Happy Sunday to you! But before I begin let me introduce you to the 2nd man of the house. His name is Zack! He is a 16 cup Cusinart Food Processor. I love him! I bought him two weeks ago from Williams and Sonoma. He was a birthday gift, and what a gift he is! He has a retractable cord, lots of blades and he makes salsa, hummus, bread and so much more. He came with a 1 1/2 hour DVD, but I haven’t watched it yet. I haven’t made anything in it, except for one thing. Can you guess? Well let me tell you he makes my favorite thing go allot quicker so I get it faster. He’s perfect!
Now that you met Zack, I’m sure you’ll be seeing him in the future. Now that one thing that I love so much? Well, after all your on my Peanut Butter and Peppers blog and you know the first part of my name. Peanut Butter!
I am giving you my secret to what I think is the best Peanut Butter ever! Here are the ingredients.
Pretty simple. If you don’t have Cinnamon Apple Syrup, regular Maple Syrup will do. Here are the Honey Roasted Peanuts in the food processor, I mean Zack!
Process, until a lump forms.
When the lump forms, you know that it’s going to smooth out soon. That’s when you add your ingredients. Oh, when you process, you may have to push the PB down off the sides of your food processor. Zack didn’t need to do that, but my last food processor I had, I had to do that about half a dozen times, if not more.
This is what it looks like before you add your ingredients.
Now the added ingredients.
The Bad Babies know it’s almost done! They do this every time I make Peanut Butter. I don’t know how they know, but they do. Yes, I give them a taste!
It’s all done. The whole process takes about 10 minutes. Peanuts are a softer nut and doesn’t take to long. Other nuts like Almonds takes a little longer, but I’ll discuss that when I make Almond Nut Butter.
You can process the nuts, until it’s the consistency you like. Some people like it firmer, I like it drippy! ready for the final product?
Yummy, drippy Cinnamon Apple Peanut Butter. OMG! Pure heaven!
Mmmmm, drizzled on apples.You know you want some. You’ll have to make your own, because your not getting mine!
A perfect match. Ready for the recipe?
- 4 cups Honey Roasted Peanuts (I use Trader Joe's)
- 1 Tbsp. Cinnamon Apple Syrup or Maple Syrup (I bought my syrup from Sur La table)
- 1 Tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- Put all your nuts into a food processor. Process until almost creamy. Scrape down the sides of the processor when needed.
- Put your ingredients in after the lump forms. Process until drippy. If it doesn't taste sweet enough or cinnamony enough, just add more of your ingredients. The process time is about 10 minutes total.
Notes:
If you have a 7 cup or 12 cup food process, split this recipe in half. I have put to many nuts in my processor before and burned it up. So only do 1 - 11/2 cups of peanuts at a time. Trust me on that one!
Store your nut butter in the cupboard in an air tight container. After about two weeks, move to the fridge. If the natural oils form on top, just mix it in, that's normal when you make any kind of nut butter.
Also, if your really impatient, you can add a pinch of canola oil to help speed the process, but I don't really care to do that, then it seems to oily.
Ok, that is it! Simple, quick and delicious. Now you can add your Peanut Butter to hundreds of things! Add it to oatmeal, yogurt, ice cream, make a PB&J, dip apples in it, drizzle on all fruits like banana’s, dip pretzels, add it to smoothies, take a mouth full any time and make cookies, cakes, pies and more. Enjoy your creation. It’s so fun and so cool to see your nuts turn into a beautiful tasty nut butter!!
People are afraid of Peanut Butter because of the fat, but it’s good fat and you shouldn’t be afraid. The recommended amount of good fat per day is about 2 tablespoons.
I got this information from: peanut-butter.org
Most of the fats contained are monounsaturated, and have been shown to improve the cholesterol profile by lowering “bad” LDL cholesterol.
This effect is compounded by peanut butter containing polyunsaturated fats, which in turn help raising the “good” HDL cholesterol; the synergistic effect makes this spread a very good cholesterol regulator.
In a randomized, cross-over, double-blind study involving 22 subjects, a high monounsaturated diet that emphasized peanuts and peanut butter decreased the risk of cardiovascular diseases by 21% compared to the average American diet.
Peanut butter contains fairly high quantities of dietary fiber, amounting to about 8%, which again helps in regulating both blood cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Dietary fiber has also been shown to significantly reduce the risk of colo-rectal cancer (which is among the most common causes of death by cancer in civilized countries) and atherosclerosis (another common disease in the U.S. and Europe).
Proteins are present in high amounts (about 24% in weight), together with very important micro-nutrients such as Vitamin E, Vitamin B3 and large amounts of beneficial minerals such as iron, magnesium, potassium, copper and calcium.
Other benefits of Peanut Butter, it helps prevent Gallstones and Alzheimers!
Now you can have your Peanut Butter guilt free!
If your allergic to peanuts, try sunflower seed nut butter. I never made it, but I have tasted it and it’s good. I’ll make some in the future to see how it goes.
Enjoy!