Peanut butter. It’s kind of a hot topic. Some people are allergic to it. Some have a legume intolerance or are eating paleo and can’t have it. However, LOVE peanut butter. I can eat it straight out of the jar with a spoon. There may or may not be a jar on my desk just for this purpose. The trouble is lots of store bought peanut butters have additives: Sugar, extra salt, weird oils, and even molasses. Not exactly the cleanest ingredients. Which is why I like to make my own homemade natural peanut butter.
Making it your way!
The cool thing about making your own peanut butter is that you can control the chunkiness of it! Like it smooth? Blend it smooth! Like it grainy? Blend it until your desired texture! Like it with chunks of peanuts? Blend it smooth and at the very end add a handful of peanuts back in for a quick pulse and you have chunky! You can control the texture, and you’re probably eating better peanut butter than you can get at the store (unless you’re grinding your own in the store-which hey-you can do, no shame!)
How to keep your PB from separating
However, it has come to my attention, that people have a problem with natural peanut butter. Because it’s me. I have this problem. Store bought natural peanut butter is annoying. When you buy it, there’s a huge oily puddle on the top, and a cement like congealed mass of peanut particles on the bottom. You try to mix it back together with a fair amount of elbow grease, a knife, spoon, or a jackhammer, and it still never really blends back together quite right.
The reason this happens is because the peanut butter has had oil added to it, and at room temperature, the peanut particles sink out of the oil and to the bottom of the container.
This recipe fixes this natural peanut butter problem. Because this recipe doesn’t add oil and depends on the natural oils in the peanuts, there is less oil for the peanut particles to sink out of.
AND. This is the big one friends.
Store the freshly ground peanut butter in the fridge. It will still be spreadable the next time you take it out, but it will trap the peanut particles in the oil as it cools, so they don’t sink!
Speaking of cools, this peanut butter will get hot as it grinds. That’s fine. You might even think it’s a little thin, or soupy. As it cools down, it will become the right consistency. And you’ll get perfect peanut butter, without all the crap in it.
Are you a peanut butter aficionado like myself? Are you ready to try making your own Homemade Natural Peanut Butter? Let me know!
A note on the Vitamix.
I have overheated my Vitamix (This is the one I have.) while making this recipe on at least two occasions. Your Vitamix or high powered blender will work hard grinding the peanuts down–it’s why they get hot. The key here is to make sure you use a tamper to help push the nuts into the blades, and to dial up the power slowly. You need to let the peanuts release their oils at a lower speed before you can crank it up. And even then, don’t crank it up full blast.
I start my Vitamix on 1 and slowly dial it up to four over the course of about 2 minutes. So 30 seconds on 1, 30 seconds on 2, 30 seconds on 3, and 30 seconds on 4. This should give you nice, warm, smooth, peanut butter without overheating your blender.
And of the off chance that you do over heat. Turn all the switches to “off” unplug it from the wall, and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Plug it back in and resume hopefully everything picks right up where you left off!
Homemade Natural Peanut Butter
Equipment
- High powered blender with a tamper. I prefer a Vitamix.
Ingredients
- 16 oz Dry Roasted Unsalted Peanuts
- 1/2 t Salt Optional
Instructions
- Dump the peanuts into the canister of a high powered blender.
- Add salt, if preferred
- Start the blender at low speed, until peanuts are in small chunks.
- Gradually increase the speed of the blender as peanuts begin to liquefy.
- Blend until desired consistency.
Notes
Looking for a way to use your peanut butter that isn’t making a sandwich? Check out my recipe for Keto Peanut Butter Cups.
