Finally, no oil slick on top (One-Step Homemade Peanut Butter)

I’ve been buying natural peanut butter for years, because it’s generally healthier, to avoid trans fats, and overall just tastes good. But I’ve always been frustrated by the whole “stir in the oil” aspect of it, because I am apparently not capable of doing that. I start trying to stir it, splash oil everywhere, get the entire knife messy, and finally give up and put it in the fridge—where the next time I pull it out, there’s a congealed oil slick on top. So I eat half a jar of really oily peanut butter and half a jar of dry-as-a-bone peanut butter.

Suffice to say, I’m not a fan of the oil slick component. But I’d never really considered making my own, because that sounded like too much work. Plus, my grandma makes her own and just puts peanuts in the grinder attachment on her mixer, but that just ends up being dry peanut crumblies.

But behold—amazing creamy homemade peanut butter!

Enter Pinterest. Someone had pinned instructions for making your own homemade peanut butter with just the peanuts and a food processor, no additives. They said that if you just kept the food processor running past the crumbly stage and past the “dry ball of peanut goop” stage, magically the oils break down and it becomes creamy and delicious all on its own. No added salt, sugar, oil, etc. I was skeptical, but decided to give it a try. And, miracle of miracles, it works! So now I’m hooked.

I bought roasted & salted peanuts. Considered using honey roasted, but wasn’t sure of the additional sugar. You can use any type you like, or use mixed nuts, another type of nut, whatever floats your boat.

Throw them in the food processor. Make sure there’s plenty of room at the top, this is going to expand some for awhile.

Begin food processing. After a minute or two it will look like graham cracker crumbs. Keep food processing.

Keep food processing, even when you’re a little worried about your food processor’s little engine.

It’ll start coming together, looks kind of like cookie dough. Keep food processing.

And voila. Probably took 3-5 minutes of food processing, but it just magically broke down into creamy peanut butter as promised.

I threw into a couple mason jars and initially stored upside down to help the seal form.

Mmmmm! It’s been awesome, and I had my first pb&j sandwich with my amazing homemade peanut butter and my homemade no-pectin strawberry jam, and it was amazing!  Probably best pb&j I’ve ever had.

Original recipe here