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My Grandma eats an organic peanut butter sandwich every day for lunch to make a healthy alternative and because it is a soft food for her since she has no teeth. Is it bad to eat the same thing every day ? NO, that is not a fact. She is under care for cardiovascular health and mineral deficiencies. Phytic acid impairs the absorption of iron, zinc and calcium, and may promote mineral deficiencies. So, I make her peanut butter out of raw, sprouted peanuts. The following sounds much more bombastic and scientific than I intended, but please bear with me. The topic is actually interesting to me as I’ve been making peanut butter on a regular basis for a while now, plus I’m a geek Lol!

Sprouted peanuts taste and are crunchy somewhat like a firm, fresh green pea or bean, but once dried the peanut butter they make actually tastes just like natural peanut butter, only fresher and peanut boldness. I’m still working out the best way to go about making diy peanut butter from sprouted peanuts. Along the way I’ve learned a few things, one of which is that the smallest bit of moisture will immediately turn a creamy butter into a pasty doughy ball until it dries out again, so in addition to having to dry the sprouted peanuts thoroughly at low temps, any honey or sugar syrup added to the mixture will necessitate extra processing time, until the friction of mixing heats the butter enough to drive out the moisture. Adding things like granular sugar will also temporarily tighten the butter mixture. I think peanut butter can be considered a “non-Newtonian fluid” (like a cornstarch & water paste), thus accounting for some of the odd reactions to changes in consistency/composition.

Despite the difficulty I often encounter in processing beyond the cookie dough stage, I usually end up with a peanut butter which is too runny. (Sometimes I add about 10% roasted nuts, and this helps to get to a finished state just like “natural” peanut butter, but I don’t like having to do this as “roasted” peanuts is a misnomer, it would be more accurate to call them “deep fried nuts”) I sometimes add coconut oil (which is solid at room temp) to get beyond the doughy stage, but oddly that ends up producing a butter that’s even runnier than plain peanut butter alone, even when refrigerated. I can’t confirm this, but I think the blending of peanut oil and coconut oil is resulting in a “eutectic mixture”, where the phase change, or melting point, is actually lower than the melting points of either oil alone. Perhaps a food scientist will stumble by and provides some data.

I think for those getting a doughy mixture the key is to make sure everything is absolutely dry when they begin, even the food processor bowl and blade. If adding the sweetener is making it doughy, use something with a low moisture content, and keep blending until it smooths out again. Honey is 17-18%, and agave nectar is about 23% water, so expect it to take some time do drive out the moisture, and keep the chute open for water vapor to escape.

I don’t mind the runny consistency of homemade peanut butter, but some people don’t like it. I like the suggestion of adding powdered sugar, but that is just fine sugar and cornstarch, and I’m not sure what that’ll really bring to the mixture. Commercial PB makers start with natural peanut butter, then they extract the peanut oil and sell it at a premium, and replace it with cheap hydrogenated oils/shortening.

I’m thinking a similar approach might be in order. Obviously I wouldn’t use vegetable shortening, but I’m wondering if actually using (organic, clarified) butter (the idea of which this blog post originally seems to have been inspired by), or organic lard, might actually be a viable option. On closer look, butter and lard both actually have more Omega 3 and a better Omega 3 to Omega 6 ratio than peanut oil, which is almost completely devoid of Omega 3, which the western diet is already sorely lacking. They do have more saturated fat, but that is not the be all to end all it once was, and butter and lard seem to be gaining renewed popularity among people concerned with both the healthfulness and quality of the food they eat.

As we learn more about saturated monounsaturated/polyunsaturated omega3 omega6 etc., and we begin to untangle the many misconceptions we’ve been fed over the decades (I wonder just how much passive brain damage I’ve accumulated over the years as a result of eliminating nearly all fat from my diet as a youth), I think at the very least it’s worth looking in to.