Seriously, before you say, “Really? Like I am going to spend my time making my own peanut butter…”
Hear me out.
This is potentially the easiest thing I have ever made. I went grocery shopping with my mother the other day and when she needed peanut butter, I suggested she buy peanuts and make it herself. She scoffed, but bought them anyway. Later, she called to tell me how easy and awesome it was.
And so, ye non-believers, I STRONGLY recommend you try this.
Would I recommend you spend time churning your own butter? Probably not (unless you are super into churning butter). But making your own peanut butter: definitely.
It’s as simple as: dump some peanuts in your food processor
and turn on for four minutes.
THAT IS IT.
Here is a list of ingredients from a popular peanut butter brand from a search on labelwatch.com: Roasted Peanuts and Sugar, Contains 2 Percent or Less of Molasses, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil), Fully Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Fully Hydrogenated Rapeseed Oil and Fully Hydrogenated Soybean Oil), Mono And Diglycerides and Salt.
When you make peanut butter, the grinding releases the oils from the peanuts, which makes it creamy. You literally don’t need to add anything at all.
Of course, there are natural peanut butters you can buy as well, but I never have liked them very much. They always have that oily film on top, and the fresh ground peanut butter at Whole Foods is pretty pricey.
This is by far the cheapest and tastiest alternative to any peanut butter you could buy.
This can be made with whatever kinds of peanuts you want: plain, roasted and salted, honey roasted, etc. I have heard that you can use whatever nuts you want as well- almonds to make almond butter, cashews, or mixed nuts!
Here is a time-lapse montage of what the peanut butter looks like every thirty seconds in the food processor.
When you begin to grind it in your food processor, the peanuts will turn into a powder. Not long after, it will begin to start looking a little clumpy.
Eventually, the nuts will form into a ball that will move around your food processor for a while. The ball will eventually disappear, and it will begin to look very creamy (like peanut butter!)
At about 3 minutes, you will have what looks like peanut butter, but after a few days in the fridge, it will be crumbly and dry.
The last minute is important for releasing as many oils as you can to make it super creamy and delicious.
Transfer to a mason jar
(careful, the peanut butter will actually be surprisingly warm from all the friction from the grinding!) and store in your fridge for about 3 months.
And now if you will excuse me, I am going to go make myself a piece of toast with fresh peanut butter and honey for breakfast. Yum!
Prefer almond butter? Try this same method to make homemade almond butter. Use your homemade peanut butter to make peanut butter dip!
Homemade Peanut Butter
Ingredients
- 16 oz. peanuts plain, roasted, salted, honey roasted, or any flavor you want
Instructions
- Place peanuts in food processor.
- Grind for four minutes.
- Transfer to a mason jar; store in refrigerator
Notes
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
jon
I dont understand why it gets dry and crumbly after putting it in the fridge? is it sealed air tight?
Elizabeth Lindemann
I think it happens because of the cold temperature. You know how coconut oil, butter, and olive oil solidify more when you refrigerate them? The oils from the peanuts also do this. When it’s in the food processor, it’s actually a little warm from all the friction. When it’s placed in the fridge it solidifies more (and seems dryer). This is likely why jarred PBs from the store often have other oils added to them, like corn or soybean. There are two things you can do to help this. 1) you can process the nuts more than you think you need to- until it seems a little too thin (so when it refrigerates it will be a better consistency). Or, 2) you can just roll with it! When you add it to warm toast, it will melt right on. It still tastes delicious. Hope that helps!
Googaholic
How solid is it? I figured out that peanut butter makes healthy cereals like bran flakes way better without having to add sugar, but peanut butter being pretty solid makes it a pain mixing it in with cereal unless I microwave it first to soften it up. So is the texture of this peanut butter any different than ones like Kraft?
If it’s pretty solid like Kraft, does it work adding something like olive oil to soften it up?
P.S., combining olive oil with nuts/seeds is a good move anyway because olive oil contains a type of bacteria than helps our bodies convert ALA – the form of omega 3s present in plant sources – to DHA & EPA that our bodies use for cognitive and heart health. I.E. chickens in farms are fed both flax seeds and olive oil because those ones have more omega 3s in their eggs than chickens fed flax seeds alone.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Good question! This peanut butter should be refrigerated, and when it’s cooler it’s definitely more solid. I treat it like cold butter- if I spread it on warm toast, I usually let it sit a little bit on top of the toast before I spread it. If you want to stir it into cereal or something, you may want to warm it up a little first (if the cereal isn’t already warm). I think adding another oil would be a good way to make it less solid- but you’d have to use an oil that doesn’t solidify in the refrigerator. Coconut oil is quite solid refrigerated, olive oil less so but still solidifies a bit. Adding grapeseed oil or canola oil may work to keep the PB softer. Hope that helps!
Manish
Ehh. YUMMY! That’s how I felt!
Elizabeth
Glad you liked it!
Stephanie
Can this be stored in the cupboard? I normally store my commercial natural peanut butter in the cupboard so it doesn’t go hard. thanks!
Elizabeth
I’ve always stored my homemade PB in the fridge, as well as any natural PB I buy at the store that says “keep refrigerated” on the label, so I can’t speak to how long the shelf life would be not refrigerated. Sorry I’m no help!
Brenda
My husband loves chunky peanut butter. How can we make this peanut butter as a chunky version?
Elizabeth
Good question! After you make the peanut butter smooth according to the instructions, just stir in chopped peanuts. You can chop them by hand or you can pulse the food processor a few times before letting it run to make the PB, and reserve some of the chopped peanuts from there. Thanks for asking this, I’m going to make a note in the recipe about this!