Skip to main content

How to Make Your Own Homemade Peanut Butter

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. If the butter starts to separate in the blender, add 1 tsp water.

Editors' Recommendations

Sam Slaughter
Sam Slaughter was the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for…
How to Make the Best Hurricane Cocktail this Summer

Hand Grenades and Hurricanes — two infamous cocktails that each, typically, have enough liquor in them to make you lightheaded before you can even get around to ordering another one. If you've been to New Orleans, specifically Pat O'Brien's (where the cocktail originated in 1941), you'll know what I'm talking about. While there is no art in crafting a Hand Grenade (a mix of gin, rum, vodka, melon liqueur, and pineapple juice), the bastardized Hurricane cocktail actually has some sophistication to it when mixed properly.

Many Hurricane cocktails that make it onto menus are adulterated with absurd quantities of artificial, poorly made fassionola syrup — a pillar of the original recipe that has been lost to time, created by legendary tiki bartender, Donn Beach.

Read more
How to Turn Your Backyard Into a Bocce Bar
bocce ball backyard couple

Although we’re still fully in the throes of pandemic-required social distancing, it’s likely that, with a lot of caution and discretion, we’ll be able to start welcoming a friend or two back to our homes for a couple of drinks, a snack, and a much-needed catch-up in the near future. And if you instead opt to continue quarantining with your families, significant others, and/or roommates, then maybe it’s worth thinking about finding ways to maximize the beautiful spring and summer weather, even if you’re restricted to your own backyard.

Bocce ball, a long-time favorite among retirees, has experienced a recent resurgence, with bars in major metropolises like NYC, Chicago, and Los Angeles setting up bocce courts in their backyards and courtyards for patrons to enjoy. Good thing, you can build your own bocce set-up at home as long as you have a reasonably flat lawn and a bit of determination. With a finished court and only a few carefully chosen snacks and refreshing cocktails, you’ll have the makings of a full-fledged backyard bocce party, even if the guest list just includes the folks living under your roof.
What Is Bocce Ball?
First brought to the United States during the Italian immigration rush at the turn of the 20th century, bocce ball can be played with as few as two players. The game takes place on a bocce court, or a bordered area filled in with sand or soil.

Read more
Pizza Icon Anthony Mangieri’s Secret To Making Life-Changing Pizza From Scratch
how to make pizza from scratch una210128 44  c sara stadtmiller

If you are lucky enough to have tasted one of the more than 700,000 pizzas Chef Anthony Mangieri has made in his lifetime, you'll see why the New York Times called the pizzas he produces at Una Pizza Napoletana the best pizza from a sit-down restaurant in all of New York City. Just think about that for a moment. The best. Pizza. New York City. You could say that's like finding the best baguette in Paris or the finest Texas ribs, but frankly it's even higher praise than that.

How does Mangieri manage to make such amazing pizza? He started young. Born and raised in New Jersey, the Italian-American chef was already making pizza when he was a kid, inspired by his regular family trips to Italy. In the early 90s, he opened up a bread bakery in his home state.

Read more