Homemade Peanut Butter — 🥜🎉🙌 This recipe breaks down how to make peanut butter with just 1 ingredient! I’ve also answered some FAQs about making peanut butter so you know exactly what to expect from the process.
Table of Contents
Easy Homemade Peanut Butter Recipe
Once you make peanut butter at home, it will be very difficult to get excited about store-bought peanut butter ever again. Not that eating peanut butter of any kind would ever be a chore, because I love it so much, using it in everything from oatmeal bowls to smoothies, and granola. I’ve even been known to eat it by the spoonful or with apples. But homemade peanut butter is a delicacy and a nearly effortless delicacy at that.
Once you have something amazing, it’s hard to get excited about anything less than. That’s this peanut butter.
Sure, all peanut butter is good, and some are better than others, but this is in its own league. It’s similar in taste to store-bought varieties of “natural” peanut butter. It tastes like real peanuts and nothing else.
At room temperature, it’s similar in consistency to a stir-free natural peanut butter, thicker than almond butter, but thinner than conventional Jif or Skippy.
Love this recipe?
This chocolate coconut cashew butter is rich, creamy, and so indulgent, too!
Homemade Peanut Butter Ingredients
You only need one ingredient for this recipe. No added sugars or preservatives required!
- Peanuts – You’ll need a 16-ounce bag or jar of peanuts. You can use honey roasted, plain, salted, unsalted, or even a jar of mixed nuts. You won’t need oil or salt, just peanuts For this particular recipe, I used honey roasted peanuts because I love how flavorful they are. However, if I know I’ll be using my homemade peanut butter in dipping sauces or specific baked goods, I stick to plain peanuts. This way, I can add salt and other seasonings as needed to the peanut butter to prep it for the recipe at hand.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Peanut Butter from Peanuts
Making homemade peanut butter from scratch takes less than 5 minutes!
- Add the peanuts to the canister of a food processor.
- Process on high power until creamy and smooth. The peanuts go through various stages in the five minutes it takes to go from peanuts to peanut butter: crushed peanuts, peanuts crushed into a fine powder, a paste, a thicker paste, and then a big peanut butter “dough ball” will form.
- Stop and scrape down the sides as needed.
- Continue to blend until you achieve a smooth, creamy texture.
- Enjoy immediately, or store for later!
Consistency Tip
The peanut butter will be a little on the thinner and runnier side immediately post-processing because it’s warmed from the motor and is similar in thickness to store-bought almond butter. After refrigeration, it thickens up a bit.
How to Make Flavored Peanut Butter
You can flavor your homemade peanut butter with anything you want, from vanilla or coffee extract to cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, or even cocoa powder. This is your peanut butter, get creative!
If you don’t trust your gut when it comes to making flavored peanut butter, start with one of my recipes instead. Some of the flavored homemade nut butters I’ve made include:
- Sunflower Seed Peanut Butter
- Gingerbread Cookie Dough Peanut Butter
- White Chocolate Cinnamon Chip Peanut Butter
- White Chocolate Butterscotch Peanut Butter
- Chocolate Peanut Butter
- Cookie Butter Peanut Butter
Other seasonings or flavorings to try and add in the final moments of processing are: cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, cardamom, brown sugar, vanilla extract, coffee extract, a pinch of cayenne or chili powder, cocoa powder, or chocolate/white chocolate/butterscotch/peanut butter chips. Or, add honey or maple syrup for a sweeter taste. Just pulse to incorporate whatever flavoring you use!
You could even add egg-less cookie dough chunks, dried fruits like raisins or dates, a splash of Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kahlua, Frangelico, Chambord, or Godiva Liqueur. Have fun with it!
If you’re unsure how a flavoring will turn out, I suggest removing half the peanut butter or two-thirds of it, placing it in another container, and flavoring a smaller portion, to taste, before flavoring the entire batch with one particular seasoning or flavor. Or get two or three flavors from one recipe based on how inspired you are.
Storage:
Because homemade peanut butter contains just peanuts, it’ll last for up to 3 months if kept in an airtight container in the fridge. You’ll know if the peanut butter has gone bad if it smells rancid (trust me, you’ll know if it’s gone bad!).
Recipe FAQs
I store my homemade peanut butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and although I could keep it at room temperature I’m sure it will keep longer being refrigerated and I prefer my peanut butter on the thicker side. Storing it in the fridge helps it to stay thicker and less runny, especially since my house is warmer now during the summer.
