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
This is so funny! I just picked through and ate all the cashews, pistachios, almonds out of the Planter’s mixed nuts can and left the peanuts. Said to myself “I’m goinna try making peanut butter from this!’ And now your post appeared. Now I can do it with confidence! :-)
that’s crazy!! LMK if you end up making it!
I just tried it. Wow – it was so neat watching it morph through the stages! I’m so happy. It’s rich and flavorful.. mm. Thank you for sharing!! I’m going to try your peanut sauce & wrap recipe with this. Woohoo! And for the ladies/gents who had concerns about their food processor – I used the Smart Duet Cuisinart…it did warm up a bit, but I gave it small rests :-)
Glad you had success — both with the recipe, the stages, and your own food processor. Thanks for writing to tell me you made it! LMK how the peanut sauce & wraps pan out if you make those!
A very impressive blog, the step by step photos are not only helpfull but photographically they are excellent. I bet the peanut butter tatses very special too!
thanks for saying that, Keith. Looks like you’re a photographer so that means a lot coming from you!
Posts like this remind my how incredible food really is, especially when you prepare them properly. It’s crazy that a food processor turns peanuts into peanut butter with no other ingredient! Literally amazes me lol.
I know…simplicity really is best so often!
I adore nut butter. Any kind. In any form – in a dessert, or straight outta the jar, on dates or banana, or apple, or celery! :) I like to make my own nut butter too and actually I have a bag of plain peanuts waiting for me to make nut butter. Thanks for the reminder! Will hopefully get to it soon. Delicious as always Averie!
You always have the best looking nut butters and combinations, too!
I love any kind of nut butter! I never knew how easy it was to make. I think my food processor will be put to good use when it’s time to replenish my current nut butter stock.
Put that thing to use, indeed!
Wow looks delicious! I would probably eat it all in one sitting! :)
it takes everything in me to not do just that..haha!
Making peanut butter is my favorite thing to make!! Trader JOe’s honey roasted nuts are the best to use!! Love your creativity with the Baileys!!
Glad you like those nuts, too!
Ha! As I was reading this post, your comment popped up on mine.
Anyway, this is a fantastic tutorial. I had a steep learning curve with homemade nut butters myself, and I wish I’d known sooner that patience is truly the key. Thanks for making it all so incredibly clear for your readers! And happy 4th back to you, Averie.
Patience and not being scared of that dough blob ball thing that forms…just get past that, and you’re golden. And I know you have a Vita, too, but this is one situation where a food proc is just unbeatable!
love love love this!! Happy 4th!
Oh. My. Goodness! This is so easy! I was just wondering how to make homemade peanut butter. Your website is wonderful and we will be back soon!
thanks & please do check back!
So funny – I posted homemade peanut butter today!! https://cupcakesandkalechips.com/2012/07/03/honey-and-sea-salt-peanut-butter/
I hate to rain on the parade but I checked the nutrition information of the TJ Honey Roasted Peanuts against the that of Jif Peanut butter and while I wasn’t able to see the ingredients in the peanuts, the sugar and salt content (gram for gram) is actually higher than Jif when you use these peanuts. However, you could do the exact same thing with naked peanuts for a better nutrition value.
Thanks for the info…I am judging this purely by taste…but it blows any other PB I’ve ever had out of the water! There’s no way anyone could rain on the parade.
And as you said, one can always use plain peanuts but honestly, if I am going to eat PB by the spoonful or savor it on something, I want what I want and would rather cut back on something else than cut corners on the taste of my peanut butter. I am passionate about it :)
I loooooove homemade peanut butter so much. I never thought about mixing in other goodies though. Genius!
Adult-themed. And after your camera bag snafoo, you need it! :)
I love homemade peanut butter! Now I want to make some and throw in some melted chocolate. Mmmmm chocolate peanut butter. That would be slammin’ on some apple slices!
similar concept right here…choc & strawberries
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/04/chocolate-coconut-cashew-butter.html (and I also made kale chips with that choc nut butter too…very versatile…LOL)
Fantastic idea, and so easy! When I was little I used to only eat Skippy (being the very picky eater I was), but a few years ago switched to Crazy Richard’s Peanut Butter along with the rest of my family. The only ingredient is peanuts and it is heavenly!
Crazy Richard’s is really good!
Wow I wish I would have known it was this easy, I would have been making peanut butter from scratch a long time ago! I love controlling ingredients in every day food items such as peanut butter, I can’t wait to try this!
yes super easy and I love your pineapple coleslaw!