Homemade Peanut Butter

I am on a crusade to continuously reduce the amount of garbage my household creates. While I think we’re doing a very good job – we recycle everything and because we don’t buy much processed foods a lot of what we do throw away comes from food scraps and leftovers – there is always room for improvement. I make homemade yogurt and homemade laundry detergent to avoid the plastic containers, we haven’t purchased paper towels/napkins in years, and I made all of Evelyn’s baby food when she was only eating purees. The next venture?

Homemade peanut butter!

This is really the easiest homemade mothering trick yet. And, not only does it help the planet by reducing waste, but it was also cheaper than buying factory-made peanut butter. But, I think the best part is that the only ingredients in my peanut butter are peanuts! Popular peanut butters available at the grocery store also contain sugar, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, and mono and diglycerides. Ick!

I brought a re-used plastic bag to Whole Foods and filled it with a pound of bulk peanuts for $1.99. At home I dropped the nuts into a food processor, pressed “on”, waited 90 seconds, pressed “off”, and poured the homemade peanut butter into an old peanut butter jar. Could not be any easier!!

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15 Comments for this entry

  1. nopreservativesadded says:

    WOW! This is such a wonderful idea. My husband and I have been looking for an organic, natural and preservative-free peanut butter. But this would be so easy and relatively inexpensive to do. How long does the peanut butter keep?

  2. HomemadeMother says:

    Not sure how long it keeps – it tastes so good that we go through a jar (about a pound of peanuts) a week! We keep it in the fridge, so I would guess that it would be good for at least a month, if not longer.

  3. Maple Leaf Lane says:

    I am going to try this… Seems obvious. Do no know why I have not thought of it in the past.

  4. Ali says:

    How do you keep your refrigerated peanutbutter from getting too hard to spread?

    • Maureen says:

      I’ve found that the longer it sits in the fridge, the harder it becomes. We usually go through our jars before that happens, but when it does I pop it in the microwave at 10 second intervals until it is soft enough to spread.

  5. Christy says:

    How much peanut butter does a pound of nuts make?

  6. Kaylee C. says:

    So it is just plain peanuts. Raw I am guessing? For the price, I will have to try it!

  7. Kaylee says:

    I got my peanuts and have been processing them for several minutes but they look more like sand than peanut butter. Not sure where to go from here…help?

  8. Kaylee says:

    Wait…roasted peanuts? I got raw…perhaps that is my problem. 🙁

  9. I have been really iinterested in cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil ,Im wondering if you add a little to your peanut butter it will keep it more spreadable ,and you get the good benefits of the coconut oil ,coconut oil doesnt have to be refridgerated just a thougt

  10. Apryl says:

    Do you think that I could do the same thing with almonds?

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