If I make peanut butter, it should logically be called Pepper Butter, yes?
With that important matter taken care of, here's what you need to know: assuming you own a food processor, this is insanely easy and also delicious. Roasting the peanuts is key to getting fantastic flavor, and I love that you can tweak the amount of salt and honey to get exactly the flavor YOU like best.
Ingredients
15 ounces shelled and skinned raw peanuts
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Spread peanuts on a rimmed cookie sheet. Roast for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool for about 10 minutes.
Place the peanuts, salt, and honey into the bowl of a food processor. Process for about 5 minutes. The mixture will look dry and rather dough-like for the first few minutes, but keep going. Eventually, like magic, it’ll liquefy. Scrape down sides of the food processor. Place the lid back on and continue to process while slowly drizzling in the oil and process for another minute or so. Taste and adjust salt, honey, or oil if needed. (A little extra oil helps if it’s not quite as smooth as you’d like.) In my first attempt, I added a little more honey and oil.
Place the peanut butter in an airtight container (I used a mason jar) and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.
Adapted from here.
And, amazingly, I can taste it over the interwebs
Do you need a hardcore food processor for this, or smaller ones will do?
Possibly something smaller will work, though it may take a little longer to get a smooth consistency. This website says the Cuisinart Mini works well for making nut butters.
I say try a small batch (maybe half this recipe) and see what happens!
Wishing your peanut butter tasted more like dessert? Problem solved! This recipe was actually the thing that got me started down this path. I used Valrhona cocoa powder, and it's fantastic. (Yes, Philo, it's a fancy ingredient. Deal with it.)
So, replace the peanuts with hazelnuts and you've got Nutella!
If I've got half used container of Hershey's lying around, that would work, right?
Asking for a phriend.
So long as you're not talking syrup, yes.
Even the write up says "Cocoa qualities range. Salt preferences range. Flavor preferences range. This is an easily tweaked recipe." Pepper's commitment to overspending on ingredients notwithstanding, cocoa powder is cocoa powder.
Just giving you a little ribbing.
Also, I don't know that I'm 100% with you on "x is x". I would've said the same thing about black pepper until I tried some of the better stuff.
I generally have a distaste for peanut butter anyway, but if I was going to bother with making something like this, I think I'd have to spring for the better stuff.
Oh, I know. I figured the best way to play it back was with an all-too-serious ribbing of Pepper.
I'm like 95% of the way there on X is X. There are absolutely big distinctions in quality, but for the most part I think that if you wanted to make a cheaper version of a recipe, cheaper ingredients will do the trick and the end result will still be whatever the thing should be, just a lesser version of it.
Semi-serious answer to perhaps not-serious comment: if you are a fan of dark, rich chocolate flavor, it's definitely worth buying the Valrhona cocoa powder. But if you don't have very strong preferences about chocolate flavor, use whatever you want.
I also love the Valrhona cocoa powder in these brownies, chocolate cake, and another recipe I'll be sharing soon. (Can you stand the suspense?!)
I'm a milk chocolate/chocolate with other sweet things kind of guy. Dark chocolate alone is inferior.
Blasphemy!
Hey now. We recommending treading lightly when it comes to religion.
Can this be made in an instapot? J/K - I will try this.
Speaking of desserts (and peanut butter), we had 6 bananas on the edge of getting too ripe. I cut into smaller pieces, froze and then blended thoroughly with a couple tablespoons of peanut butter. OMG!! Smooth frozen texture and tasted just like ice cream. I had seen it on facebook somewhere and was skeptical, but boy was it good.
I laughed. Out loud.
I work is done here. I will diminish... and go into the west.
Haha! If you do try it--here's a discovery I made the other night. I had leftover rice krispie bars from a family gathering over the weekend, so I "frosted" one with the faux-Nutella. SO GOOD!