Homemade Maple Cinnamon Chia Peanut Butter

After a week of traveling to and from my sister's wedding, getting both a preschooler and senior settled in new schools, and getting my butt kicked by a weeklong headache, I am finally getting back into blogging. I have lots of projects to post, including the menu board I made for my sister, but today, I'm posting about one of my new favorite things: homemade peanut butter. 

I've had several peanut butter (and Nutella) recipes on Pinterest, but never got around to making most of them until I found my sister's cinnamon peanut butter in the frig when we were staying with here. YUM! I've made a few batches since we got home a few weeks ago, but despite tasting delicious--and not lasting more than a day or so--the texture wasn't quite right. It was a little crumbly and didn't spread very well. 

I poured over several online recipes looking for the secret, and the best I can tell, I didn't process my peanuts long enough. Today I decided to document my process. 

I started with this Chia Peanut Butter recipe from The Healthy Everthingtarian. My favorite store-bought peanut butter, Naturally More Peanut Butter with Flax Seed, is getting harder and harder to find, and since I'm newly obsessed with chia seeds, I thought this would be a perfect base. 

Following The Healthy Everthingarian's recipe, I added 2.5 cups peanuts and 1/2 cup chia seeds to my food processor. I've made peanut butter with and without skin, and since I don't notice much difference, I skipped the step of removing the skins.

After one minute, everything was nice and minced.

Before turning the processor back on, I added 1 Tablespoon maple syrup.

After two minutes, the butter was a little more creamy, but still pretty dry, so I added a Tablespoon of walnut oil. My sister says it's a healthy oil.

After three minutes, the butter started to get a little clumpy. This is where I stopped before.

Today, I added another Tablespoon of walnut oil and maple syrup.

After four minutes, the butter started to achieve the desired texture!

At this point, I remembered the cinnamon. I added a teaspoon.

After five minutes, perfection!

I used a spatula to put the yummy peanut butter in a jar. I didn't bother to date it this time because as soon our son finds out I made this, he'll be asking for peanut butter for lunch. Not a peanut butter sandwich, just peanut butter. I speak from experience.

My favorite way to eat peanut butter is on warm homemade cinnamon raisin bread!

Now that I know five minutes it's the magic number to make creamy, spreadable peanut butter. I look forward to experimenting some more. 

What's your favorite peanut butter flavor? 

Linked to: House of Hepworths * I Heart Naptime * My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia * Naptime Creations