Homemade Peanut Butter;

The best pre-workout meal, in my humble opinion, is to not eat. I hate having anything in my stomach while running or riding. Austin tends to disagree though, and she’s not alone. Most people like eating just a bit before training in the morning, and many people recommend toast with peanut butter. If you’re looking to eat clean though, peanut butter is a tricky food. Nearly all manufacturers drop sugar in their peanut butter, so you have to get picky.

Alternatively, you can make your own peanut butter at home. The process is easy, and the flavor is much fuller. This recipe actually calls for frying the peanuts, because frying brings out a richer, darker and fuller flavor than typical baking or roasting. Two other things to note before going any further, though. First, you’re going to need a mill, grinder or a really good blender. We use a Ninja blender with quite a few blades, it works great! We’ve tried with a normal blender, not so great. Second, you’ll need blanched, raw, skinned peanuts. It’s a weird ingredient I have never seen in stores. I buy 5lbs at a time from Amazon. It’s cheap and they last.

Roughly, there are three steps to making Homemade Fried Peanut Butter. First, you’re going to pan fry the peanuts. Second, you’ll cool and salt the peanuts. Third, you’ll grind the peanuts into a butter.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of raw, blanched peanuts

4 tbsp vegetable oil

4 tbsp honey (substitute whatever sweetener you prefer, or omit)

1 tbsp salt

Heat a dash of vegetable oil over medium heat in a wok style frying pan. Any frying pan will do, but the larger the better and some depth helps keep the peanuts from getting away while turning them over. Throw the entire 2 lbs. of peanuts in the pan, and begin to actively move them around. Keep them moving until they are all coated somewhat in oil; they should be shiny. Once they’ve been coated, you can start to leave them for a minute before turning them over. Turn the heat down, and turn the peanuts every minute or so. Keep at this until you’ve browned them all. The goal is even browning so be wary of burning.

After about fifteen minutes, the peanuts should look like the picture above. Transfer them to a baking sheet lined with paper towels to cool and dry somewhat. Cover them evenly with several pinches of salt. Wait for them to cool, about fifteen minutes, as they will hold heat and burn you if you touch them. After they’re cooled off, transfer them to a good blender or grinder.

Take the peanuts and turn the blender or food processor on medium, and start letting them blend. It’s going to take time for the blender to make a real butter from the peanuts, so get it started. Add the remaining vegetable oil, salt and sweetener if you’d like. Be patient. More blending is better than less, as the peanuts will still be warm so the butter will be runnier in the blender than once it’s cooled fully.

Once the blender has worked its magic, you’re done! Enjoy! I store mine in an airtight container and it keeps well; I haven’t had to test how long it keeps, it doesn’t stick around too long.