How to Make Your Own Homemade Peanut Butter

By Sam Slaughter April 30, 2020

Peanut butter is a healthy, delicious staple in the best of times, but now that people are focusing more on shelf-stable items that are also good for you (or bad for you, we’re not here to judge, and we’d be lying if we said we hadn’t stocked up on cheeseballs and Totino’s Pizza Rolls), the classic sandwich spread has taken on a whole new level of importance. If you are looking to try your hand at maybe making your own with all those new cooking skills you’ve been mastering (move aside, Fieri, there’s a new mayor of Flavortown), the thing you might not know is you only need a few ingredients and a blender and boom, you’ve got yourself a batch of creamy peanut butter (or chunky — again, not judging).

homemade peanut butter — Tania Melnyczuk/Unsplash

In order to help in your quest to become the next great quarantine chef, we reached out to a pro to get her recipe for how to make peanut butter at home. This recipe comes to us from chef Sara Bradley of the Freight House in Paducah, Kentucky. Bradley uses an in-house peanut butter (recipe for that here) as a basis for a decadent and delicious pie topping. While you can do that as well, you can also make the peanut butter and use it for, well, whatever else you would use peanut butter for. (We’re fans of a classic peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich, but hell, go crazy – it’s quarantine, there are no more rules).

Freight House Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

1 lb raw shelled peanuts (or any combo of nuts)
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp sorghum

Method:

Toast the nuts at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes or until they are lightly golden brown. Toasting the nuts makes the blending process easier and adds a deep flavor.
In a blender, blend warm nuts on high with salt. Slowly drizzle in oil and sorghum, and blend until smooth. Processing nuts in blender will produce a smoother butter. Use a food processor for a chunkier butter.
If the butter starts to separate in the blender, add 1 tsp water.

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Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…

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