Homemade Peanut Butter - with peanut skins

Have you noticed that some organic peanut butters contain the peanut skins while most brands do not? I first noticed this a few months ago and wondered why. With a little research I found out that peanut skins are a rich source of antioxidants. These antioxidants are the same ones that are found in green tea and have been linked to a reduced risk of cancer.

So this is great, but I didn't like the texture of the peanut butter with the skins. I decided to see if I could make it myself and improve the texture. Unfortunately I started with peanuts in the shell. The longest part of the peanut butter process was shelling the 4 cups of peanuts, which took about 45 minutes. I will be looking for shelled peanuts in their skins the next time I need to buy them.

I used the food processor again to make the peanut butter. It turns out that peanut butter takes half the time of almond butter. In a little over three minutes the nuts were butter. The skins were much smaller than in the commercial brand. Overall I think the peanut butter experiment was a success. But do yourself a favor and buy the peanuts shelled, that was a tedious process best avoided.

Peanut Butter
makes approximately 2 cups

Ingredients:

4 cups of peanuts, with their skins

Directions:

Place peanuts in the food processor bowl and turn on machine. Process until smooth. It took about 3 and half minutes at my house.

Nutritional Information (1 tablespoon):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 113.88
Calories From Fat (71%) - 80.86

Total Fat - 9.67g
Saturated Fat - 1.34g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1.17mg
Potassium - 128.09mg
Total Carbohydrates - 4.19g
Fiber - 1.56g
Sugar - 0.81g
Protein - 4.61g

Comments:

Without added salt or sugar this tastes like "just peanuts", only spreadable. I like that it doesn't contain unnecessary sodium or sweeteners. I think this will make a nice addition to my smoothies, oatmeal and whole grain bagels. I may try to make a little something with chocolate and peanut butter in the next few days to see how it works in baking.