Homemade Peanut Butter
Homemade peanut butter is truly, incredibly, ridiculously easy to make. Here's our step-by-step guide on how to do it.
Makesabout 1 1/2 cups
On some level, you probably already know that, sure, it’s pretty easy to make your own peanut butter. But if you’ve never actually made homemade peanut butter, I don’t know if you quite understand how truly, incredibly, ridiculously easy it really is.
To make easy, delicious peanut butter at home, use your food processor. Then go make Kelli’s 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies. (Trust us on this one.)
Ingredients in Homemade Peanut Butter
- Peanuts: Use either raw peanuts (if you prefer the flavor of raw peanut butter) or pre-toasted peanuts. We like the optional step of roasting the peanuts which helps loosen the oils and makes it easier to blend into a smooth butter.
- Kosher salt: If using kosher salt, make sure the peanuts are unsalted.
- Optional ingredients: For creamier peanut butter, add peanut oil (or another favorite oil). For sweeter peanut butter, add honey (or other sweeteners).
How to Make Peanut Butter in a Food Processor
Peanuts go through a few stages on their way to becoming spoonable, spreadable peanut butter. Here are the easy steps:
- Pulse the peanuts until ground. At first the mix looks impossibly crumbly and dry in the bottom of your food processor, but let it go a little longer and it starts resembling actual honest-to-goodness peanut butter.
- Process for 1 minute. Let the food processor run continuously for 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Repeat this step 2 more times. After about three minutes, you might be tempted to call it good — but I’m going to give you the nod to keep on going.
- Add the salt, oil, sweetener, and any other extras. Now is the time to add salt and any other ingredients that you want.
- Process for 1 to 2 additional minutes. In the next minute or two, I’ve found that something magical happens. What seemed like perfectly fine peanut butter before suddenly becomes a few degrees softer and smoother. This is the stuff that peanut-buttery dreams are made of.
Tips for Creamier Homemade Peanut Butter
Just so our expectations are all in line, you should be prepared for the fact that homemade peanut butter will never be quite as perfectly smooth as, say, a jar of Skippy. Homemade peanut butter will always have a rougher texture than the commercially-prepared stuff. That being said, you can achieve creamier peanut butter with a few tips:
- Use a good-quality food processor. A powerful food processor or blender will make a difference.
- Toast the peanuts. Toasting the nuts before blending helps a lot — this warms the oils in the nuts and helps everything blend together more easily. Toasting also gives your peanut butter a deeper, richer flavor.
- Add peanut oil. You can add a bit of oil — peanut oil or another favorite oil — to help bump up the creaminess.
Flavor Variations
Go wild! Since you can make batches that are as big or small as you like, it’s very easy to experiment with different versions.
I’ve made holiday versions of peanut butter with cinnamon or pumpkin spice mix. To a make sweet “nutella”-like mix, try adding cocoa powder or a handful of chocolate chips.
More Types of Nut Butters
You can — and should! — apply this basic blending technique to any other favorite nut or mix of nuts. This is how you make your own almond butter, pistachio butter, and all other kinds of nut butter.
How to Make Homemade Peanut Butter
Homemade peanut butter is truly, incredibly, ridiculously easy to make. Here's our step-by-step guide on how to do it.
Makes about 1 1/2 cups
Nutritional Info
Ingredients
- 2 cups
(16 ounces) raw, shelled peanuts (See Recipe Notes)
- 1/2 teaspoon
kosher salt, plus more as needed
- 1 to 2 tablespoons
peanut oil or other oil (optional, for creamier peanut butter)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons
honey or other sweetener (optional, for sweeter peanut butter)
Optional add-ins: 1 to 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or other spice, handful of chocolate chips, a few spoonfuls of nutella
Instructions
Roast the peanuts (optional). Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F. Place the peanuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until lightly golden-brown and glossy with oil, about 10 minutes. You can skip this step if you prefer raw nut butter or if you're using pre-toasted nuts; roasting gives the peanut butter a deeper flavor and also helps make the oils looser and easier to blend into a smooth butter.
Transfer the peanuts to a food processor fitted with the blade attachment or blender. If you toasted your nuts, do this while the nuts are still warm. Pulse a few times just until chopped.
→ For chunky peanut butter, remove 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and set aside.
Run the food processor or blender continuously for 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. At this point, the peanut butter will look gritty and dry, almost like couscous.
Run the food processor or blender continuously for another minute, then stop and scrape down the sides. At this point, the butter will start clumping together. It's not quite peanut butter, but it's getting there! Run the food processor or blender continuously for another minute, then stop and scrape down the sides. At this point, the butter will be glossy and soft, like very thick peanut butter. Sprinkle the salt, oil, sweetener, and any other extras over the top of the peanut butter.
Continue processing the butter until it becomes completely smooth. Homemade peanut butter will still be a little more gritty than Skippy peanut butter, but should be spreadable at this point. Taste and add more salt or other add-ins to taste. If you reserved some nuts for chunky peanut butter, add them now and pulse a few times to incorporate.
Scrape the peanut butter into a storage container, cover, and refrigerate. The peanut butter can be used immediately.
Recipe Notes
Using toasted nuts: You can also use nuts that come pre-roasted from the store. I still like to give even pre-toasted nuts a quick trip through the oven to warm them up and help the oils loosen up.
Storage: Refrigerate the peanut butter in a sealed container for up to several weeks.