Interestingly, my peanut butter has turned out to be “stir-free.” It has not separated into oil and a solid mass, which is something I detest about natural peanut butters; the oil slick on top and that stubborn dry blob on the bottom that never really wants to re-accept the oil.
Not that I’m aware of. Blenders aren’t powerful enough to process all those peanuts, so a food processor is a must.
Of course! To make homemade chunky peanut butter, you need to make this recipe as instructed. Once the peanut butter is creamy, add in another cup or so of peanut and pulse until it reaches your desired consistency.
You can make almost any nut / seed butter you’d like using the method listed in the recipe card below. Just keep in mind that certain nuts (like almonds) are much coarser than peanuts and therefore will take more time to make. If your food processor starts to overheat, turn it off and let it cool down before continuing.
If your food processor can hold that many peanuts, yes. Just keep in mind that the more nuts you use, the longer you’ll need to make creamy peanut butter.
Yes, you can use any kind of peanut you’d like in this recipe. Personally, I prefer dry roasted peanuts since they have more flavor and are easier to process. But if you prefer raw, go for it. You can also toast the raw peanuts yourself before blending them up.
I always buy my peanuts at Trader Joe’s. They’re inexpensive (around $3) and easy to find. Plus, Trader Joe’s carries different flavors of peanuts!
Homemade Peanut Butter Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 16 ounces peanuts, you can roasted, salted, unsalted, honey roasted, etc.
Instructions
- Add peanuts to the canister of a food processor, process on high power until creamy and smooth, about 5 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the canister if necessary.
- Note that the peanuts will go through stages of: crushed, crushed into a fine powder, a paste, a thicker paste, a big “dough ball”, and then the ball will break down into runnier peanut butter. At the point the peanut butter is runny, continue processing for about 1 more minute, making sure the peanut butter is as smooth as desired.
- Store the peanut butter at room temperature where it will keep for at least 2 weeks, or store in an airtight container or jar in the refrigerator, where it keeps for many weeks, and I’ve stored it for months. As with any food that has no preservatives, use common sense.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Peanut Butter Recipes:
Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Mini Blender Muffins — These muffins are gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, dairy-free, oil-free, refined sugar-free, and they’re under 100 calories each (66 calories if you omit chocolate chips).
4-Ingredient Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies — These cookies are a new favorite and are super soft, very moist, extremely chewy, and packed with rich peanut butter flavor.
Easy Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce — Look no further from this FAST and EASY recipe for authentic-tasting Thai chicken satay. The chicken is so tender and juicy and there’s plenty of homemade PEANUT SAUCE to dip it into!
Better Than Anything Peanut Butter Cake — This Peanut Butter Cake is a super easy poke cake recipe. It’s packed with peanut butter flavor and topped with a mix of peanut butter chips and peanut butter cups. Poke cakes don’t get tastier than this!
Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken — This chicken is coated in the most incredible peanut sauce. Serve it over rice for an easy meal, and garnish with green onions and extra peanuts for added crunch!
Peanut Butter Brookies — A soft and chewy peanut butter cookie base with a rich fudgy brownie recipe on top!
Did you know I wrote a cookbook that includes 100 recipes that all contain peanut butter? It’s called Peanut Butter Comfort. Included are 25+ recipes for homemade peanut butter variations
Love it. I make peanut butter all the time and it tastes sooo much better than any Jiff version! As soon as I read the title, I thought, “Oh, I hope she used honey roasted nuts…” ;) Girl after my own heart! I’ll also sometimes buy a small box of the mixed nuts with no peanuts and grind ’em down to a mixed nut butter. Add chocolate, vanilla bean, coconut, anything! Such a great, easy recipe – thanks for sharing!
Oh your version sounds great – there is really no wrong way to go with flavors I’ve determined!
Ooooh, this is the most beautiful peanut butter EVER! I absolutely love making it homemade. So fresh and easy, and you can have total peace about the ingredients. Fun!
Thanks, Ali! And I loved your tomato post that I saw on Cassie’s blog.
I make my own almond butter all the time to save money now and really prefer the taste/ ingredients to the ones in the store. Next up I want to try making macadamia nut butter. And these pictures are simple, bright, and just gorgeous, they make me want to dig right in.
