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DIY: Homemade Peanut Butter
It’s certainly not a secret around here that I am a full-fledged peanut butter-aholic. I’ve been completely obsessed with the stuff since I was a kid. It was the only sandwich I wanted in my lunchbox, I would slather peanut butter on everything, and I even had a peanut butter and jelly sleeping bag growing up. I’ve continued my obsession into adulthood, favoring peanut butter and chocolate sweets over most anything else, and sneaking peanut butter into my day whenever possible.
Surprisingly, I only recently began making my own peanut butter from scratch. Once I did, I was totally hooked! It has infinitely more flavor than any store-bought peanut butter I’ve had; it just tastes much… wait for it… NUTTIER. I love it! When I made it a few weeks back and posted a picture to Instagram, I received a ton of requests for a recipe or tutorial on how to do it. The good news is that making homemade peanut butter is incredibly easy and takes less than 10 minutes. Let’s do it!
First, we start off with some dry roasted peanuts (I prefer unsalted). This batch will yield about 2 cups of peanut butter, but you can easily scale it up or down, depending on your needs.
Throw the peanuts into the bowl of your food processor:
Start running the processor and then just let it do its thing!
This is what it will look like after about 15 seconds – pretty much ground nuts…
This is after 30 seconds – the nuts are much more finely ground, and they’re starting to stick to the outside of the bowl…
After 1 minute, the peanut mixture will start to clump up, sort of like a graham cracker crust…
We’re 1 minute 30 seconds in, and the peanut butter has gotten to a very thick, paste-like stage. Keep going!
At 2 minutes, the peanut mixture has broken down and it’s starting to look like peanut butter… we’re almost there!
Finally, around 2 minutes 30 seconds, we’ve hit the peanut butter jackpot!
You can certainly let the peanut butter churn longer if you’d like, but at this point, the peanut butter should have a very smooth and creamy consistency. You can eat it with a spoon straight from the food processor (guilty as charged), cut up an apple, toast a slice of bread, or transfer it to a container to store in the refrigerator.
If you prefer jazzing up plain ol’ creamy peanut butter, here are some ideas for different versions:
Variations
- Chunky: Pulse an additional 1 cup of peanuts into the finished peanut butter for a chunkier texture.
- Honey: Pulse 2 teaspoons of honey into the finished peanut butter until evenly disbursed.
- Cinnamon-Raisin: Pulse ยฝ cup raisins + 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar into the finished peanut butter until evenly distributed.
- Maple: Pulse 1 tablespoon of maple syrup into the finished peanut butter until thoroughly combined.
It’s also worth mentioning that you can use this same process (and add-ins) to create any nut butter you’d like. Feel free to swap in almonds, cashews, even sunflower seeds!
What’s your favorite peanut butter flavor? I’m a crunchy girl through and through!
Note: I made batches of peanut butter in both the food processor and in my Vitamix blender. While both worked, I found the processor to be much easier. Using the blender, I had to push the peanuts down into the blade, and at one point, it started to smell like the motor was burning a bit. If you have a food processor, I definitely recommend going that route. If you don’t, you can use a blender, but you might want to break it up into smaller batches to it’s more manageable for your blender.
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Six years ago: Spaghetti and Meatballs
Did you make this recipe?
An easy recipe and step-by-step tutorial for making homemade peanut butter
Place the peanuts in the bowl of a food processor, and process for 2 to 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
Store the peanut butter in a glass jar or airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
Nutritional values are based on one cup
Calories: 1755kcal
Fat: 148g
Saturated fat: 20g
Sodium: 2037mg
Potassium: 1974mg
Carbohydrates: 64g
Fiber: 24g
Sugar: 12g
Protein: 71g
Calcium: 162%
Iron: 6.8%
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Is there a certain power of food processor required? I have just a basic cheap Black & Decker. For example, I read that making almond butter taxed the machine and a vitamix was needed. Is this the same for peanuts?
I’ve used a Vitamix as well as a KitchenAid for this and both worked, but I have heard of people burning motors out.
could i use dry roasted unsalted nuts from Aldi in the jar?
Sure!
What ย preservative can be used in a mixture of : peanut butter-liquid chocolate-honey and in what weight proportion. Thanks for your soon reply
I absolutely love PB. I love making mine with cinnamon, pepper and salt. So So Yummy…
Glad to know that I am not the only “peanutolic” I am 72, and I have had peanut butter every day since I remember. Try this for a snack: peanut butter sandwich with slices of apple AND A COKE. Peanuts and apples go well together, so do peanuts and coke; the three together is a blast.
