Homemade Crunchy Peanut Butter
Peanut butter is not very popular in Italy so I never had it before moving to the UK. To be honest, I didn’t even know it was a thing! But now, I love some nice Homemade Crunchy Peanut Butter. It’s such a versatile ingredient full of proteins and healthy fat.
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It’s very easy to find in any supermarket but by making it yourself, you have the freedom to decide on every ingredient, avoiding all the additives that store-bought peanut butter might have.
This Homemade Crunchy Peanut Butter is super quick and easy to make and you can use it for both sweet and savoury dishes. What’s not to love?
NOTE: If for health reasons you’re trying to avoid eating food with a lot of fat content, then Peanut Butter as we’re making it today, may not be the best option for you. However, when I feel my GERD is bothering me but I still want that nutty lovely tang on my food, I always make sure I have a jar of Peanut Butter powder in my cupboard! It retains its protein and flavour goodness but with a significantly lower percentage of fat, which means it’s much gentler on my digestion 😁
I’ve been using PBfit for a couple of years now and I’ve not looked back! Get it on Amazon UK and Amazon US!
Peanut Butter: the origin
The origin of peanut butter can be traced back to the Aztecs and Incas. They ground roasted peanuts into a paste. They then not only used this paste as a staple of their diet but also in religious ceremonies!
However, peanut butter as we know it today was first introduced in the late 19th century in America.
In 1890, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg invented a peanut-based paste that he called “peanut butter.” Kellogg marketed his newly found peanut butter as a health food. It was specifically designed to be easy to digest for people with dental problems. Weird right? 🦷
Anyways, after Kellogg’s discovery, investors and scientists took an interest in Peanut Butter. One of them, Dr. Ambrose Straub, invented a peanut butter machine that made it possible to produce peanut butter on a commercial scale. Straub’s machine helped to make peanut butter an affordable and accessible product.
However, Peanut butter made its public debut in 1904 at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. At the fair, people from all over the world sampled the delicious peanut butter. Thanks to them, peanut butter quickly rose to fame and became a staple ingredient in every American household and worldwide. And one of the best snacks in the Cheeky Green Bean arsenal!
So now, grab your blender and join me in making Homemade Crunchy Peanut Butter!
Homemade Crunchy Peanut Butter
Equipment
- 1 Recycled glass jar – 500g capacity.
- Powerful blender
- Oven
Ingredients
- 400 g Raw Peanuts
- Extra virging olive oil or rapeseed oil
- Salt
Instructions
- Place all the peanuts on a wide tray covered in baking paper. Make sure they're well distributed and don't touch each other for an even toasting. Place them in the preheated oven with the fan on for 10-15 minutes at 180°C. After 6-7 minutes in the oven, take the tray out and give them a good shuffle to allow the other side to toast too. Keep checking them throughout their toasting. When the peanuts start changing colour to a light brown take them out of the oven and let them cool on a cold surface. Once they've cooled down, select roughly 300g and put them in your blender. The other 100g we will use later to give our peanut butter a bit of crunchiness!
- Now blend, blend, blend! Don't worry if the peanuts stay crumbly for a long time, trust the process and after about 15-20 min of blending you will have a smooth paste. To help blend the nuts into the butter, you can add a little bit of oil, a bit at a time, using more or less oil depending on how smooth you'd like your peanut butter to be. While blending you can add the salt, this is preference-based so add as much or as little as you like! If you have a tiny blender, make sure to take some breaks so it doesn't overheat.
- Once the butter is all creamy and shiny, pour it into a bowl and we now lightly blend the rest of the peanuts. It doesn't need much, just a couple of pulses to get some nice crumbly granola that we then transfer to the bowl, stirring it into the peanut butter.
- Once you're happy with the look of your peanut butter, spoon it into your recycled jar and enjoy! The crunchy homemade peanut butter should be stored in an air-tight container, inside a cupboard away from heat and will need to be used within about one month.
Cheeky tips
Try it on a whole wheat wrap or a lentil cake with a sliced banana and some chocolate chips for extra sweetness!
Add it to your Summer Yoghurt and Fruits Bowl for an extra protein punch!
Check out more cheeky snacks we prepared for you
Are you using raw peanuts and then baking in the oven? I have roasted peanuts. Can I just skip the oven and blend?
Hello Van! I usually use blanched peanuts or monkey nuts (that needs deshelling first) and roast them in the oven. If you already have roasted peanuts you can skip the oven step and go straight to blending 😊 Hope you like the recipe!