Homemade Peanut Butter

I was very excited to discover you can make peanut butter with just peanuts. It makes sense really, I had just never thought of it.

So I went out and bought some peanuts. They were the salted kind, because I couldn't find unsalted, but I read a few other blogs, and they insisted this was okay. It's more natural with just peanuts, but it will still be peanut butter.

Basically, you just blend or process your peanuts until they turn into peanut butter. I started with two cups of peanuts, and then after a little while decided that there wasn't enough in my food processor for it to process, so I added another two cups. And then you just keep blending. I needed to stop and let my food processor cool down a lot, because it became pretty thick and hard to handle, and I don't have a real quality food processor.

The first two cups of peanuts at the beginning.

They quickly turn into crushed peanuts.

It then releases some oil, which made it too thick for it to work right.

Added more peanuts, another two cups.

The crushed peanuts with the dough-like stuff

It then becomes the consistency of cookie dough

You'll see the oils are starting to release, but it's still very crumbly

It will become smooth, but thick and chunky. At this point, it's preference. If you stop it and like the texture, then it's done. It will start chunky, and become smoother.

I was very excited to discover I already had an empty peanut butter jar!

The finished product

Once you've got it the texture you like, remember that it will thicken in the fridge. It's probably a little warm from your food processor, but if you pour it into a jar and put it in the fridge, it will thicken up to the consistency of normal peanut butter. Also, you have to keep it in the fridge!

So after all of this, I really liked my final product! Mine isn't perfectly smooth, but maybe it might be with a better food processor. I had some on a sandwich, and you really can't tell though. So all in all, it's good, I figured it is cheaper than buying regular peanut butter (but not by much), however it is much cheaper than buying natural peanut butter. It's good, I like it, and it's not hard to make. I think I'll keep making it. The only downside - you have to keep it in the fridge. Which is just like any natural peanut butter, really.