Make Your Own Peanut Butter
One of life’s little pleasures when stirring up something tasty in the kitchen is taking a few licks off from your stirring spoon or beaters when you’re done. All that goodness will otherwise just be wasted when you wash things up, right? Why not savor it a bit before it goes down the drain, I usually say to myself. *Yum*
And so it was recently when I decided to make my own peanut butter. It took me forever to clean that darn food processor. There was so much peanut butter goodness stuck everywhere on that bowl I just had to keep tasting (and not wasting). Again I say *Yum*
Homemade peanut butter is a delicious little treat that whips up easily in your food processor. All it takes is a couple of minutes and you end up with soft, creamy, peanutty goodness without any other strange ingredients or preservatives added in. Just pure peanut flavor!
I started off with a bag of ordinary dry roasted peanuts from my local grocery store. I decided not to use the entire 16 oz bag (which was about 4 cups of peanuts) and used about half the bag instead (about 2-1/2 cups of peanuts).
Then it was just a matter of putting the peanuts in the food processor and letting the machine do its work. My food processor just has Speed 1 and Speed 2. I used the lower Speed 1 to make my homemade peanut butter which worked fine. Different food processors might time out differently, but here are the stages my peanuts went through on their way to becoming peanut butter, stopping every 30 seconds to take a look at how things were coming along:
Of course, I started by dumping my dry roasted peanuts in the bowl of my food processor;
After 30 seconds my peanuts were mostly ground up and they were starting to look a bit like graham cracker crumbs;
At 1 minute the ground peanuts were starting to stick together and the mixture was looking more lumpy;
At 1 minute and 30 seconds my mixture was much more of a big lump. But this meant I was getting close, and I kept on going!
At 2 minutes I had a creamier mixture, but still a little grainy;
And finally, at about 2 minutes and 30 seconds I was happy with the creaminess of my peanut butter and called things good.
Now your homemade peanut butter is complete and you can scrape it out of the food processor and transfer it to a small glass jar or other sealed container. { And then be sure to take a few tastes before you clean out the food processor 🙂 } This peanut butter tastes yummy as is with nothing added to it, however you could also stir in some honey for a sweeter mixture, or a little salt if you want a saltier mixture.
It’s probably best to keep this homemade peanut butter in the refrigerator as it’s natural and has no preservatives. If softens up pretty quickly again if you set it out a little ahead of time to get to room temperature.
Homemade Peanut Butter
Ingredients:
- Dry Roasted Peanuts (I used 2.5 cups)
Instructions:
- Place the dry roasted peanuts in the bowl of the food processor.
- Process the peanuts for about 2 to 3 minutes. (You will probably be able to use a lower speed on your food processor.)
- The mixture will go through several stages as you process the peanuts, starting out looking like crumbs, then beginning to stick together and forming a lump, then beginning to get creamier but still somewhat grainy.
- At about 2 minutes and 30 seconds of processing, the mixture should lose its graininess and be a smoother mixture, and the process will then be complete.
- I store my peanut butter in the refrigerator as the mixture does not have any preservatives.