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Here’s how to make peanut butter at home! This recipe is so easy and results in a creamy, all natural spread with no sugar added.

How to Make Peanut Butter
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Ever made homemade peanut butter? Because now is the time to start! It’s so easy to make, and a tiny bit cheaper. But the best part: it’s all natural with no oils or sugars added! It turns out so, so creamy, and perfectly peanut-y with just the right amount of salt. Really, there’s no reason not to make your own. For the amount Alex, Larson and I eat this protein-packed whole food plant based (WFPB) spread around here…homemade is definitely the way to go. Here’s how to make peanut butter at home!

Homemade peanut butter recipe

How to make peanut butter

There are literally two steps to making one of my favorite foods in the universe. How we hadn’t figured out this trick until now, I’m not sure! There are just a few things to know about the process. Here’s how to make peanut butter at home:

  • Roast! This recipe calls for roasted peanuts…and then you’ll roast them again! Why? Roasting the nuts does two things: it brings out the flavor and it helps them break down when blending. Roast the nuts on a baking sheet at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes. This is important to get just the right flavor: so don’t skip this step!
  • Blend! Turn on that food processor and blend for 4 minutes. You’ll see the nuts go from super crumbly, to kind of chunky, to sticky smooth. Add the salt, scrape one time, and then process 2 minutes more. You’ll be surprised at how insanely creamy it gets by this point!
Peanut butter

Why make a homemade peanut butter recipe?

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably already convinced of why homemade peanut butter rocks (it does). But here are a few reasons you might not have thought of:

  • There’s no added sugar AND it’s creamy. A lot of those natural peanut butter brands with no sugar are the kind you have to stir. Really, there’s nothing I hate more than stirring an impossibly dense jar and inevitably splattering oil all over myself! (It really is my nemesis: ask Alex.) This PB is perfectly creamy with no added sugar.
  • There’s no added oils, like palm oil. Confession: my favorite peanut butter brand has added palm oil. While Alex and I aren’t against added oils, palm oil in notoriously terrible for the environment (here’s a long list of its effects). We feel better whizzing up some homemade peanut butter recipe of our own. No palm oil needed!
Peanut butter in food processor

One piece of equipment for this DIY: a food processor

The one thing you need to make this peanut butter recipe: a food processor! A food processor is a tool we highly recommend if you love to cook. It’s much more powerful than a blender and the perfect tool for nut butters. We recommend getting the large size, which is most versatile. You can use it for anything from homemade hummus to basil pesto to veggie meatballs.

Get one: Cuisinart 7 Cup Food Processor

How to store it

Most people say to store homemade peanut butter in the refrigerator. But that makes it all hard and impossible to spread! You can actually store all natural peanut butter for up to 1 month in your pantry. This way, it will stay perfectly creamy. (You’re welcome.)

Peanut butter and jelly

How to serve peanut butter!

Who really needs ideas on how to serve peanut butter…when literally everything in the world tastes better with it? It adds the perfect filling protein-hit to breakfast and lunches. Alex and I could not live without it! Here are all our favorite peanut butter recipes:

How to make peanut butter

This peanut butter recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

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How to Make Peanut Butter

How to Make Peanut Butter
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Here’s how to make peanut butter at home! It’s so easy and results in a creamy, all natural spread with no sugar added.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: About 1 cup 1x
  • Category: Essentials
  • Method: Food Processor
  • Cuisine: Nut Butter

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups roasted unsalted peanuts*
  • Kosher salt to taste (about ⅛ teaspoon)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the nuts out onto a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 8 to 10 minutes, until fragrant and toasted. Allow to cool for 2 to 3 minutes on tray.
  2. Immediately add the nuts to food processor while they’re warm and process for 4 minutes.** You’ll see them start out crumbly, then get gradually creamier and creamier.
  3. Add the kosher salt to taste (we used between ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon using unsalted peanuts). Process for 2 minutes more until luxuriously creamy. Taste and add additional salt as necessary.
  4. Transfer the peanut butter to a jar. Store in a cool dark place (pantry) for 1 month or refrigerated for 2 to 3 months.

Notes

*Doubles easily, so feel free to do 4 cups to make a large-sized peanut butter jar. You can also use salted peanuts and salt to taste at the end.

**If after several minutes of processing the nuts are very dry and crumbly and not becoming creamy, you can add up to 1 tablespoon of neutral oil like grapeseed or canola while processing. We’ve never needed to do this; it can depend on the age of the nuts.

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More nut butter recipes

Want more ways to make your own nut butter at home? Here are our favorite recipes:

  • Homemade Nut Butter You can use any nuts you have on hand for this one! It’s easy to make, saves money, and comes out creamy and delicious.
  • DIY Almond Butter A classic! It’s easy and fun to make, and it tastes incredible.
  • Homemade Cashew Butter Creamy and sweet, this one is one of our favorites because of its unique flavor.
Homemade peanut butter recipe

About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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3 Comments

  1. Carl Falk says:

    I just made peanut butter that way but I used my ninja blender

  2. Tessa H says:

    Hi! What food processor do you recommend in order to make the peanut butter?? Thanks!

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      Hi! Any will work, but we recommend the basic 8-cup Cuisinart : https://amzn.to/3SjgCVd