A piece of toast spread with a gratuitous amount of peanut butter can be a saving grace on a bad day. It can also be a saving grace when we forgot to plan our lunch ahead or when we suddenly need a batch of cookies for a potluck or any number of kitchen emergencies. I couldn't imagine my pantry without a jar of peanut butter. What's your favorite kind?
I love the deep, nutty richness of a really good all-natural peanut butter. Other nut butters are all perfectly delicious, but they never quite match this same depth. Am I biased? Probably! Like many of you, I grew up with peanut butter sandwiches in my lunchbox, so peanut butter will always have a kick of childhood comfort whenever I taste it.
After jumping from brand to brand, I've ultimately landed on Trader Joe's creamy salted peanut butter. The ingredients are just peanuts and salt, and it has an ultra-smooth texture that I really love. I find that it works equally well on toast, whisked into salad dressings and dips, and stirred into cookie batter.
But peanut butter loyalty is a completely personal thing, no question. What kind do you keep on your shelf?
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Trader Joes is yummy but my all time favorite is grinding my own at Whole Foods! So. Good.
I love Teddie's super chunky natural peanut butter! It's delicious and made right near my house.
I use natural peanut butter that is made from actual peanuts (and only peanuts) on demand at my local food store (les aliments merci! for those living in Montreal).
Any natural PB will get my vote; creamy or chunky. Love the stuff.
Creamy, never chunky.
Chunky peanut butter, always, in all applications. My favorite has been Trader Joe's valencia peanut butter, until it was part of the recall, so now I'm just back to their regular crunch salted. For baking applications (mostly peanut butter blossoms) I use extra crunchy JIF (which I always thought was funny--there's no "regular" crunchy, just EXTRA crunchy).
Also, I had surgery on my nose this past year and while I was healing (could not taste or smell anything--imagine the worst headcold ever, times two) I discovered that the redeeming feature of peanut butter is the taste. On its own, the texture is really awful, which I think is why I don't like creamy--at least crunchy peanut butter gives you something to crunch on!
When I ran out of peanut butter mid-recipe a while back, I ground some in my food processor, and I've pretty much stuck to that ever since. As such, I think my preferred style would be considered "grainy" (as opposed to ultra-smooth), but I could always through some chunks in if I felt like it.
I'm from Singapore and the family's all-time favorite is Skippy. The other brands (international and obscure) which are commonly available here are JIF, Smuckers, Peter Pan, Adams... if anyone wants to know. Homemade nut butter tops Skippy, but because I only started making them recently and in small experimental batches, Skippy is still THE permanent resident on the shelf.
For spreading, creamy! For eating out of the jar... heh heh, chunky.
I'm a big fan of any natural peanut butter- but when it comes to consistency crunchy definitely takes the cake!
I strongly prefer chunky, but a former roommate of mine said that was a bizarre preference because women should prefer creamy PB. Anyone else ever heard that preferring chunky is a masculine trait?
Always natural. TJ's Valencia is quite good, when not recalled for filth.
All time favorite however is Santa Cruz Organics dark roasted, both smooth and the harder to find crunchy.
I never liked peanut butter as a child but as an adult have become obsessed with the stuff. I love Suma organic smooth salted peanut butter. Bliss.
I have become addicted to Planters Peanut Butter. I used to be a Skippy Girl. That is all.
Natural crunchy. Always. Definitely don't like any ingredients in my peanut butter other than, you know, peanut butter.
Chunky. Always chunky. At the moment, it's just commercial crap, but as soon as we get a Vitamix, I am definitely making my own...
While I would happily consume Peter Pan chunky or creamy until my dying days (or the end of times, whichever comes first) my wife insists upon homemade so I run my Cuisinart for a few minutes with just some peanuts, honey and a little bit of peanut oil as needed. I used to go slightly chunky but she insists on super smooth natural.
I have to say, it does taste really good. :)
Up until I was about 18, creamy peanut butter all the way. After graduating high school, I started experimenting with chunky, and now I cannot go back to the creamy stuff.