How to Make Peanut Butter in 5 Minutes

If you’ve read the ingredients on peanut butter jars lately, you’ll see the majority of them contain palm oil. The great news is you can learn how to make peanut butter yourself. It takes just 5 minutes. 

Whether you prefer creamy or chunky, making homemade peanut butter is easy. All you need is a high performance food processor or blender. If you don’t have one, see below for how to make pb without a food processor.

To make it easier to stir, this recipe uses pure maple syrup. You can customize it too, with cocoa and honey or brown sugar. You can also add in pure vanilla extract and chai spices. There are so many combinations!

Commercial brands add so much junk — including palm oil and mono- and diglycerides (which are typically derived from palm oil) — that natural peanut butter is often not “natural.” They include additional oils and chemicals.  

What do you do when you can’t find a certain type of food in a healthy version? You make it yourself!

How to Make Peanut Butter

Making peanut butter yourself means you don’t have to rely on store-bought versions. I have my favorite brands of palm oil free peanut butter, but more often than not, I use this recipe.

You can buy a jar of already-shelled peanuts to save time. These will typically be roasted and salted. You can also buy whole peanuts still in the shell. These too can be already roasted and salted even though they are still whole.

If you buy raw peanuts, you can make raw peanut butter or you can roast them for 10 – 15 minutes at 325 degrees F / 160 degrees C.

I buy already-roasted peanuts, both pre-shelled and with the shells, depending on the cost. 

There are so many things you can make with peanut butter. I have lots of recipes I’ll share below. In the meantime, here’s how to make peanut butter. You can make creamy or crunchy peanut butter. It’s hard to believe but homemade peanut butter takes just 5 minutes to make.

Buying Peanuts Still in the Shell

According to the label on my 16 oz bag of Signature Farms Roasted and Salted Peanuts (in the shell), it yields about 10 servings of ¼ cup of peanuts without shells. This equals 2 ½ cups of peanuts.

This means I can use this entire bag and have ½ cup left over to add in to make crunchy pb with some leftover for snacking.

It will take more time if you buy shelled peanuts because you have to open them yourself. I will shell peanuts when I’m watching TV or when I’m on the phone. Peanuts are easy to crack open.

Buying Peanuts in a Jar or Canister

If you do buy peanuts in a jar, read the ingredients before buying. You’ll want to be sure they contain only peanuts or peanuts and salt.

Planters Cocktail Peanuts are good but I don’t buy Planters Hearth Healthy Dry Roasted Peanuts because of the extra ingredients. I also buy the Target brand of Unsalted Dry Roasted Peanuts from Good & Gather. But read ingredients, because some Good & Gather peanuts contain added ingredients.

Just always be sure to read ingredients. Some jars of what-look-to-be plain peanuts contain corn starch, maltodextrin, corn syrup solids, natural flavor, gelatin, and other ingredients. The reason you are making peanut butter is so that it is as natural as possible.

Also, many of them contain spices. I want to make plain peanut butter so I can flavor it as I wish, if I want to, depending on what I’m using it for. If I’m making peanut butter cookies or a PB&J, I don’t want added spices like garlic and paprika which are in some peanut brands. 

Recipe Ingredients

You absolutely can make this with no salt, no sugar, and no additives. Simply just use the peanuts.

• 2 cups dry roasted peanuts – You can use salted or unsalted peanuts.
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or honey
• Sea salt to taste

Optional Ingredient

• ¼ cups peanuts – Optional if you want to make chunky peanut butter and not creamy. However, if you don’t have extras, reserve about 20 peanuts from the original 2 cups.

Makes 1½ cups

Materials You Need for 5 Minute Peanut Butter

• High performance blender or food processor
• Spatula or spoon
• Covered glass bowl or jar with lid to store peanut butter if not using right away

How Do You Make Peanut Butter

1. Shell the peanuts if necessary.
2. Put the peanuts in a food processor
3. Let the food processor run for about 4 minutes. You will be able to watch the peanuts transform from peanuts to clumps to a dry ball to nice and creamy and smooth.
4. Stir in the maple syrup or honey. Add a pinch of salt if using. If you are using other ingredients, such as vanilla extract, cinnamon, etc., you can add them now. Pulse a few times to blend.
5. To make crunchy peanut butter, add in a few peanut halves at the end. You can churn them in the food processor or toss in and mix by hand.
6. Scoop out to use right away. Or you can store peanut butter homemade in a sealed glass jar or other airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge.

