. The only downside to making your own chocolate almond butter, rather than buying the store-bought variety, is that the shelf-life will be a lot shorter. (After all, you’re not adding hydrogenated oils or preservatives.) I had to add a couple tablespoons of water to this batch, to make the consistency more spreadable, and added moisture means that it will spoil much quicker– probably in a week or two, when kept in the fridge. So, don’t make your batch too large, unless you plan on going through it quickly!
As always, this recipe is highly adaptable, too. You can use any nut or seed butter you like, by simply adding the ingredients and tasting as you go. Enjoy!
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Chocolate Almond Butter (Vegan)
Makes a little over 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
1/2 cup almond butter, or other nut or seed butter of choice
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons water, or as needed to make the mixture spreadable
Directions:
In a medium bowl combine the almond butter, maple syrup, and cocoa powder. It will probably become difficult to stir, so add the water one tablespoon at a time, as needed, to make the mixture smooth and spreadable. Feel free to add any more cocoa, sweetener, or water to make the mixture exactly how you like it.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks, and enjoy it with your favorite fresh fruit, crackers, or simply by the spoonful!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup almond butter , or other nut or seed butter of choice
- 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons water , or as needed to make the mixture spreadable
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine the almond butter, maple syrup, and cocoa powder. It will probably become difficult to stir, so add the water one tablespoon at a time, as needed, to make the mixture smooth and spreadable. Feel free to add any more cocoa, sweetener, or water to make the mixture exactly how you like it.
- Store the chocolate almond butter spread in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks, and enjoy it with your favorite fresh fruit, crackers, or simply by the spoonful!
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 79, Fat: 5g, Carbohydrates: 5g, Fiber: 1g, Protein: 2g
Notes:
As I mentioned above, this recipe is very adaptable. Feel free to use carob or raw cacao powder, maple syrup, coconut nectar, honey, or stevia– adding each ingredient a little bit at a time, tasting as you go. You’ll simply need to adjust the amount of water or almond milk used to make it spreadable, depending on which ingredients you use.
And please leave a comment below, letting us know what has worked for you!
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Reader Feedback: Have you ever tried a store-bought chocolate almond butter? Any other flavored nut butters we should try to make at home next?
*swoon*
My mouth is watering!! I really want to try this . . . I made Nutella on the weekend and coconut butter last night, so this may be the next project for this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration:)
Can I use stevia instead of maple syrup?
In this case, stevia would probably be just fine.
This won’t last long in our house either! I am the same can’t bear to spend tons of money of almond butter so homemade it is! I have tried this with hazelnuts too which was also super delicious.
I LOVE nut butters, and the combination of nut butter+chocolate is irresistible. I confess that I have spent lots on money on exotic-sounding/different brands of nut butters (including chocolate almond), but I an trying to make my own more (instead of buying the natural organic ones or using the but butter grinders at stores) to save some money. Can you try doing a home-made version of Jem’s Raw Organic nut butters (http://jemraw.com/) (especially Coconut Cardamom, Cinnamon Red Maca, and Superberry Maqui Camu)? They are amazing, but I go through a lot of jars ($$).
This looks delicious! Will be trying soon. 🙂
So if I wanted to really start from scratch and make my own almond butter (which I found you already posted directions) how many cups of raw whole almonds would I start with? I have bags of them in the freezer and need to do something with them! I thought I would just start in the food processor and continue to the final product. Thoughts?
I think 3 cups = 16 ounces, and that’s usually what I use.
Would it be possible to make this with xylitol instead of maple syrup. I’m using a high speed blender to make nut butters.
NO WAY this will last 1 week. Everyone LOVES it at my house:) Thanks so much!
Hi Megan!
Question- would adding store-bought almond milk in place of the water help extend the shelf life? I know it would probably make it more nutella-like with milk, but out of curiosity, I wonder if that would help thin it out but also not allow it to spoil as fast? Thanks!
Using almond milk would work just fine, but I don’t think it would extend the shelf life by much, since I think it’s usually supposed to be used within 10 days after opening, too.
So simple but so good!
Thank you so much for posting this! I was just looking at a very similar product to this at Wegmans (a really classy grocery store if you have them!) but it was over $12 !!! And you are right, I couldn’t do it, almost got it in my cart but changed my mind and bought Mung beans instead…..and those were still $6. Food is just so expensive, you just have to learn how to make products like this yourself or you’ll go broke!
And I keep thinking I’ll get rid of my chocolate cravings, but never do. I swore off chocolate for a year and really ate none. Then Easter hit, and I literally ate 10 pounds of chocolate bunnies straight and of course gained 10 pounds. Bad and worse. And the Spanx Ads that keep coming up on your site must know of my chocolate addiction. I love the idea of satisfying cravings without all the extra calories.
Ha! I always laugh at the ads that follow me around on my own website, too. 🙂