I saw a thread about homemade ketchup, and that got me thinking about homemade peanut butter, which is something that sounds like it'd be awesome. I've read about people putting peanuts in a blender and simply blending them until it becomes peanut butter. I've never done this, but I would really like to try. We go through a lot of peanut butter, and this sounds like a much healthier option. Does anyone have experience with this? Any tips?
I've done this with almonds in a food processor not a regular blender. To be honest it was cheaper and less messy to just buy a jar at the store.
I've tried it with peanuts in the past. Dillydally has it pretty much pegged above about it being "cheaper and less messy" to just buy it at the store. The homemade version really is very good, but the solid and the oil tends to separate if it sits for awhile. Of course then you just mix it back up, but sometimes the need to do so can be troublesome. No sugar added is a plus on top of the lack of other added ingredients. I think the very best homemade peanut butter cookies I ever made contained homemade peanut butter, too; but that's been quite awhile ago. It's one of those things that would probably be worth it if you have a source of really cheap peanuts; but, otherwise, no. And if you did choose to make your own peanut butter, you would definitely be better off to do it in small batches because of the separation factor.
My favorite peanut butter, by far, is Smuckers Natural peanut butter. They must roast the nuts or something before grinding them up, because it has a much darker color and a much more intense flavor than any other home made peanut butter I've ever tried before. Some of your local farmer's market type stores, or places that carry a lot of locally grown produce will often have home made peanut butter for sale there as well, if not a machine that will grind it fresh for you. But in my opinion, none of those that I've tried had nearly as much flavor as the Smucker's version. It is a bit of an inconvenience having to swirl up the peanut butter when you first open it - but if you store it in the fridge after mixing it really well, it usually won't separate again. It's a small price to pay for having all natural stuff, and not all the sugar and soy additives in stuff like Jiff.
We eat a lot of peanut butter but I think I will stick to purchasing it from the store. I think the cleaning up job is more than I would want to do. I love peanuts so I don't really know if there would be enough left to create the peanut butter.
I tried to make a homemade peanut butter. I buy a 1 kilo peanut, dairy cream and brown sugar. I fried the peanut until becomes brownish. I used a food processor to grin the peanut and then mix the 1/4 dairy cream wit1/4 brown sugar it is easy to prepared and made the Peanut butter.
I once had a peanut butter maker that was very good for making PB at home. I bought Spanish peanuts in bulk, and made PB every week or so. Kept it in the fridge. There was no oily separation. Maybe because I used a dedicated PB maker, don't know. You might try finding the Salton brand, and see if it is manufactured anymore. I didn't buy PB for years (while my kids were growing up)!
I prefer buying the jar because I think they put something in there that makes it a bit different from just crushing your own. I've also seen some groceries that have peanuts on display with a nozzle under the tank so you could make one and dispense it into a jar and that's supposedly fresh but I wonder how long the peanuts have been in there so I tend not to go for it. I think with peanut butter it's not that practical considering the time and effort you'd have to put in to clean the blender and you also have to consider you are spending on soap as well. The only reason I'd make my own peanut butter would probably if I was concerned about the ingredients.
I haven't tried to make it. For me, peanut butter is cheap enough, and easy enough to get, and I can usually find some on sale. So, I don't mess with it. It wouldn't taste the same if you didn't add sugar, and you would also probably need to stir it often. I have wanted to make other types of homemade nut butter though, since they are not readily available around here. Since I can get the nuts, but not the butter, I've contemplated trying to make my own. It seems like it would be a time consuming and messy process. I haven't quite been motivated enough to do it yet. Good luck. If you try it, let us know how it turns out.
