Almond Butter And Baking
Aaaah, sweet, creamy almond butter. It’s a spread we love for its amazing taste, incredible texture, and serious nutritional benefits. If you haven’t tried baking with almond butter, you’re missing out on a super ingredient that’s packed with protein and healthy fats. It lends a sweet, nutty flavor to any recipe and helps hold your baked goods together. We can’t get enough almond butter. Here’s everything you need to know about almond butter and baking.
What Is Almond Butter?
You’re no doubt familiar with peanut butter—it’d be tough to miss this childhood staple (unless you have allergies of course). But let’s talk about peanut butter’s cousin: almond butter. Instead of peanuts, it’s made from, you guessed it, almonds. And it’s quickly become one of our favorites to add to any recipe!
Almond butter has a bit more texture than the average jar of creamy peanut butter, so it adds dimension to your baked goods. It’s made by grinding, blending, creaming almonds until they form a paste...and voila, almond butter’s born. It can be served up plain, have added flavors or sweeteners like honey, and be used in countless recipes. It’s versatile, it’s good for you and it’s one of our favorite ingredients.
Is Almond Butter Healthy?
In short, yes! Almond butter makes a great addition to your diet. It tastes good, it’s easy to make on your own or pick up at your local grocery store, and it’s full of amazing nutrients to support your body.
Almond Butter is Heart Healthy
Your heart will thank you for adding almond butter to any dish. It’s full of healthy fats that support cardiovascular function and supports healthy cholesterol levels. Plus, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, which almond butter has in spades, work wonders on plaque buildup in your arteries. They help prevent heart disease by keeping those arteries clear from buildup.
And, they don’t stop there. The healthy fats found in almond butter work to fortify and strengthen your artery walls, to further protect your heart. Almond butter’s definitely an ingredient to reach for to keep your ticker in tip-top shape.
Almond Butter Supports Strong Bones
You know how important Calcium and Magnesium are for developing, and maintaining strong bones, right? Well, almond butter’s full of both supportive nutrients. They help maintain bone density to prevent age-related bone disease down the road. And they help your body build new tissue, to keep you active and happy for years to come.
Almond Butter’s A Powerful Antioxidant
When it comes to supporting your immune system, no compounds do a better job than antioxidants. They’re designed to give your immune system a helping hand and almond butter provides a solid stream of antioxidants to help keep you healthy. Almond butter’s particularly rich in the antioxidant Vitamin E, which helps keep your brain safe, fighting off free radicals on its behalf.
Almond Butter Helps With Healthy Blood Sugar Levels
It’s got a low glycemic index, which is a fancy way to say that it won’t cause your blood sugar levels to spike super high and then, just as quickly, dip down low. Instead, it’s absorbed and digested by your body slowly, so it releases into your bloodstream at a healthy rate that won’t cause any sudden fluctuations. This not only helps with your overall health and wellness but also keeps you maintain high energy levels, all day long.
Almond Butter For Weight Management?
There’s no magic weight loss ingredient that’ll have you dropping pounds in an instant. That said, adding certain foods to your diet can support normal weight loss and help you maintain a healthy weight. One such food is almond butter. It’s full of fiber to help you feel full. This is key when it comes to weight loss, because you won’t crave constant in-between-meal treats when you consume food that helps you feel full for a long time. Almond butter’s also packed with protein, to keep your metabolism functioning at its best and to keep you feeling energized enough to exercise!
How To Use Almond Butter When Baking
Almond butter can be added to just about anything! It tastes a bit more subtle than other nut butters, so you can sneak it into most dishes without a huge change to the flavor. It pairs well with other nut flavors, savory dishes, and sweet treats. Here are some of our favorite ways to bake with almond butter.
Use Almond Butter to Replace Butter
When you want to improve a recipe, consider a butter-almond butter swap. It works in most recipes because almond butter has a high fat content, but it’s a healthier fat than what’s in that butter. The protein content in almond butter helps hold together your baked goods, so you don’t have to worry about a change in density when you use it in place of butter.
Bake With Almond Butter Instead of Peanut Butter
There are countless peanut butter baked goods recipes out there. And you can use almond butter in place of peanut butter in every single one of them. Because they’re so similar, they can be evenly swapped without making any other changes to your recipe. It’s a great way to add good-for-you Omega Fatty Acids into your goodies, support heart health and add a slightly different taste to any treat.
At Fresh From the Heart, we love almond butter and include it in many of our recipes. Try our classic Almond Butter Cookies, rich, chocolatey Chocolate Fudge Cookies, or an Almond Butter Cookie Snack Bag to get your fix.