By now you’ve probably heard the news about the diminished peanut harvest in the South this year, and how peanut butter prices are expected to rise dramatically for awhile. If you are able to get your hands on raw peanuts for a good deal, here’s an option for making your own peanut butter to cut down on some costs.

Here’s what you’ll need:


15-16oz roasted peanuts, shelled and skinned (about 3 cups)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons honey (depending on your tastes)
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil

Put your peanuts, honey and salt into a food processor (in my case I used my BlendTec). Process for 1-2 minutes to chop up all the nuts into small pieces. Scrape the sides of the bowl and get all of the mixture back down to the center bottom. Continue to process and slowly drizzle the peanut oil into the mixture. Let it process until it becomes smooth. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

[For a BlendTec – run the peanuts, honey and salt on one cycle at Speed 1. Scrape down sides, then process for one full cycle on Speed 5. Scrape down again and continue running cycles on Speed 5 until you get the right consistency and the peanut butter starts to move freely with the blades. The first few cycles it will look like nothing is moving or happening, but if you look closely you’ll see peanut butter forming in the lower inch or so near the blades. After each cycle, mix it all up and turn it over so that the creamier stuff gets mixed in and then start another cycle. It took me about 4-5 cycles on Speed 5 to get to where I wanted.]


I used store-bought, already roasted and lightly salted peanuts because I was able to get a bunch for free at Smith’s late last summer and they needed to get used! You can buy organic or non-organic, shell on and roast them yourself, or buy them already roasted in the bulk aisle. Whatever works easiest for you, although I’ve heard that there is no comparison to roasting them yourself as far as great flavor goes!

Also, your peanut butter may be a slightly thinner consistency than you’re used to when it comes out of the food processor (this is especially true if you use a high-power blender) because it will be warm. Let it set up in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or so and it will be much thicker and more like the stuff from the store. (The stuff in the picture above was from a batch I made yesterday and had been in the fridge overnight.)

If you’ve never had “natural” peanut butter before, it is “drier” (for lack of a better term) than your average Skippy or Jif stuff, and it will definitely suck all of the moisture right out of your mouth, so have a glass of milk handy! 😉