The Best Homemade Peanut Butter (With Variations)

Let’s talk about why you need to make peanut butter at home. It’s simple to make plus you can easily add your own creative spin. Below we’ve shared how to make both creamy and crunchy peanut butter as well as an almond and chocolate variation. Jump to the Peanut Butter Recipe or watch our quick recipe video showing you how we make it.

Watch Us Make Peanut Butter

It’s So Easy To Make Homemade Peanut Butter!

I love making my own peanut butter. You have all the control — the amount of salt or honey is up to you. Plus, you can get creative. We make our basic peanut butter crunchy. Sometimes, we add almonds. And when we’re feeling bold, we make chocolate peanut butter. (It is seriously good).

Are you game for whirling up some peanuts and making your very own peanut butter? You really can make our peanut butter recipe in under 15 minutes. In fact, most of that time is roasting the peanuts.

After roasting, throw peanuts into the bowl of a food processor. Turn on and watch as the peanuts turn into crumbs, then a thick paste, and finally smooth, shiny peanut butter. It’s almost magical.

Here’s what the peanut butter looks like at the beginning of processing. Very crumbly.

After a minute, the peanut butter looks more like a thick paste. It needs more time.

Then, after a bit more processing the whole mixture just sort of gives up and turns into a silky smooth peanut butter. It’s at this point that you can add sweetness with honey or a little seasoning with salt. For extra smooth peanut butter, you can also add a tiny bit of oil, but that’s completely up to you.

(If you love peanut butter, try making our peanut butter cookies. They are so easy!)

Homemade Almond Peanut Butter

Now that you are a pro at making basic peanut butter, get creative and play. One of our favorite twists is to use equal parts of peanuts to almonds. By the way, if you only use almonds, you can make almond butter.

The process is the same, roast then add all the nuts to a food processor, turn on and watch the magic happen. Add salt, honey (or maple syrup) as needed then check the consistency — we have found the peanut almond butter needs a little more oil added.

For homemade almond butter, take a look at this recipe. We add a little bit of vanilla and cinnamon and it’s amazing!

Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter — Pure Joy

OK, now for my favorite: Chocolate Peanut Butter. Think of it as a peanut-ified Nutella. It’s quick and easy to make. Start with the basic peanut butter then instead of adding honey, add cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

The result? Creamy, chocolaty goodness — we’re absolutely in love with it.

(Chocolate and peanut butter has to be one of our favorite combos — see our Easy Bar Cookie Recipe with Peanut Butter Cups or our Chocolate Covered Rice Krispie Treats)

You decide. Basic peanut butter, peanut almond butter, chocolate peanut butter or would you make your version? We want to know. Just leave your response in the comments below.

Recipe updated, originally posted February 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne