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.
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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.
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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
I can’t wait to try this!! If my family likes crunchy peanut butter when would be a good time to add some peanut chunks? Thanks :)
Process it fully and once it’s smooth, take about 1 cup peanuts, give or take, and just pulse to incorporate. Use more or less depending on how many chunks you want and how thick you want it…just play around with that AFTER you get to the smooth consistency is my advice.
I thought I’d let you know the peanut butter doesn’t hear up from the engine in the processor it’s actuall cause by the molecules in the peanuts rubbing against each other while spinning so it causes a friction heat.
So I just made my first batch of homemade peanut butter. I love peanuts, peanut butter, and anything remotely related to them. I had a bit of a flop this time. I used about 1/2 a jar of honey roasted nuts – I didn’t wan’t to ruin the whole jar if I didn’t like it! I loved the pictures to help me see each step through the way. I got to the yummy, creamy, dreamy part and decided it was time to add my seasonings. There’s nothing I love more than honey and peanut butter so why not combine them BEFORE I eat it? It’d be a lot less messy for sure! Anyway, apparently the honey did something ugly to the lovely mess in my food processor. As I mixed in the honey, it seemed to dry out and end up much more like the “sticky ball” stage. No matter how much more I mixed it, it just would not “cream” again. It tasted good and was smooth but just not creamy. It’s a crumbly lump. I tossed it in a jar and will use it up but I’m not sure what happened. Any ideas?
Honey is hard to work with for this exact reason – it’s sticky, tacky, and gloms everything up, to be blunt. I find that honey is best stirred in by hand, at the very, very end. Fill a jar with PB half way up, add a little bit of honey, stir. See how far you can take that before it gloms up on you. Otherwise, just make a layer of PB and a layer of honey on whatever you’re eating, old school. Or just use honey roasted peanuts to start with, which is what I do and why I don’t bother with real honey due to exactly what you describe. Keep me posted on future trials…
This sounds wonderful!! I can’t believe it’s that easy, and I can’t wait to try it!
I’ve been loving making this!! I’ve made it several times and it’s a hit with my family! One question, though, (I’ve tried to sort through the comments to see if my question has already been asked and I don’t see it) how do you/would you incorporate honey? I don’t want to use honey roasted peanuts, but every time I add honey at any point in the process, it completely changes the consistency. Thoughts?
I would add it at the very end after you’re done processing it. Take a half-cup out or smaller amount out of the machine and put it in a bowl and add honey, to taste, and stir. See how that works and what kind of consistency you end up with and that way you’ve only trialed a small amount, not a huge one. LMK what you end up doing & how things pan out!
I love Trader Joes honey roasted peanuts. I will definitely try this when we run out of our peanut butter.
I just made this tonight and I will make it again and again! I never realized how easy it was to make peanut butter and I wonder why I ever had store bought!!! No added chemicals, cheap, easy….wow! Thank you so much for posting this!!! I’ll never buy peanut butter again!!!
So glad it was a big hit and that a door has been unlocked for you :) Enjoy your homemade PB and yes, not having to buy PB is pretty cool, right!
Averie,
Thank you for sharing this simple recipe. Your photos were great and my peanut butter looked just like you said during each stage. I separated my batch and added a little chambord liqueur and WOW! I’m now spoiled and no more grinding my own at the store anymore.
I’m thinking about making a jar of peanut butter and jelly like the Goobers brand. That just sounds like too much fun and makes quick picnics or trips on the road fast and easy. Spoon and a jar. :-)
Marie
Glad you liked it, tried it, that all your stages looked like mine and that you added chambord – oh I am a huge fan of it in champagne – and why not in PB! Great idea!
I can’t believe that’s all there is to it! I cannot wait to do this! I don’t have a food processor (I will have to borrow one). I am sure my regular mixer won’t do it. Thank you so much for sharing this. Now, I don’t have to worry about all of the extra yucky stuff!
You do realize that the ingredients for Trader Joe’s Honey Roasted Peanuts are – Peanuts, Sugar, Honey, Vegetable Oil (peanut and/or sunflower seed), Salt, Modified Food Starch (potato), Maltodextrin (corn), Xanthan Gum. So, there is oil, sugar and other products, right? I personally would rather add my own and know how much is being added.
Right – I happened to use honey roasted peanuts from the store (rather than making my own) but one could use any sort of peanut she wishes, plain, dry roasted, unsalted, homemade honey roasted peanuts, peanuts covered in Cajun seasoning, or whatever floats her boat to make PB with. I just happen to like honey roasted peanuts and honey roasted peanut butter and don’t feel the need to roast and make my own peanuts AND then make my own peanut butter. There are limits :)