Peanut butter is at the very center of American hearts, sandwiches, and junk food aisles . Chocolate peanut butter cups, anyone? But, it’s January and we’re getting into bathing suit season in two months. Let’s exercise some control. But, then we reasoned. Well, if we have natural peanut butter, one with just ground nuts, then it meets the approval of nutritionists. Dr. Oz counts, right? Peanuts supposedly gives you the most energy of all nuts!
So we started looking at recipes for homemade peanut butters. We found approaches all over the map. Some used maple syrup, some used peanut oil, some made Nutella– the European smooth, shiny spread of hazelnuts and cocoa (which we bookmarked for a future recipe), complete with videos.
Then, we decided to make the simplest, easiest peanut butter possible: peanuts ground finely. We considered playing around with flavors during the perhaps tedious grinding process of blending, stopping to stir, and blending more, for more than 6 minutes. Flavored extracts like vanilla, banana, raspberry, caramel, even root beer, came to mind. But we never got there because we never got our spoons of the food processor bowl long enough to consider it less than perfect.
Our method is to buy roasted peanuts (or bake unroasted ones in the oven or toast roasted ones even further) and then puree them in a food processor. Keep grinding beyond the paste and you will get a creamy peanut spread; the more you blend, the creamier it gets. Stop the blender half way to scrape down the splashed up peanut crumbs. No oil is necessary, as peanuts have a high oil content. We then added salt to smooth it out and behold, peanut butter au natural. We don’t need to tell you what happened next, do we?
Tweak the recipe according to your preferences. Add more salt. Blend less for a chunkier spread. Tweak with spices such as cinnamon and five spice. Toss in chopped up raisins, apricots, even pretzels for delicious trail mix spread. Go adult like and add espresso powder and cocoa nibs- crunchy cocoa beans.
Homemade Natural Peanut Butter
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Peanut butter will never taste the same after you make your own homemade peanut butter with roasted, salted peanuts ground to your liking. Where else can you get a nibbly, caramel-bronzed thick paste with an intense and pure peanut flavor?
You'll Need...
- 2 cups peanuts
- ½ teaspoon salt
Directions
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Spread the peanuts evenly over a rimmed baking train, and roast until they darken and your kitchen smells nutty and toasty, about 8 to 10 minutes. Shuffle the pan halfway so they toast evenly. (If you, like us, bought roasted peanuts, just toast them for 4 minutes to intensify their flavor and freshen them up.)
- Transfer the peanuts to a food processor and grind them for about 4 minutes. Stop and scrape down peanut paste as necessary. Grind an addition 2-3 minutes. The peanuts will become a paste and then liquefy.
- Add salt and any flavorings, spices, sugars, you want. Process until well blended, about 1 minute. Add more salt if needed. Store in refrigerator or pantry in a covered container. Have a teaspoon nearby, just to swipe for testing purposes. Just a tip, okay?