Add-In Ideas

It’s fast and easy to make smooth pb. To make crunchy, you just need to toss in some peanuts at the end.

You can also make chocolate peanut butter at home by adding cocoa powder and powdered sugar (also called confectioners sugar) or granulated sugar. Yum!

Change up this recipe by mixing in honey instead of maple syrup. Add vanilla extract for a hint of vanilla. 

You can add cinnamon, granulated sugar, and/or brown sugar for a variety of tastes. You may want to mix in almonds for a pb and almond butter combo. 

Before serving, you can toss in chocolate chips and/or raisins for added flavor and texture.

Of course, you can also eat it plain. You don’t need to make anything with it or add anything to it. 

The Cleanup

The hardest part for me is cleaning the food processor. Peanuts are a fat and will stick to the sides. After spooning out as much as I possibly can, I will then scrape the sides. After that, I take a paper towel and wipe out as much as I can. Then I’ll hand wash the blender or put it in the dishwasher. 

It really helps to wipe out as much as you can with a paper towel or dish scrubber beforehand. 

How to Make Peanut Butter Without Food Processor

Bring your muscle! You can make it without a food processor or blender. You’ll need a mortar and pestle. Put in the peanuts in the mortar a little bit at a time. Crush and grind them into a fine paste. This will be labor intensive but it can be done.

Another option is to put the peanuts on a baking pan. (Be sure they are out of the shell.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Roast them in the oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool for 10 minutes. Afterwards, take batches of peanuts and put them in the mortar and crush them. 

Uses

When it comes how to use homemade peanut butter, there are endless ways. Use it for a p b & j or slather it on vegan biscuits. Use this peanut butter recipe the next time you make a peanut butter milkshake, smoothie, or any palm oil free desserts. 

I love making cookies too such as peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies and sugar free peanut butter cookies. Can you tell how much I love to use peanut butter in desserts? It adds a richness and thickness to desserts. Often these recipes don’t rely on flour, which I like because I’m gluten free. 

I also mix it into oatmeal for a hearty breakfast.

Learning to Make Peanut Butter Homemade

I learned how to make peanut butter because my son has a palm oil allergy and palm oil intolerance. Palm oil literally makes him sick. Because of this, I have learned to read all labels before buying anything. It’s so common in foods now (because it’s a cheap ingredient) that I have been making anything and everything from scratch whenever possible. 

Have you read food ingredients lately? More than ever before, in the United States, companies are adding palm oil to processed foods. This includes jars of pb as well. In fact, unless you buy pb with only peanuts or peanuts and salt, it’s very difficult to find it palm oil free.

(The one exception is Skippy Creamy and Skippy Crunchy. Note, this is NOT their Natural lines which actually contains palm oil. When you pick up a jar of Skippy, read the ingredients to be sure you are buying the right one.)

However, when you can make peanut butter in 5 minutes, you don’t need to worry. I make natural peanut butter that’s better nutritionally. I also make homemade strawberry jelly and orange marmalade too.

Making foods at home is so easy with a high performance food processor like a Vitamix or similar from Cuisinart, Breville, Hamilton Beach, or Waring. My baking life and cooking life changed when I bought a Vitamix. I can make so many things from scratch that I used to buy, like almond butter, oat milk, almond flour, and more. There are so many foods you can make. 

You can still make foods at home without a food processor but it’s a lot easier with one.

I hope you decide to make your own peanut butter. It is so easy to make at home. It takes just five minutes and reduces your reliance on processed foods. 

Please leave a note in the Comments about your experience making peanut butter homemade. I’d love to hear how it went and if you added other ingredients to it.