August 28, 2022

3-Ingredient Homemade Peanut Butter

Smooth and full of flavor, this homemade peanut butter is not only delicious, but also all-natural and requires just three ingredients! One spoonful of this peanut butter and you’ll be kissing grocery-store nut butters goodbye!

So I have a minor obsession…..ok maybe a major obsession with peanut butter. There’s just something about the flavor and texture that tastes absolutely amazing and indulgent. I will choose peanut butter over most foods, with the exception of chocolate, of course!

Although I have eaten jars upon jars of store-bought, creamy peanut butter over the years, I never really thought that you could make this spread from scratch. I always assumed that only factories with big machines could create this magical, life-changing substance (Okay, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic!) But, about a year ago, I came to the realization that peanut butter could actually be made in my own kitchen. All I needed was a food processor and dry roasted peanuts. So I tried it. And yes, it was definitely more life-changing than its grocery store counterparts!

Homemade peanut butter has the texture of all-natural nut butter that you would find at the grocery store. However, it does not have the texture of peanut butter made with hydrogenated vegetable oils. If you’re not a fan of all-natural nut butters, then you probably won’t love homemade peanut butter (although I encourage you to try it anyway!). But if you love all peanut butter, read on and take a look at the three ingredients you need!

Ingredients

Dry Roasted, Unsalted Peanuts~ These are easy to find and affordable compared to other varieties of nuts. I prefer to use unsalted peanuts and add my own salt, but you could use salted nuts and omit the salt in the recipe instead. I have also made this recipe by omitting the honey and salt and simply grinding up honey-roasted peanuts, which is delicious too!

Salt~ To me, salt adds flavor and really elevates this peanut butter to the next level! I wouldn’t recommend omitting it unless you’re using salted peanuts or just prefer unsalted nut butters.

Honey~ I add a tablespoon of honey to this recipe because I find that it seems to balance out the peanuts and salt perfectly. As with the salt, however, you can omit the honey if you don’t like any trace of sweetness in your nut butter. Or you can increase the amount of honey for a sweeter peanut butter.

The Dance

This homemade peanut butter is so easy to make! The only piece of equipment you need is a good-quality food processor. It doesn’t seem like it would be that important, but having a quality food processor is crucial to making peanut butter. Because you need a really sharp blade that rotates at a high speed to create the right consistency, I wouldn’t recommend attempting this recipe with a blender.

To make the peanut butter, add the peanuts, salt and honey to your food processor and begin to process. The nuts will first grind into coarse pieces like in the picture below:

After processing for several minutes, you’ll notice that the peanuts are beginning to form a large clump. You will have to stop the machine and use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the container often. It will take a few minutes for the peanuts to go from a big clump to a soft, runny consistency. Just keep letting the machine run, even when it looks like the peanuts are rotating in one clump. It took my food processor about ten minutes total to completely break down the peanuts into peanut butter.

After about ten minutes, you should have your very own homemade peanut butter! I love to spread the nut butter on celery sticks, apple slices, toast or bagels. A toasted bagel slathered with peanut butter and drizzled with honey is especially delicious!