I have tried to make honey pecan spread, but I was unsuccessful in getting that task done. I was looking for a unsalted peanut butter for my snacks and I am so glad I stumbled upon this recipe. While making this recipe, I discovered that I didn’t let the honey pecan spread stay in the food processor long enough. Thank you, for sharing this easy to do recipe. :)
Yep, I do this all the time and it works great. We typically use honey roasted and, sometimes, the ones we get will have too much salt, so beware. I’ve done unsalted before and it just didn’t have enough flavor for us.
I’ve made this recipe successfully several times, but the last time something weird happened. I had already blended it for 2 minutes and it was pretty loose and creamy. I added 1 T peanut oil, 2 T Honey and some cinnamon and started processing it again. All of a sudden it clumped back up and became like a paste again, maybe like the picture after 1.5 minutes of blending. I added 1.5 more T oil and it didn’t do anything to help. It’s not like it tastes bad, but the consistency is way off. Anybody have any idea what could cause that or why that would happen?
Hi Dan, Hmm it sounds like for some reason either the oil or honey caused the mixture to seize.
Is there any type of oil added to it…so what is added to keep it smooth for the final step?…..thanks
No oil added, just peanuts!
OMG, this was so easy and PERFECT for my needs. I’ve been making pill pockets for my dog. (requires 1/2 C p-nut butter) wasn’t overjoyed with the store bought due to the salt and sugar content, and to buy the all natural, no sugar or salt kind was really expensive. I just make my first batch..(which makes 42 bullets/pockets..3 wks worth. I keep 14 in the fridge and freeze the remaining ones. One container of WM dry roasted no salt nuts was 2.99..The jar will make 3 batches..126 pockets) toss in the cost of 1 C. flour per batch, +/- 1/2 C water and maybe… 3 weeks worth is costing 1.50. Can’t wait to make a batch of PB for me.. but I will be wanting my salt and sugar. TY so much for the idea.. it never would have occurred to me to make my own, and it was so easy.
Such a simple recipe! And oh, so good. I added honey and I am NEVER going back to Skippy. Thanks a bunch!
Hi, I just loved this and want to try at home but just want to know how long does it lasts?
Hi Aman, It is stated in the recipe above – 1 month in the refrigerator.
I was so excited to try this recipe and spent 3 days (off and on) shelling peanuts. Was using a Cuisinart food processor and paid close attention to your comments and pictures. I did add honey and had to add walnut oil because the peanut butter was so thick that I finally had to call it quits because when I took the top off the food processor, it was smoking and warm. I don’t know what I could have done differently other than run it more, but I couldn’t.
Hi Beaz, I would try following the recipe as written above. The honey may have caused the peanuts to seize up unless you waited until the very, very end.
You make this look so simple, but I did not have the same luck! I bought peanuts in the shell because the only “roasted” nuts I found had added sugar (!) which I’m trying to eliminate. I roasted the shelled nuts for 10 minutes at 350 degrees (perhaps not long enough??). They immediately went into my food processor from the oven. After having to pry the nuts out from under the blade multiple times about every 30 seconds and after at least 10 minutes of mixing, I resorted to adding some maple syrup, vanilla and coconut oil (which I did not want to do have to do) and it finally became a spreadable consistency. However, this morning it tasted horrible, was not spreadable and will make its way into the trash as I attempt to try it again. Anything you can see that I did wrong?? Any help would be greatly appreciated because like you, I am a peanut butter addict and just know I can do this at home!!
Hi Tomie, I would not use hot nuts…. definitely let them cool from the oven first. They were overheated and turned to a paste, I presume.
Hi, I’m just wondering how does the peanut butter taste if it’s made with salted peanuts versus unsalted ones?
Hi Anna, Just a little saltier!
I tried this method twice (once with raw and once with roasted peanuts), but my peanut butter always ends up hardening so much that it’s impossible to spread… am I doing something wrong? :(
What is the cost compare to natural grade store bought? Ive become more conscience of buying non palm oil products after seeing the peanut butter and chocolate industries destroying / burning forests and wildlife to plant palm trees for their commercial products. So I started buying Adams brand natural peanut butter at $4 a jar. Is there a good cost return to making it at home from say costco bulk vs. buying $4 jars?
Thank you so much! I will try this tomorrow! I love peanut butter.