Fresh Peanut Butter in Under 10 Minutes

It was my sister who first introduced me to freshly ground peanut butter many years ago.  I loved the fresh flavor and the texture, but  I didn’t love using the grinding machine at the supermarket.  I ended up just buying whatever was on sale, trying really hard not to glance the list of ingredients so that I could pretend it was the same thing.  It wasn’t.

Last year a friend made me a jar of freshly ground peanut butter for Christmas.  She wanted to prove to me that it’s not that hard just to make it yourself at home.  It wasn’t. And I was immediately in love with it. With just a few spare minutes, a jar of peanuts and a blender, you can have delicious, freshly ground peanut butter from your own kitchen!

Fresh Peanut Butter in Under 10 Minutes | www.bitsofivory.comThe first thing you need to do is choose your peanuts.  I’ve been using Planters roasted peanuts with sea salt lately.  I like the little bit of flavor the salt gives.  I have tried it with raw Spanish peanuts as well.  As you can imagine, the flavor is quite a bit different, but I still liked it.

Fresh Peanut Butter in Under 10 Minutes | www.bitsofivory.com

To make a pint of peanut butter I start with just over 4 cups of peanuts in my blender.  I pulse a few times to chop the peanuts up a bit, and then turn the blender on high.  The peanuts will begin to look like crumbs.

Fresh Peanut Butter in Under 10 Minutes | www.bitsofivory.comWhen the peanuts are nice and crumby you’re not going to see much progress for a bit.  You’re going to think it’s too dry, and you’re going to be tempted to add a little oil to help it along.  Don’t do it! 

You can stop the blender occasionally to scrape down the sides if the peanut crumbs start to build up away from the blades.  At any time in this process if you have an older or smaller blender and the motor begins to heat up, just turn it off and allow it to cool off, then pick right back up where you were.

Fresh Peanut Butter in Under 10 Minutes | www.bitsofivory.com

After a few minutes you’re finally going to start to see a tiny little bit of progress.  It won’t be long now! Soon you’ll have a blender full of creamy deliciousness.

If crunchy peanut butter is your thing, add 1/4 – 1/2 cup of  peanuts to the creamy peanut butter and blend just long enough to chop them up a bit.

Fresh Peanut Butter in Under 10 Minutes | www.bitsofivory.com

I like to pour mine into a pint jar for easy storage.  My family can eat it within a few weeks, but if it takes you quite a while to finish off a jar you may want to consider refrigerating it to keep it from separating. If it does happen to separate simply stir the oils back into the peanut butter.

Fresh Peanut Butter in Under 10 Minutes | www.bitsofivory.com

That’s it!  It’s so quick and easy, and so much tastier even my teenagers rave about it.  I like to eat a tablespoon with my morning banana.  My kids love it on toast, sandwiches and apples.  Or just on a spoon.

How would you eat your freshly ground peanut butter?

share this article!