That's right! You can totally make delicious wholesome peanut butter in the food processor! If you have never tried pure peanut butter before, I can tell you now that it will not taste like commercial peanut butter, and by that, I mean the ones that contain other additives. No commercially bought peanut butter will beat the freshness you get with homemade peanut butter, especially if you eat it immediately after you make it. It also does not leave any after-taste.
The best thing about making your own peanut butter at home is that you know exactly what is in it and can customize it according to your own preferences. You can use lightly or well toasted peanuts, or a blend of both, have it as smooth or crunchy as you like, adjust the level of saltiness and/or sweetness, or omit it altogether, add other types of nuts for an interesting blend, or even add some chocolate (yum!). I like my peanut butter with a bit of texture, so I blend half of it till it's pretty fine, then add in the rest of the whole peanuts which I pulse for a couple of minutes for that extra crunch. I enjoy finding whole peanut pieces in the peanut butter for that extra surprise (something you won't find in any store-bought peanut butter!). It tastes awesome when spread on a buttered toast, or in a sandwich along with jam and sliced cheese.
I love watching the food processor transform the peanuts into peanut butter. Starting with just whole peanuts (including any other ingredients such as salt and sugar, nuts), the peanuts get ground first into a coarse mixture which gradually becomes finer.
It stays in this stage for a while as the blades keep swirling the fine peanut meal around. The first time I made peanut butter, I started to question whether my food processor was cut out for the job and if I'd ever get any peanut butter as it seemed to stay at this stage for a while. It even started to look like it was struggling a bit. I know now that this is normal, and tend to give my food processor a bit of a break after every couple of minutes so I don't kill the motor. It just needs to keep going to the magic state. Once the peanuts get so fine, its oils are released and this helps hasten the grinding process where it transforms to the more familiar fluid 'peanut buttery' state. Check out the videos in real-time speed to see the difference in the two states.
The slow moving stage toward peanut butter
More fluid and 'peanut buttery'
You can choose to add some vegetable oil to speed up the process, but I choose to let the natural oils come out by patiently grinding the peanuts down. That way, I end up with pure peanut butter. Here is a customizable recipe to start you off on your peanut butter exploration journey!
Ingredients
400 g freshly roasted peanuts
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
Any other ingredients you might want to add (other nuts, vegetable/nut oil, chocolate*)
Method
- Place peanuts along with any other ingredients you might want to add to your food processor.
- Keep grinding until desired consistency is achieved.
* If adding chocolate, melt the chocolate first in the microwave or a double-boiler and add to peanut butter at the end.
You should end up with approximately 380 g of peanut butter (no chocolate added, nuts or oil added). The loss is due to residual peanut butter in the food processor. Amount will change if additional nuts or chocolate is added.
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