When I was a child I ate whatever was put in front of me. Part of this is attributed to the part of my personality that makes me willing to try to eat anything, another part came from the good fortune to have minimal food allergies and the last part came down to the two options I was given at every meal: eat what we made or don’t eat.
Because of my perspective, it’s always a bit of a pet peeve when I see menu items ‘designed for kids.’ I understand why that may be necessary or why it may work for others; it just wasn’t part of my experience and is difficult to relate to.
Having said all of that, I’m not sure a very young me would have dug this recipe!
Peanut butter is relatively easy to make: roast the nuts (or not), blend the crap of them (or not) and add other ingredients (or not).
When we asked what people would add to homemade peanut butter on Facebook this week, more than 30 people shared their favorite additions. They included:
- coconut oil
- cocoa
- honey
- salt
- peanuts
- strawberry jam
- bacon
- coffee bean bits
- banana
- cinnamon
- tahini
- roughly chopped peanuts
…and more!
The biggest challenge to making peanut butter is blending it down. We don’t have a high-speed blender so the process took about 15 minutes in our food processor (and it needed a few breaks to prevent over-heating)! Here’s a few images of the process:
If you’re patient, you’ll end up with the smooth peanut butter shown in the top photo.
Homemade Peanut Butter Recipe – Ingredients
- 1-1.25 cups peanuts (you can multiply the portions)
- 1.5 tablespoons nut oil (we used sesame)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 0.5 teaspoon smoked salt (you can omit or use regular salt)
Homemade Peanut Butter Recipe – Instructions
- Roast the nuts in a heavy pan over high heat (stirring constantly). It’s ok if they become a little blackened (but not burned) as this will add to the smoky flavor from the salt.
- Allow nuts to cool (in a separate bowl to prevent burning)
- Mix all ingredients, blend until smooth. You will have to scrape the nuts off the side of the bowl from time-to-time as give your blender a break or it may become too hot.
What would you add to your peanut butter?