Thank you; they took more than the 5 mins it took me to make the PB :) I’m sure you understand! Mac nut butter sounds great!
Homemade peanut butter is the only way to go. I totally love your take on it though! Honey roasted peanuts sound amazing!
I actually really love the thick dry mound of peanut butter at the bottom of a jar of natural peanut butter. Kinda weird but it’s my favorite part of the jar!
I’ve been wanting to make my own nut butter and this post was really helpful, I’ll definitely have to make some soon!
glad it was helpful and that thick mound is usually just a tasteless rock in all my jars which is why I don’t even buy natural any more!
Oh my, that looks amazing. And so easy. I am going to have to make some.
Peanut butter… an effortless delicacy… you could not be more spot on with that statement! And what I LOVE abut making this peanut butter with honey roasted peanuts is that you don’t have to add ANYTHING, I most definitel do not add any salt or oil, the pb is perfect on its own. I keep mine in the fridge and dip baby carrots in it!
What I love MOST about the process of making this pb is that mine gets kind of warm and melty after I make it in the food processor – from the heat of the blades turning for 4 mins straight. I LOVE that you made this and shared detailed step by step instructions and pictures!! I actually made almond butter the other day and mixed it with this pb because I wanted to see how it’d taste. It’s thick and amazing!!
The warm & melty would be so perfect in the winter and in the summer, the coolness of it after being refrigerated is so good and unlike commercial PBs when stored in the fridge, this doesn’t get that artificially cold sort of rock-like quality…still smooth!
Glad you like the step by step. It took me just a smidge of time but worth it I thought :) And LMK if you like your PB plain or mixed with AB. I am definitely all about solely PB!
I just recently starting making my own nut butters, starting with sunflower seed butter. Soooo easy, and so good! Almond butter is my favourite though.
I have added all sorts of extracts and spices already, but never thought of liquor! How fun would a raisin-rum one be??
Making SFSButter…I recently saw Heidi/101cookbooks just post about hers and that’s next on my list. I do love TJs SFSB but I know you don’t live here and have no TJs and I bet yours is even more amazing (and totally pure!). Thanks for stopping back and saying hi!
If you like the TJ´s one (I sure do!) then you will LOVE the homemade stuff. Freshly roasted sunflower seed are making such a difference :)
Oh, how I loved being in LA and having daily access to TJ´s!
Yummy! I’m a bit allergic to peanuts (well, it’s hit and miss – fresh from the shell ones are ok, but waaaay too time consuming), but I make almond butter like it was my job. There is just no comparison in taste there either, or price. However, you have to factor in blowing up your food processor now and then.
Sorry to hear about your allergy. Not easy as peanuts are in everything or touch so many things in the processing/manufacturing aspect. Glad that almond butter works for you, though!
I am dying to try to make my own! It’s unbelievable how easy it is to make! I can’t believe it… Now I just need a food processor :)
Well you need to stay tuned :)
The step by steps are so helpful, I’m pretty sure I’d get to the big lump stage and freak out! Thanks Averie, I can’t wait to give this a try!
Glad you like the steps and that they help…honestly I was taking ALL these pics along the way, turning a 5 min job into way more and wondering why am I doing this? … but knowing it helps = worth it! :)
It really does help. I would probably freak out, too! I want to make almond butter, does it do the same thing?
Almonds are a much firmer nut and although you can make your own AB, it takes longer and for some people and their food processors, it’s more challenging to get them to break down. I just don’t love AB that much so always stick with PB. Cashew butter is extremely easy to make and delicious if you want to give cashews a try. They break down very! easily.
Bailey’s in peanut butter? You are a wicked, wicked genius.
haha! :)
Nom nom nom.
You can’t beat homemade anything! I have not yet made home-made peanut butter, but now I may have to!
Homemade anything generally trumps all…you’re right!
I have my own peanut butter before too! I did add a little honey and olive oil. Tasted so good! Plus, I amazed my friends telling them that I made it myself. LOL
I know…people are AMAZED when you tell them you made it. Their eyes get as big as saucers…no one realizes how easy it is!
Oh Averie, this looks absolutely dreamy! And I LOVE the addition of the “adult flavorings”! I’ve never thought about trying that when making homemade nut butter…which is something I need to do more often! Stunning pictures, as always!
Thanks, Heather! Long time no talk and thanks for saying hi! :)