Making Peanut Butter

Stephen ran out of peanut butter for his daily lunchtime peanut butter and jam wrap.   I told him we had raw peanuts and we could make more peanut butter.

I have made peanut butter once before, or I should say I was part of the process in making it, sort of it.   It was in preschool. I went to a small pre-school/kindergarten about two blocks from my home in Tsawwassen.   This was in 1969/70 when I was four - I assume that with the impending birth of my brother Nik that my mother needed me out of the house for a couple hours of the day.    

I remember various events from the pre-school as if it just happened last week, I have a freakishly good memory that goes back to age 2.   One time at pre-school we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from scratch, and I really mean from scratch.

Thinking back now, I am wondering how order was kept when there was a room of 20 or so kids from age 4 to 5.   The task was a big one as we made the bread, we made the jelly and we made the peanut butter.

I can remember to this day what it looked like while the peanut butter was being made, how it first became crumbs and suddenly balled up into peanut butter in the blender.

I have meant to try and make peanut butter for AGES since then and the mood suddenly hit me today.

The process is a simple one.   I roasted some peanuts in the toaster oven.   I dumped them all into the food processor with a bit salt (actually too much salt, I was not paying attention and Stephen put in a tablespoon, not the teaspoon I asked for) and ran it until it became small crumbs and then all of a sudden it became a ball of peanut butter.

It is so easy, I should have done this ages ago.   I need to make some more without salt to add to this batch to balance the saltiness.

Stephen's comment on the peanut butter was that it was too peanuty - I think because it was warm and too salty that it was overwhelming.

Some pictures will come from the next batch.