This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Have you ever wanted to make homemade peanut butter? Making your own peanut butter is easy. All you need is peanuts and a food processor, or a powerful blender. Salt and some honey are nice, too. DIY peanut butter avoids excessive amounts of salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats.
Eating nuts is a heart-healthy practice. Peanut butter is loaded with protein and has small amounts of potassium, calcium, iron, and fiber. It has lots of fat but most of it is the unsaturated type which lowers bad cholesterol.
How to make peanut butter
First, use shelled peanuts that are dry roasted and unsalted. Yes, you’ll be adding salt later, but if you use salted peanuts, you will lose the ability to control the amount and the resulting peanut butter could be too salty.
Measure out two cups of peanuts.
Next, place the roasted peanuts in a food processor. Turn the food processor on and let it run for about five minutes, stopping the food processor to scrape down the sides with a spatula as necessary.
The peanuts go through three phases: first, they will crumble, then they form a dry ball, and eventually, they start to look like spreadable peanut butter. Be patient, the creamy stage can take five minutes or longer.
Finally, once the consistency is creamy and there are no more crumbs, you can add the honey and salt. Turn the food processor on again and blend for 20-30 seconds to incorporate.
This homemade peanut butter recipe yields about 1 ½ cups of peanut butter. Transfer to a glass jar and store in the fridge or in the pantry.
Homemade peanut butter recipe variations
- Add Honey, Maple Syrup or Agave: Customize your sweetness level.
- Add Spices: Cinnamon or a wintery pumpkin pie spice mix would be nice. If your palate runs savory, try chili powder. The result would be fantastic in peanut noodles.
- Add Cocoa Powder: Popular Nutella is essentially hazelnuts and cocoa powder so think about that!
- Add Other Nuts: Almond and cashews work well.
Recipes with peanut butter
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars (No Bake)
- Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies
- 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
- Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie
- Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
- Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip
- Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Dip
- West African Beef Kabobs (Suya)
- West African Peanut Soup
- Peanut Butter Dip
Tips for homemade peanut butter
- Roast the nuts. Even if you buy dry roasted nuts, you can still roast them for an additional 5 minutes. A little extra roasting helps release the oils for a creamier blend.
- Do not rush the blending time in the food processor. When the mixture looks blended enough, it may seem like your job is done. But keep going until it looks spreadable. This is when the mix goes from dry to creamy.
- Taste the peanut butter to guide the process. Depending on your blender or food processor, your peanut butter may take shorter or longer to reach the creamy stage. Your eyes and taste buds are a better guide than the timer.
- Add neutral oil if it looks too dry. A few teaspoons of neutral oil ( peanut (!) canola, or sunflower oil) can be added if your homemade peanut butter is looking too dry.
Frequently asked questions
This will depend on your food processor. However, i’s likely that it will still have a little more texture to it, closer to the “natural” supermarket brands.
To make chunky peanut butter, take out and set aside ¼ cup or so of the peanuts at the crumbly stage. Continue to process the rest of the nuts to the creamy stage. Add the crumbles in after the honey and salt and process briefly to distribute evenly.
Stilltasty.com tells us that unrefrigerated homemade peanut butter will last a month. Refrigerated it will be good for six months.
DIY peanut butter is a super-fun project for kids. Especially since it almost seems like magic. Try making your own version of this pantry staple.
For more cooking resources, check out:
- How to Make Oatmeal
- How to Cut an Avocado
- How to Cook Dry Chickpeas
- How to Cut a Head of Lettuce
- How to Cut Cauliflower into Florets
- How To Make Oat Flour
- How To Cut a Mango
If you’ve found this cooking resource for How to Make Peanut Butter helpful or if you’ve tried any recipe on FeelGoodFoodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience with this technique. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!
preorder MY book
The Feel Good Foodie Cookbook is now available everywhere books are sold!
Amazon Barnes & Noble Books A Million Hudson Booksellers BookshopSCHULER Books (SIGNED)
How to Make Peanut Butter
Instructions
- Place roasted peanuts in a food processor. Turn the food processor on and let it run on high for about 5 minutes, scraping down the sides with a spatula as necessary. The peanuts will start to crumble, then form into a dry ball and eventually start to look like spreadable peanut butter.
- Once the consistency is creamy and there are no more crumbs, you can add the honey and salt. Turn the food processor on again and blend for 20-30 seconds to incorporate. Yields about 1 ½ cups peanut butter.
- Transfer to a glass jar, and store in the fridge or in the pantry.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
When making homemade peanut butter do you leave the shell on the peanuts or deshell before processing.
No, you don’t. In this recipe, use shelled peanuts that are dry roasted and unsalted. Hope that helps!