Make a simple and healthy homemade peanut butter in minutes.

Peanut butter is a timeless spread that most of us fall in love with as children, and continue to consume in large quantities as adults. The culinary uses are almost endless--We spread it on PB&J sandwiches, smoother it on apples and celery, sneak it into smoothies, and bake it into hundreds of cookies, breads and other baked goods.

In this Instructable, I'll walk you through how to make a simple creamy peanut butter, and also give you a few simple tips to turn it into delicious Honey Roasted Peanut Butter and other fun flavors.

Step 1: Things You'll Need

Ingredients:

2 Cups Peanuts
Peanut Oil (optional)
Extra Flavors (Honey, Cinnamon, Chocolate)
Salt to Taste

Tools:

Food Processor or Blender
Spatula
Container to store finished product

Step 2: Get Your Grind On

Add your peanuts to the food processor. Begin grinding! Start by grinding your peanuts in one minute intervals.

After the first minute or so you should have a course chop. If you'd like to have a crunchy peanut butter as your finished product you'll want to take 1/4 cup of your roughly chopped nuts out and save them to add in the final step.

Step 3: Keep Grinding

Continue to grind your peanuts in one minute intervals. In between one minute intervals, scrape down the sides of your food processor so that you are achieving an even grind.

Be patient, keep grinding until your peanut butter has taken on the consistency you'd like to eat.

NOTE: With just a food processor, your peanut butter will not be as smooth and uniform as the traditional store bought peanut butters. That's okay! It's homemade and natural.

Step 4: Optional Oil & Salt

Oil is optional. It is added to help moisten your peanut butter, giving it a creamier and smoother texture. When you are adding your oil, start with small quantities as a little goes a long way. Continue to add oil until you are happy with the texture.

This is also a good time to add your optional salt. I have found that I like a salty enhancing touch to my peanut butter, so I tend to add it, but it is of course not necessary. Again, with the salt, start by adding small quantities. You can always add more salt later.

Once your salt and oil have been added, blend your peanut butter in the food processor for an additional 1-2 minutes to guarantee uniformity.

NOTE: For this Instructable, I used peanut oil to blend in with the already natural peanut flavor. You can of course experiment with other oils. I would recommend sticking to neutrally flavored oils such as peanut, sunflower, and almond or with oils that are complementary to the nut butter that you are making.

Step 5: Fun Flavors

You can leave your peanut butter natural and let it's nuttiness shine on your tastebuds alone or you can jazz it up. Flavors can be fun seasonally or if you are giving peanut butter samplers as a gift.

Some fun flavors that I enjoy:

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter: Add 1/8 cup of dark chocolate chips or 2 Tablespoons of cocoa powder to your peanut grind. Blend until uniformly mixed into your peanut butter.

White Chocolate Peanut Butter: Add 1/8 cup of white chocolate chips to your peanut grind. Blend until the chips melt and mix uniformly into your peanut butter.

Honey Roasted Peanut Butter: Roast your peanuts in your oven at 350F for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Add a Tablespoon of honey in step 4 with your optional oil and salt. (Final Honey Roasted Peanut Butter pictured in this step)

Step 6: You're Done!

Scrape your homemade peanut butter into your container of choice with a tight fitting lid. Keep your peanut butter in your refrigerator to prolong it's shelf life and keep it fresh. You're done! Enjoy your homemade peanut butter or give it out as a gift. My personal favorite, add a teaspoon to your hot oatmeal in the morning.