Peanut Butter

I love peanut butter, but the cost for the all natural stuff kills me.  That, and I find them a bit gross.  I like a nice smooth peanut butter with all those oils and flavours.  Switching to all-natural was tough for me, but it had to be done.  I figured while I was at it, I should just whip up some of my own. 

Peanut butter is really easy to make.  You take peanuts...  and grind them up.  I actually roasted my own peanuts, which I won't really bother to do again.  Buying raw peanuts vs roasted ones doesn't save much money, and it took almost an hour in the oven. 

Once the peanuts were roasted enough, they went into the food processor. (There were about 5-6 cups of peanuts here)

Here I ground them up.  It took a long time, and while it was grinding I added 2 Tbsps of sugar and 2 tsps salt. This can be completely tailored to your own taste.  In hopes of making it a bit creamier I did also add a Tbsp of canola oil.  I don't know if it helped at all, but hey, why not?  I have a sneaking suspicion that even all natual peanut butter throws in a little extra peanut oil...  who would know?

The food processor made it pretty good, but I wanted it creamier and it just wasn't happening, so a quick switch to the blender...

... and we were on our way.  It still has a bit of a gritty texture, but I have yet to find an all-natural that doesn't.  It is really creamy though. 

All in, the cost was $3.00 and I was left with about 650mL of peanut butter.  In comparison the average 500g jar of all-natural will run you about $4.50.  it does require "work"  (if you count watching the food processor), but it was really easy.

See how my peanut butter stacked up against the other all-natural peanut butters.