How To Make Organic Peanut Butter

Having high quality food doesn’t have to cost a lot if you have a few tricks up your sleeve! Learning to make peanut butter from scratch tastes great and saves money.

My Journey To Clean Peanut Butter: A Love Story

One of the first grocery items I “cleaned up” in my diet was peanut butter. I was 19 and living on my own, and for the first time had complete control of the food I consumed. I started learning about the clean eating movement around that time and was overwhelmed with all of the information. It seemed like everything I ate wanted to kill me!

I decided to try a 30 day clean eating challenge called October Unprocessed. One of the first items brought to my attention was good ‘ole PB. Selections at my grocery store were limited back then, it was either a jar of “regular” peanut butter for a $1 something or a jar of “natural” peanut butter for $8.00. I didn’t have to worry about feeding anyone other than myself, so I spent the extra money and bought the natural variety with the inch of oil on top

Two Is Company, Three’s A Crowd

First comes love, then comes marriage, then come babies who consume peanut butter like it’s their job. That $8.00 jar of blended legumes wasn’t a priority any longer. Sadly, I went back to my old ways. I was able to find some less expensive natural options here and there, but they weren’t always easy to get to.

Necessity, The Mother Of Learning How To Make Stuff

The idea to make my own nut butter came one month while placing my order with Azure Standard. (You can read more about Azure Standard here). On a whim, I compared the price of peanuts to ready made peanut butter. Astounded at the price difference of almost three dollars a pound, I purchased a five pound bag of peanuts. It turns out that making nut butter is incredibly easy. Especially if you have a food processor or high quality blender. The best part of making your own nut butters? NO MORE FLOATING OIL!

How To Make Nut Butters

The following instructions contain referral link(s) to Azure Standard. If you place a qualifying order, I receive a small credit to my account at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and companies that I actually use and enjoy. Should you choose to follow these referral links and make a qualifying order, I hope that you will love Azure Standard as much as I do!

The first place to start when making nut butters is to choose quality ingredients. I prefer to use organic dry roasted and unsalted peanuts. When researching the use of pesticides in peanuts I found conflicting and outdated research on the use of pesticides and herbicides on this particular crop. I still personally prefer to purchase organic when possible for multiple reasons: danger to pollinators, contaminated water supply, and soil health just to name a few. My favorite peanuts can be found here.

This process is incredibly simple and works for most nut butters. There are a few gadgets available to make nut butters, I have mainly used my fourteen cup food processor. Although, a strong blender will also do the job (you may just have to scrape the sides down a few times)

1.

If using a food processor, insert the cutting blade. Next, measure three cups of dry roasted, unsalted peanuts into machine.

2.

Pulse peanuts in short pulses approximately 25-30 times. You will want them to look similar to this:

If you prefer to have a crunchy peanut butter, you can reserve 2-3 tablespoons of crushed peanuts from this stage.

3.

Allow the food processor or blender to run for about one minute. Depending on how strong your machine is, you may have pause the process to scrape the sides or edges of the container. Once the peanuts begin to form a cohesive ball like below, stop the machine and add in a few pinches of salt and perhaps a sweetener. I have used honey and evaporated cane juice to sweeten, usually only a few teaspoons.

4.

I usually pulse a couple of times to help break down the ball of peanut butter before allowing the machine to run at full speed. This may not be necessary, but it seems to cut down on the machine moving around. I let the machine run for 2-3 minutes, keeping an eye on how it looks. Sometimes it only takes 2 -2 1/2 minutes and at others it requires 3.

The lid on your machine may become cloudy as moisture and heat are produced from the process. This is normal and helps the peanuts to release their natural oils and become creamy.

5.

Once your peanut butter looks like this: You are done! This is the part where my children line up with spoons in hand hoping for a treat. If you reserved some peanut pieces to make a crunchy butter, simply mix them in with a rubber spatula.

All that is left to do is scrape any peanut butter that you haven’t already eaten into a glass jar. This is another perk of making your own nut butters: less resources being used to create packaging and less recycling to take out.

Three cups of peanuts usually results in two cups of finished product. I find that this is enough to last one or two weeks for my family. I have not made more than that at a time yet as I prefer to make it as we need it. Freshly made peanut butter tastes better and I don’t have to worry about shelf life this way. If you consume more than this in a week, feel free to double the recipe.

Now that I know how easy it is to make my own nut butter, I want to try it with a few other things! Cashew and Almond Butters are favorites at my house as well. I have even considered trying some different flavors (cinnamon vanilla almond butter anyone?)