Making Peanut Butter

Have you ever wondered about making peanut butter? I have, and since I found out how simple it was, I make my own all the time. Peanut butter is healthy and full of proteins, unsaturated (good) fats, niacin and other nutrients. Peanut butter is easy to make and surprisingly takes just a few minutes to do.

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Making Peanut Butter - Ingredients

All you need to make your own peanut butter is:

-Roasted, shelled peanuts
-Cooking oil (peanut or canola)
-Sugar
-Salt

A food processor, spatula, and a jar or other container to store the finished peanut butter in are the only equipment you need.

By the way - I firmly believe EVERY family that is serious about learning and practicing food self sufficiency skills should have a good food processor. You can do such a wide variety of things with one of these versatile tools!

Making Peanut Butter - Preparation

Start by shelling roasted peanuts and removing the red skins from the nuts. I usually shell out about 2 cups for a batch. I like to use my own home grown peanuts but you can buy bulk raw peanuts and roast them yourself, or just buy roasted peanuts. Either way you do it will work fine.

Making Peanut Butter - The Process

Pour 2 cups of peanuts into the food processor and chop on high setting.

After a minute or so the peanuts will be chopped fine into fine pieces - almost the size of sand grains.

After another minute the oils in the peanuts will begin to be extracted and the coarse peanut paste will start to stick together and ball up. At this point you'll need to add about 1/4 teaspoon of oil (peanut oil or canola oil works well) and continue to blend.

Use a spatula to work down anything that gets stuck on the sides of the food processor.

It will take about 2-3 more minutes of processing for the transformation to be complete. When you have what looks like runny peanut butter, add 1-3 tablespoons of sugar, and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add gradually blend a bit, taste and add more if needed. Process for another 30 seconds or so to mix in the salt and sugar completely.

If you like chunky peanut butter, add about 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped peanuts at the last minute and mix it in.

2 cups of peanuts will make about 1-2/3 cups of peanut butter.

Making Peanut Butter - Storage

That's it! You have now learned how to make your own peanut butter. Quite a bit of heat is generated during processing so your peanut butter will be warm and runny at first. Transfer it from the food processor to your storage container while it is warm, and refrigerate it. Once it's cooled down, it will stiffen up.

Home made peanut butter has no preservatives ( this is a good thing!), so it's best to keep it refrigerated if you can. The oil will eventually separate from the peanut paste if it sits long enough. Mine never has a chance to sit that long!!! If it does separate, just mix it back together with a spoon until it's smooth, or you can buy special lids for peanut butter with a built in mixer that allows you to mix it up before you open the jar.

Learning how to make your own peanut butter is a skill that few people know, but it is surprisingly simple, and quick.

Just imagine using your own homemade peanut butter, homemade jelly, and homemade bread  - now THAT'S a peanut butter sandwich!!

Making peanut butter is just one more skill that you can add to your arsenal of self sufficiency skills. This is especially meaningful if you can grow your own peanuts at home. Give it a try. It's well worth the small amount of time and effort that it takes to make.

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