It's common knowledge that peanut butter and chocolate are BFFs, food soulmates if you will, so why peanut butter manufacturers are still making plain ol' peanut butter without any chocolate is beyond me. But guess what, friends? Peanut butter is super easy to make right in your own home! All you need is a food processor, peanuts, and earplugs (just kidding about the last part..probably). Don't have a food processor? Get one! It will make you feel powerful! And also, you can use it to make homemade peanut butter! Needisaymore?
Once I learned how easy it was to make homemade peanut butter, my peanut butter consumption went through the roof. I became addicted to the sweet, sweet sound of peanuts being shot up against the sides of the food processor bowl, to the satisfaction that comes from making something at home when you could have bought it at the store, to afterwards being able to eat peanut butter on ev.ery.thing. And what's not to love about this? It takes about 5 minutes and is equivalent to watching magic happen. You start with sad little peanuts and mere minutes later they have become peanut butter! Smooth, velvety peanut butter that is ultra spreadable. It is the ultimate before-and-after. Like a fictitious weight loss before-and-after, but real!
Did I mention that it tastes good? There will always be a special place in my heart for the Jiffy of my childhood, but there's something about the homemade stuff that's just so... so.... peanutty. No oils, no added sugar, just pure peanut.
This recipe combines the ease of making homemade peanut butter with the element I've always thought peanut butter was missing: Chocolate.
Creamy peanut butter, dark chocolate, and a salty surprise in every bite. Perfect for dipping and spreading. Slather your apples in it. Dunk your pretzels in it. Let it melt all over your morning toast. It's good on pancakes. It's good in brownies. It's good on ice cream. It's the perfect twist to the classic ants on a log. If you're like me and think bananas are gross, but potassium is maybe (probably) kind of important, you'll want to do yourself a favor and throw a lot of this into a banana smoothie (for health).
Or, go ahead and just eat it right off the spoon!
So, here's how you make it:
Step 1: Put your peanuts in the bowl of a food processor. Put a lid on it and hold on to your hats - it's about to get really loud! Process for about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides as necessary, until your peanuts look like peanut butter. Here is the progression they will go through:
Step 2: Add your salt. Process for another minute and add in your chopped chocolate through the lid while the blade is still running. I use about 50% cacao, but feel free to adjust to your liking. No need to melt it, the food processor will do all the work for you! Process until the chocolate has melted.
And just like that, you have delicious, salted dark chocolate peanut butter! At this point, I'd recommend eating several spoonfuls (for quality control purposes, of course) then transferring to an airtight container to keep either in the fridge or on the counter. This lasts me about two weeks kept on the counter, and I would guess about two months in the fridge, although I've never been able to keep it around for that long...
Here's the recipe:
Salted Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter
Total time: 5 minutes
Yield: 3/4 cup
Ingredients:
- 1 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts
- 1/2 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
- 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
Instructions:
- Place the peanuts into the bowl of a food processor. Process for about 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. The peanuts will go from peanut crumbs, to sticky peanut clumps, to what will look like a ball of dough, and finally into peanut butter.
- Add the salt and process for an additional minute. With the blade still running, slowly add the chopped chocolate through the opening in the lid. Continue processing until the chocolate has melted.
- Transfer to an airtight container and store for up to 2 weeks on the counter or 2 months in the refrigerator.
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