Short Snorts - Peanut Butter

Let’s make peanut butter. Front to back it’ll take ten minutes, tops.

You’ll need the following:

• ·         16 oz. dry roasted unsalted peanuts (that is to say unsalted peanuts that have been dry roasted – they have them at the store).
• ·         Two tablespoons each of honey and peanut oil.
• ·         One quarter teaspoon kosher salt. Table salt will do fine, but kosher will work better.
• ·         One food processor.
• ·         One rubber scraper.
• ·         One one-quart container.
• ·         Your counter.

  

  Today's cast of characters.

Now, as we all know, if you want to make homemade peanut butter, you must first invent the universe. I’m going to assume you’ve completed that step and everything is in its proper place.

It's handled.

Blade in the food processor’s bowl, then the peanuts, closely followed by the salt. Grind them down for two solid minutes. It’s probably going to be noisy, don’t be scared. If your machine can’t handle the strain, well, that means you have the wrong machine.

By the time the two minutes are up, you’ll probably have a brown ball that doesn’t actually look like peanuts butter rolling around inside the bowl. That’s fine. It’ll come together when you add your peanut oil and honey. Which you should do now.

It doesn't look like much, yet.

One more minute, and you’ll have the best peanut butter you’ve ever tasted. Using your rubber scraper, transfer your brown gold to your quart container. Put the lid on, and store it in your fridge for up to two weeks.

Our finished product.

Ready for storage.

Assuming it lasts that long. It won’t.

A word on texture, and the importance of your machinery. The home made stuff will have some texture to it. I like it. I got my food processor for free through a safety promotion at a place I used to work. It's a Hamilton-Beach, and it's a cheapo. Peanut butter out of my machine tends to be a little gritty. At least, not as smooth as a fresh jar of Skippy. It's not really chunky, either, though. It might behoove you to save up and get a better one than mine. Cuisinart's is top shelf. 

Now, you might be asking how important the peanut oil is, and why can’t we use something else?

You can absolutely use whatever kind of oil you want. Peanut will work best because it’s completely neutral in flavor. Vegetable oil would work as well. Likewise canola.

Olive oil in peanut butter is for no. Don’t do it. Won’t taste good at all.

I can't recommend coconut oil, either, since it tend to solidify at room temperature. It'll affect the texture of your peanut butter.

Need something else to do with it besides eat it with a spoon in the middle of the night when you’re supposed to be sleeping?

DON'T YOU LOOK AT ME!

Stay tuned. We’ll find something to do. I’m leaning toward cookies, and maybe peanut butter cups.

Don’t put your knife in the dishwasher.