Make Your Own Peanut Butter!! (Regular or Coconut!)

This is one of those recipes that, when I made it for the first time, nearly smacked myself for not having thought to try it sooner!! HOLY COW! It is SO easy to make your own peanut butter!! I LOVE the fact that you can add salt or honey, and make it taste the way you want- my main aversion to "natural" peanut butter is the texture (It can be really drippy), and the taste- I like a little salt and a little honey in mine! The texture of this is fabulous! Spreads easily without running off the bread.

...basically, if you have a food processor and a pulse, you can make this. Easily.

This is Coconut Peanut butter. Unbelievably delicious. 

Start with 1 1/2  cups dry-roasted, unsalted peanuts. I found some in the nut section of the grocery store, then found a MUCH cheaper price at a local health-food store, in the bulk bin. Make sure they're unsalted, so you can control how salty your peanut butter turns out.

Put them in the food processor, and process for about 4 minutes, or until the nuts turn into butter. You will have to scrape the bowl down several times.

Then add salt and honey to taste (If you're making plain pb. If you're going to make coconut pb, scrape the pb out of the food processor at this point without adding the salt or honey) For the plain flavor, I added about 1/4 tsp salt and 1 T honey.

Once you've scraped the processor out, (It doesn't have to be perfect, it's fine if you leave some pb in there, you're going to add it back in after you make the coconut butter anyhow...)

Put 2 cups of unsweetened, shredded coconut into the food processor. Process until buttery and drippy, about 4 or 5 minutes. Scrape the bowl down as needed.

Then add the peanut butter back to the bowl and process. Add salt and honey (I used 1/3 tsp salt, and 2 Tb honey to mine... taste it as you go and add in small amounts until you get the flavor you like.) (Please don't stick your finger in while the processor is running. No one wants finger in their pb.)

The one on the left is coconut pb, which cost slightly over $2.00 for a pint jar. The one on the right is plain pb, which cost around $1.50. So it's GREAT, taste-wise and cost-wise!

The coconut butter is liquid when warm, but solid at room temp, and gets really firm in the fridge, so if you refrigerate the coconut pb, it is difficult to spread. I kept mine in the cupboard, but do what you feel is safe for food storage.

Of course, once you taste this, you'll likely not worry about how to store it, you'll be more concerned with which size spoon to use to eat it out of the jar!