The Best Peanut Butter Recipe

by Posted on

The best peanut butter recipe is the one with the fewest ingredients and steps. Peanut butter doesn’t need additives or complicated instructions, and may be made pretty quickly. To make this recipe, you’ll need food processor, a jar in which to store the peanut butter, and, if you’re using raw peanuts, a baking or cookie sheet too roast them first. Besides the taste, the best part of homemade peanut butter is that it stays mixed and never needs to be stirred to blend in the oil.

A few notes:

  • You can use roasted peanuts as long as they’re unsalted. If you use raw ones, you’ll need to quickly and simply roast them first.
  • I don’t think that peanut butter needs salt, but if you do, start with unsalted nuts and add salt to taste.
  • The ingredients list on commercial jars may say something different, but in my opinion peanut butter doesn’t need sugar, molasses, honey, or other sweeteners.
  • To make 1 cup (or 250 g) of peanut butter, you’ll need about double the amount of peanuts.
  • Any peanut you can buy in bulk at your grocery store will be fine (even alter-nuts like almonds). Runner peanuts or Spanish peanuts are most common.
  • If you’re using peanuts in shells, you must shell them first. My first batch was with peanuts in shells, and it was a little more work than I expected to shell all three packages.
  • Spanish peanuts typically have skins. These are easy to remove after roasting by rolling the nuts between your hands after they’ve cooled. You don’t need to thoroughly remove them; any that remain will give the peanut butter a warm reddish color.

Ingredients

  • Roasted or raw unsalted peanuts
  • Salt (optional)

Directions

  1. If using nuts in shells, shell them first.
  2. If using already roasted nuts, skip this step. If using raw ones, spread the shelled nuts on a baking sheet and roast in a preheated 300 F (150 C) oven for about 1 hour.
  3. Pour the roasted nuts into a food processor.
  4. Grind the nuts for about 10 minutes until smooth.
  5. Taste it. If you think it needs salt, add a pinch or two, briefly grind or stir, and check.
  6. Pour the peanut butter into a jar. That’s it!

That’s all there is to this simple recipe to make the best peanut butter I’ve ever had.

Published by tim