Pandora’s Box

 (...or in this case, Pandora's Jar)

This has become a common dialog in our kitchen.

Me: “You know what I think I have to do…”

The husband: “Oh no...”

Me: “Yep, I’m gonna have to start making this from scratch,” (as I read the ingredients)

The husband: “Sigh,” (as he thinks about the mess I’m about to make and that he will no doubt end up cleaning up.)

Did I mention that my husband is the greatest?  He truly is supportive of all of my crazy kitchen endeavors.  He willingly tries out my experiments and cleans up after me.  What more could a girl ask for?  Did I also happen to mention he is my editor?

The most recent realization was that we have been eating a lot of peanut butter.  I’ve been craving protein as I increase my running distance and apples with peanut butter are an easy go-to snack.  I just had to take a closer look at our favorite childhood peanut butter that has been a staple in our pantry for time out of mind. (I won’t mention the brand, as I promised myself not to brand bash in this blog, it’s not good karma.  I will only mention a brand if I think it is absolutely wonderful and my endorsement might help their bottom-line because my following has grown so immense.  Hey, a girl can dream! Can’t she?) Back to my favorite childhood jar of peanut butter; there it was, just after peanuts and sugar, (as I feared) the third ingredient printed on the label was the dreaded “hydrogenated vegetable oil.” With all of the nutritional reading I’ve been doing lately, I knew that it was not a good thing. While this type of oil is most likely employed for it’s preservative qualities, we don’t need our peanut butter to be shelf stable for a year plus, we are going to eat it much more quickly than that. So what would I need to mix up a healthier alternative?  Roasted peanuts, a little sea salt, and something to give it the proper texture, coconut oil!  What the heck, I’ll give it a whirl. 

There was a little pout and a fake sniff from the husband, he was not too keen on losing a childhood favorite either.  But he is learning that I’m not going to take a beloved part of our diet away, unless I can replace it with something better, not only better in terms of health but possibly also in terms of taste.  So he stood guard over the food processor skeptically, as the peanuts began to spin around. 

First they turned into a fine crumb mixture and then we worried that the blade was no longer making contact, so I stopped the machine and scrapped the edges of the bowl with a spatula.  When the spinning commenced, something started to take shape, a rough mound began to form and gradually became a misshapen ball. 

As the minutes passed, the dough like mixture surrendered back to the bottom of the bowl and formed a sputtering paste.  I tasted it...  peanuty.  It needed a little salt, but not much and about two heaping tablespoons of coconut oil to help the liquidy texture come together.  It thickened a bit.  We tasted it again, victory!  I poured the contents into two Weck jars and stuck them in the fridge.  

A follow up to the afore mentioned brand name bash declaration, Weck jars are super awesome glass jars with plastic lids that pop on and off.  They have glass lids and clamps for canning, but I use the convenient plastic lids for fridge storage.  We first encountered this brand of jars in Switzerland.  Our hotel served housemade yogurt in them every morning.  I fell instantly in love with the yogurt, the jars, the Swiss, you name it!  Anyhow, Weck jars will be referred to often, always in a positive light.  (I am not paid to promote this brand, but if anyone from Weck is listening, I could be persuaded.)

Here is the down and dirty recipe for Pandora’s Peanut Butter

Ingredients:

16 oz dry roasted unsalted peanuts

½ tsp sea salt (or to taste)

2 heaping tbsp coconut oil

Place peanuts in the food processor and use a large blade.  Start up the processor and once the nuts resemble fine crumbs stop grinding for a moment, scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and continue.  The nuts will form a ball, then dissolve into a liquid-like paste.  Stop the machine again and taste, add salt (if desired), then add the coconut oil).  Blend again for another minute.  Pour it in jars, with the help of your rubber spatula.

This mixture would last for a couple of weeks when kept in the pantry but since the consistency was a little on the thin side, I am going to keep it in the fridge.  That way it will last a month or two, though I highly expect we will have eaten it all by then.