Homemade Peanut Butter (With Variations)

By
Molly Watson
Molly Watson
An award-winning food writer and cookbook author, Molly Watson has created more than 1,000 recipes focused on local, seasonal ingredients.
Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process
Updated on 01/21/23
Tested by
Kayla Hoang
Photo of Kayla Hoang
Tested by Kayla Hoang
Kayla Hoang is a freelance recipe developer, writer, and baker whose Bangladeshi and Vietnamese roots influence all she does. Her life revolves around food and she can almost always be found waiting by the oven for a fresh batch of cookies.
Learn about The Spruce Eats' Editorial Process
peanut butter in a jar with peanut butter in spoon resting on top

The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 5 mins
Servings: 32 servings

Once you make your own peanut butter you may well wonder why you've been buying it all these years. Seriously. It is literally just putting peanuts in a food processor for 2 to 3 minutes. Even with scraping it out of the processor and washing up, the whole thing takes less than 10 minutes. An exact recipe, such as it is, plus a whole lot of variations for flavored peanut butters and other nut butters that are almost just as easy to make are below.

You'll see the recipe calls for unsalted peanuts and then has you add salt. This is because while peanut butter needs a bit of salt to bring out that great nutty flavor, the amount of salt in salted nuts tends to be WAY too much in peanut butter. 

"I always have peanut butter on hand, but for those rare occasions when all the jars are empty, it’s wonderful to know how easy it is to whip some up. Be sure to pay attention to the visual cues listed in step 3 because they really help! I can’t wait to try the other variations." —Kayla Hoang

Homemade Peanut Butter (With Variations)/Tester Image
A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

  • 2 cups roasted, unsalted peanuts

  • 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste

  • 1 to 2 tablespoons peanut oil, optional

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    ingredients gathered in bowls for homemade peanut butter

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  2. Put the peanuts and salt in a food processor.

    peanuts and salt in the bowl of a food processor

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  3. Pulse, then process until they become peanut butter, 2 to 3 minutes. At first the peanuts will be chopped, then clump together into a ball, and finally break apart into smooth nut butter.

    peanuts blended smooth in bowl of food processor

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  4. If you want thinner peanut butter, add the optional peanut oil and whirl to combine. Taste and add more salt, if you like.

    peanut butter in bowl of food processor with peanut oil and salt added

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

  5. Transfer the peanut butter to a jar or other container and cover.

    peanut butter in glass jar with lid

    The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack

Tips

  • If your homemade nut butter separates—oil rises to the top—all you need to do is stir that oil back in. A lack of artificial stabilizers lets the solids and oil separate; in no way does this signal the nut butter "going bad." When nut butters go bad, you can smell it—they take on a rancid scent.

Variations

  • Chocolate Peanut Butter is sort of like a better for you, more delicious Nutella. Smear it on bread or spoon it onto ice cream. Melt 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips, let cool to room temperature, and whirl into the peanut butter. 
  • Honey Peanut Butter is a sweet treat that is utterly perfect for smearing on toast at breakfast or as a snack. Add 3 tablespoons of honey to the mix for a classic flavor combination in a single jar.
  • Maple Peanut Butter gets an earthy sweetness from real maple syrup—perfect for pancakes. Start with adding 3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup, increasing the amount until the result is as sweet as you like.
  • Spicy Peanut Butter is for those who love the savory side of nut butters and want to experiment with unique sandwiches and kicky breakfasts. Add 1 tablespoon chile oil and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne to the nuts when you process them. Taste and add more until it's as spicy as you like. 
  • Almond Butter is all the rage for a reason—it tastes great and has an admirable nutritional profile. It is counterintuitive and the opposite of other nuts, but unroasted almonds make a more fully flavored and almond-like almond butter. Use blanched almonds (skins removed) for a more mellow effect.
  • Cashew Butter is remarkably rich and creamy. Finding unsalted roasted cashews can be a challenge, but it's worth it.
  • Walnut Butter is a bit trickier only because walnut skins are pretty darn bitter and they aren't super easy to get off. Luckily, there is a way. Blanch the walnuts (dunk for just a moment in boiling water, drain, and dry) and rub them to remove their skins. Then toast them, let them cool, and proceed with whirling them into butter.

How to Store

  • Fresh nut butter will keep up to several weeks at room temperature (remember, it's just nuts!) or up to a year in the fridge.
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
54 Calories
5g Fat
2g Carbs
2g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 32
Amount per serving
Calories 54
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 5g 6%
Saturated Fat 1g 4%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 34mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate 2g 1%
Dietary Fiber 1g 3%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 2g
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 5mg 0%
Iron 0mg 1%
Potassium 58mg 1%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)