Peanut Butter – Homemade Is Best!

As you know my site is all about peanut butter cookies and believe me there is such a huge variety to choose from its never ending. Peanut butter is such a popular product that is used in many different kinds of recipes to make all kinds of delicious creations. I have decided to write a post just about peanut butter including some interesting facts  that you may or may not know. I will also include a recipe for making your own yummy homemade peanut butter that you can then use in my cookie recipes.

Could you imagine a world without peanut butter? I know I couldn’t my recipes for peanut butter cookies just wouldn’t quite be the same!

There are four different types of peanuts grown in the United States:

Runner Peanuts – These are mainly grown in Alabama, Georgia,  Oklahoma, Florida  and Texas. Runner Peanuts are recognised by having a uniform kernel size and are the dominant type of peanut because of the Florunner which increased yields.

Virginia Peanuts – These types of peanuts are mainly grown in southeastern Virginia and north-eastern North Carolina .These Peanuts have the biggest kernels and are extremely delicious when roasted in the shell.

Spanish Peanuts - The perfect choice for making peanut butter would be the Spanish peanut because of their high oil content. These peanuts have a lot smaller kernels and have a distinctive  reddish-brown skin and are mainly grown in Texas and Oklahoma.

Valencia Peanuts – They normally have three or more smallest kernels to each pod and are also covered in a bright-red skin. These are without doubt the sweetest type of peanut and are more often than not roasted and sold inside their shell. They can mainly be found growing in New Mexico.

Interesting Peanut Butter Facts:

1. In order to make more people eat healthy plant based protein way back in 1895 a Doctor called John Harvey Kellogg patented his process for making peanut butter. But the first person to patent peanut butter was Marcellus Gilmore Edson in 1884.

2. In 1904 peanut butter was first introduced to America by C.H Sumner. He described it as the “new treat” for people to enjoy.

3. The average consumption of either peanut butter or peanut butter based products by people in the USA alone is around 6 pounds per year.

4. When looking at who likes which type of peanut butter best 60% of people prefer creamy or smooth peanut butter rather than crunchy peanut butter.

5. Men prefer the crunchy peanut butter where as women and children go for the smooth peanut butter.

6. In the USA the leading use for peanuts is in fact peanut butter!

7. The law states in the USA that any peanut butter labelled product must be made up of or contain 90% peanuts.

8. To produce a small 12 ounce jar of peanut butter it requires approximately 550 peanuts.

9. There is actually a term given to the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of one’s mouth and it’s called Arachibutyrophobia.  Try saying that with a mouth full of peanut butter!

10. If you wanted enough peanut butter to make up 30,000 sandwiches you would need an acre of peanuts to do it.

11. When it comes to the USA Economy peanuts contribute around $4 billion dollars’ worth each year, that’s a pretty impressive amount just for a humble peanut!

12. The season for peanuts starts when they get planted in April May time and are harvested in September October.

13. Did you know that a peanut is actually classed as a legume closely related to both beans and lentils?

14. Peanut plants first originated from South America

15. Did you know that peanuts actually flower above the ground but to reach full growth they then migrate underground?

16. The great news is that peanut butter and peanuts contain 30 nutrients and phytonutrients and they are cholesterol free how good is that!

17. Peanuts have more antioxidants power than carrots, green tea, spinach and grapes but to name a few and they also contain more protein, folate, phytosterols and niacin than any other nut out there!

Well I’m sure there are enough interesting facts there to get your creative peanut butter ideas flowing. Now that we know a little bit more about the humble peanut let’s put it to good use and make some delicious homemade peanut butter.

For this peanut butter recipe you will need the following ingredients:

• 1 to 1-1/2 Tsp Of  Honey
• 8 Ounces of Salted Peanuts (these should be shelled, skinned and roasted) If you use unsalted peanuts then add 1/4 Teaspoon of salt to the recipe.
• 1 to 2 Teaspoons of Peanut Oil (extra virgin olive oil works fine if you don’t have peanut oil)

1. To make this peanut butter it’s really simple, put the honey and peanuts into a food processor and blend until this mixture is really fine in texture.

2. Through the top of the processor add the oil and continue blending for about 2 mins.

3. And that’s all there is to making great peanut butter. If you want a bit more crunch to your peanut butter than blend the mixture less until you get your desired texture.

And there you have it the most delicious tasting peanut butter that takes only minutes to make. Pop it in an air tight container and keep it in the fridge and you’ll never run out of peanut butter again!

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