Peanut Butter

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My girls are huge peanut butter fans. Charlotte likes crunchy peanut butter whilst Emma prefers it smooth. They like it on fresh bread or toast and often add a banana or eat it will jam or jelly – the American classic combination! A pot of peanut butter is always on their list of homemade foods they want to take with them when they go back to university or I go to visit.

Equally they both adore the chocolate peanut butter combination in cakes, cookies and desserts. I’m a bit more old fashioned and like a grinding of sea salt on my peanut butter on toast, but I confess I am rather partial to peanut butter and chocolate!

Although there are now lots of good quality natural peanut butters available in the shops, I enjoy making my own. I can guarantee there are no unwanted additional ingredients or preservatives and I can control the amount of salt I add as well as how dark I roast the peanuts before processing. Our favourite peanut butter is quite darkly roasted with a salty kick. We like it really really smooth or when crunchy, Charlotte and I like a lot of crunch both in terms of the amount of chopped peanuts in a jar and the size of the chopped peanuts. This is all down to your preferences, there are no right and wrong answers, just play with the recipe to make it right for you.

I promise you that this is easy to make but I only urge you to try it if you have a powerful blender or food processor. Crushing nuts into a creamy paste takes a motor with a lot of umph – I don’t want to be responsible for any burnt out processors/blenders. I use a Thermomix which is perfect and I’m sure a Vita-mix, or equivalent of either, would be fine. I also have a wonderful Magimix at home, which I use for most things, but I have never tried it for this recipe.

How to make Peanut Butter

All you need to use are:

• peanuts
• roasted peanut oil
• salt

You start by roasting the peanuts and transfer them to a food processor.

To make crunchy peanut butter: pulse the machine until the peanuts are your preferred size. Remove some from the processor bowl and then continue to process the remainder until you achieve a smooth texture. Add the oil and salt to taste and blitz to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed. Stir in the chopped peanuts and transfer to a clean jam jar. Seal with a lid and store in a cool dark place.

To make smooth peanut butter: process the peanuts until you achieve a smooth texture. Add the oil and salt to taste and blitz to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed. Transfer to a clean jam jar. Seal with a lid and store in a cool dark place.

If you have bought roasted peanuts, I would still cook them for 5 – 8 minutes as this really helps to bring out the flavours in the natural oils in the nuts. Also the nuts I use, still have a skin on them; they do not need to be removed before you process them.

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