nutty

I'm back today with one of our favorite recipes that I'm sharing as part of Randi's Recipe Box Swap.  Take a click over to the swap to check out lots of great recipes. 

We love making our own peanut butter.  I'm sort of a peanut butter snob and will only eat the natural kind.  And ever since I realized that most peanut butters on the shelves of your local grocery have hydrogenated fat in them, I have definitely stuck with the au natural.  I don't claim to be a health nut in
any sense of the word, but I do like to stay away from hydrogenated fat.  And I'm fairly aware of fiber intake - the bread in the picture below has 5 grams per slice!  It's a local bread here that sells for under $2 a loaf.  I was in heaven when I found it.  And it must be working - we just had a blood workup for life insurance and my cholesterol hasn't changed in 5 years.  Anyway, when we moved a year and a half ago from a crunchy granola college town in California to a fairly conservative town in Idaho, the options for natural peanut butter were a lot more limited.  So, we decided we would start making our own.  And here's how we do it...

HOMEMADE PEANUT BUTTER

Use  3 or 4 cups of roasted, unsalted peanuts (we buy ours in the bulk food section).  Put the peanuts in a food processor (unfortunately, this is the one essential gadget to making your own nut butter.  I don't think anything else would have the power to make the nuts into butter).  I usually fill ours with peanuts until it is level with the top of the blade attachment.   Add a couple of pinches of salt.  Turn the food processor on and process until the peanuts are ground into little bits.   Next, while the processor is still going, open up the chute on the top processor and start streaming a little bit of cooking oil (we use canola) into the mix.  Stream the oil in slowly until you reach the desired consistency of your peanut butter.  I've never measured, but I would guess I use just a tablespoon or two of oil total.  Put it in a container with a lid and store it in the refrigerator.

You can make your peanut butter as crunchy or creamy as you like it.  The more you grind it before you start putting the oil in, the creamier it will be.  Ours usually ends up being somewhere between crunchy and creamy, although the batch I made today is pretty creamy.  And you can make all sorts of nut butters this way - we have also used raw almonds to make almond butter.  And if I had a source for unsalted pistachios, I'm sure Ryan would want pistachio butter too.

ENJOY!!! 

Comments

[Mom]

Now I'm craving a piece of toast with p-nut butter ... and of course a cup of hot cocoa to dunk it in ... yummy ...

[Heather]

Oh, I want to try both your peanut butter and that bread! (I fiber!) Could you bring some down when you come next?

[Joy]

Yum! I have been contemplating making peanut butter- now I think I will give it a try!

[randi]

My kids love peanut butter and they will love doing this. Thanks for posting the recipe!

[Stephanie]

Yum! Yum! I found your link from Randi's page and am so glad I stopped over for a glance. I will be making homemade peanut butter this weekend! yummy! :)

[lera]

I bought peanuts a while ago to make PB with the kids. When we did it a few years ago, they didn't like the flavor. I'm hoping this has changed. Maybe we'll try it soon.

[Emily]

Looks good and yummy! I'm not so brave to actually make it myself. I just buy Adams Brand PB. I do have some of the artery-clogging kind to cook with.

[Cayenne]

Awesome. Funny how we get it into our heads that we have to buy things instead of realizing we can make them ourselves. Very cool. This is random, but sort of related: my favorite au natural story is that at an office visit one time my kid's pediatrician introduced us to a student doctor as being famous for using cloth diapers. He thinks it is great and is so nice about it, but it is obviously an anomaly here.

[Christina]

This brings back memories. My mom always made our peanut butter as kids.

[Jenn : )]

Josh and I are really trying to healthy up our eating habits - thank you for sharing this! I printed it out to try soon : D

[Mandy]

I'm so glad you posted this! I've thought about it ever since I had it at your house. It is scrumptous!

[jennie]

oh, i'm so making a batch this weekend! thank you! i'm curious about how long this lasts in the fridge before it goes bad? thanks!

[Alicia]

This sounds great. I know your purpose is for healthier eating, but I'm wondering if you also learned if it's cheaper or more expensive.