Tuesday Flashback: Make Your Own Peanut Butter in a Jiffy!
As we close in on the end of the year, I thought it would be fun to highlight a few posts on Tuesdays that maybe didn’t have a lot of initial traffic, but have experienced ongoing popularity after the fact as the blog has grown.
One of my favorites out of the group of posts that continues to see regular readership is how to make your own peanut butter. It is really so easy and so delicious, and a fun holiday project with the kiddos!
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Mmmm. Peanut Butter. So good, and so simple, yet most people buy it already made and full of salt and preservatives.
Hold on to your hats, ‘cause today we’re making peanut butter with just one ingredient: Peanuts.
Oh yeah.
In roughly 3 minutes, start to finish, you can have fresh peanut butter, and it is so simple you won’t believe it.
This would be a good project to have the kiddos help with, because it’s kind of fun to watch the transformation.
First, we need our ingredients: 16 ounces (that’d be a pound) of unsalted shelled peanuts. You can use salted peanuts too, but I prefer the no sodium aspect of unsalted. Safeway had a sale on peanuts recently for 2 for $4.00 on Planters, so that’s what I have. You can probably find them even cheaper in the bulk section or at Trader Joe’s.
Note: If you want, you could add 1-2 tablespoons of a neutral oil during the blending process to make the peanut butter super creamy. Depends on your tastes and if you’re concerned about calories. I personally like to add a little oil to make it all nice and creamy.
Pour the peanuts into your Ninja Blender or other high speed blender. If you only have a food processor, it will work too, it’ll just take a little longer.
Blend on “1,” for a Ninja, or “Low” for other brands, until you have a peanut butter consistency you like. Seriously, it’s that easy. It took me a total of three minutes. If you have a food processor, count on 6-10 minutes, and be sure to scrape the sides down every so often.
This was after one minute, notice that the bottom half already looks like peanut butter:
This was after two minutes, mostly all combined:
After a couple of minutes, stop and push down any peanut dust that isn’t getting incorporated before you finish blending to make sure none goes to waste and then resume blending. Blend until you get a thickness you like. It will thicken up more the longer you blend it.
Voila. Peanut butter in three minutes.
Finish it off by scooping into a very fancy container and storing in the fridge or pantry. You can see I went with something super high end.
Let’s review the steps:
- Pour 16 ounces (or more) of peanuts into a high speed blender or food processor.
- Blend for about 2 minutes on a low setting, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed
- Blend for another minute or two until you get the consistency you like (longer for food processors)
- Enjoy, and try not to eat it all before you put it in your fancy storage container
And, that’s all there is to it. I admit to licking the spoon. A few times. Please don’t tell 2Chili I double-dipped!
