Homemade Peanut Butter

Peanut butter! That healthy awesome spread, a spoonful of that buttery goodness that is great for a snack. and that with bread makes a  proper meal. 

I have spent so much on buying jars and jars of these from the supermarket in the past year. I was always under the impression that you need a very powerful blender to make nut butter at home. I was wrong. Only for very smooth creamy peanut butter, you need to blitz it in the food processor or blender for about 5-6 minutes. 

However if you are good with slightly coarse peanut butter and don't want it as smooth as the store bought one, you can make it at home in your blender. 

Recipe

Ingredients

Raw Peanuts - 200g

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Olive oil - 1/2 tbsp

Honey - 1 tbsp

Groundnut oil - 1 - 2 tsp as needed

Method

Place raw peanuts on a roasting tray and sprinkle some olive oil and some salt. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Roast the peanuts on the high rack for about 8-10 minutes. 

Allow the peanuts to cool. I like to keep the skin on for atleast half the roasted peanuts. That gives the peanut butter a lovely brown shade. 

Place the cooled, roasted peanuts into the smallest blender jar (chutney jar). Use the pulse function if available to make a coarse powder first. Then turn the blender on and grind to a fine paste. If the peanuts or the peanut paste sticks to the sides of the jar, stop the blender, open the jar and use the spatula to push them back. Add a teaspoon of groundnut-oil and start blending. Add a teaspoon at a time and keep blending, to ease the peanut paste into the blender jar blades. Avoid adding more than three teaspoons, else the spread will become too thin. Add the honey at the very end. 

Store the peanut butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

 Use it as a spread for bread, roti. Or just eat a spoonful as an evening snack. Works for me!

Verdict

I don't think I am going to buy peanut butter from the store anymore. Once roasted and cooled, it barely takes a few minutes to blend this at home. And you get to choose how sweet or salty you want your spread.