How to Make Peanut Butter
ByI just learned last week how to make peanut butter.
Here is what I must now ask myself…
WHY HAVE I NEVER MADE PEANUT BUTTER BEFORE?
I make almost everything else from scratch. But somehow making peanut butter sounded hard to me. I guess I thought I’d have to crush each individual peanut for three hours with my fingernails until it turned soft and creamy. I’d just never looked into it before. Finally I watched a tutorial here.
Um, hello Laura! It takes about a minute and a half! And you don’t even break a sweat (or a fingernail).
Now, I’m totally addicted to making peanut butter. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever made.
After I made it, we ate it on pancakes and it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. I loved it!!! All of us loved it! (Except Malachi who doesn’t love peanut butter at all.)
Here’s how to make it:
Pour about 2 cups of dry roasted peanuts into your food processor and begin to chop.
After about thirty seconds the nuts will all be crumbled up like this.
Keep going with the food processor…
Here’s what it looks like after about one minute.
And after about a minute and a half, it starts to become butter-like and rolls itself into a ball. We left ours like this, but you can process it a bit more if you want it smoother.
Tada…peanut butter!
Stir some honey into your peanut butter if you think your family would like it better that way.
NOW, I’m going to experiment making other nut butters and sunbutter (which is butter made from sunflower seeds if you aren’t familiar with that one). I’ll let you know when I get those perfected!!
The math: The way I figured it, making my own peanut butter did save me money, but not oodles of it like I was hoping for. However, because of the fresh taste of this peanut butter…and the fact that making it was as easy as using my thumb to push a button….I’m hooked!
Grab the family and try this! Then pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy your hard work! (I love hard work that isn’t hard!)
did mine with macadamia nuts added to the peanuts and a little bit of fresh coconut, with a drop of honey, very good got me hooked on making my own, one note though is that I seemed to get a better mix when I used my blender than when I used the food processor, thanks again, yumminess starts at home
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Thanks for your recipt for making peanut butter i had always wanted to do something for my self knowing that it is a home made staff please keep it up
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Laura,
What size food processor do you have? I tried this in my 5 cup food processor, and it seemed a little too much for it. I think next time I may try it one cup at a time.
Also, I self roasted my peanuts. My peanut butter tasted a little ‘overdone’. Do you self roast peanuts and if so, how long do you roast them for?
Thanks in advance!
Karen
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Laura Reply:
October 17th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
I have a seven cup processor, maybe try one cup of peanuts at a time in yours to see if it makes a difference!
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Laura Reply:
October 17th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Sorry, forgot to answer the other question: I usually buy roasted peanuts – I need to get in the habit of roasting my own, but that’s one thing I compromise on to save time.
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Dear Laura
am so happy that am making pea nut butter almost every weekend. Am also trying to teach the community at the village level as they have these nuts at their home. I was wondering if you can give me a hint of what can be used if I dont have a processor as we are in the rural areas with no power. Please advice.
Thanks for helping us to earn an income because I believe that women should not just stay idle they should do something for a living.
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Laura Reply:
October 19th, 2011 at 1:45 pm
I wish I had a suggestion for you on this, but I’ve never done this without a food processor so I’m not sure! :)
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Sarah Reply:
October 20th, 2011 at 11:35 am
I wonder if a mortar and pestle would work. It would certainly take a lot longer than electric appliances. I have never tried it, so no idea if it works, but that came to mind. I just ran out of peanut butter yesterday, and think I will give this a try! Thanks so much for the ‘kick in the pants’. This is great!
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Suzanne Matthews Reply:
October 21st, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Do these women make their own flour?
If so then that method should work to make peanut butter.
Be advised however, that the process releases the oil in the peanuts
so some cleanup will be required before the next batch of flour.
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Cindy McGee Reply:
February 27th, 2012 at 9:05 am
Florence,
You can do this with a hand crank meat grinder, use the finest screen. Hoept
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Susan Reply:
March 25th, 2012 at 7:57 pm
You can purchase hand cranked/powered blenders through a good camping supply store which should work well for making nut butters when there is no power available.
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do you need to refrigerate the peanut butter?
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Laura Reply:
October 28th, 2011 at 6:18 am
Yes, I do keep mine in the fridge.
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I want to make your peanut butter,, How much do,es 2 cups of nuts make and how long can it stay in the frid. thanks
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Laura Reply:
January 29th, 2012 at 9:40 pm
I’d say two cups of peanuts makes about one cup of peanut butter, but that’s just a guess. :) It stays good in the fridge for quite a while – probably a month or two.
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Can you tell me how much peanut butter you get from 2 cups of peanuts? Trying to decide if it would save money with prices what they are in my area. I’m going through a LOT of peanut butter with this third pregnancy, for the protein. :)
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
March 6th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
It should make about a cup…maybe a little bit more.
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I hope Forence has found a way to make peanut butter, I just found this website and I immediately thought of the grinders people used to grind meat for sausage. I think that would work and it may be crunchy peanut butter, She can possibly find these grinders at garage sales, antique shops, they may be sold at Sears, I have no idea where I got mine, given to me probably. Now I’m off to try my first batch of peanut butter. I don’t know the proper name for this grinder.
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What do you mean by moderation. Do you want me to shorten it.
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I add a tbs of oil (almond)after I process the nuts and mix for 30 seconds makes it creamy
If you like chunky then leave out a 1/3 of the peanuts, process everything else add the 1/3 of peanuts and process for a few seconds. Love the peanut butter this way and I use it to make gluten free cookies too.
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Natural peanut butter is a staple in our house and over the last several months the price has risen to almost twice what it was before. Interestingly, the price of a jar of peanuts remains the same – about 20% less. I bought a jar of peanuts today so I could try making peanut butter at home. Thanks for all the tips I found here!
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Ok, I think I’m finally ready to try making my own peanut butter…. Two questions:
Where do you buy your peanuts?
Since we are used to store-bought (not natural), we’ll want some sugar, at least at first – do you think I could use maple syrup instead of honey, since I’m allergic to honey? I do find it generally subs well…
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Laura Reply:
March 11th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
I buy my peanuts in bulk from Azure Standard, my health food co-op. I’d think adding maple syrup should be great in this!
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I buy my peanuts in bulk, at Winco Grocery Store, some Natural Food places have bulk peanuts. I am able to get the roasted peanuts. I do not need to add oil, when I am finished making peanut butter it is rather thin. I put it in the refrigerator to thicken. No sugar, no salt, just peanuts. Great. Thanks for sharing
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I would say, and hopefully a lot of you that make things fresh, natural, from scratch, or organic, would agree. I find that when I make things at home instead of buying them in the store my family stays healthier. We get sick less often, which for me is substantial argument for cost efficiency.
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I don’t like peanuts.We pick walnuts and they make great walnut butter so do pecans, we picked them when we lived in Tx.
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I’ll be making cashew butter for Passover! Thank you so much for this post! I hope it really is as easy as you say…
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that looks easy enough
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Wonder if I could make tahini this way…
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I love to make my own peanut butter using honey roasted peanuts…yummmy!!
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Salted or unsalted roasted peanuts? :) I’m sure unsalted, but just wanted to make sure.
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