Peanuuuuuuut... Peanut Butter!

One of three
ingredients

As I was hunched in front of the fridge hiding from my daughter this evening, pouring chocolate syrup over the spoonful of peanut butter, I noticed that we were almost out.  SITUATION CRITICAL!
We love peanut butter in this house.  It is always in stock, and the dog has her own jar that is used solely for Kong® stuffing purposes when we leave the house.  It is not good to be out of peanut butter.
Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about an outage for long - last month, I read how easy it was to make peanut butter at one of my favorite blogs, Kath Eats.  And apparently I thought ahead, as I decided to buy a boatload of peanuts a few weeks ago, just for this project.

whir, whir, whir...

Thus, after Her Royal Highness was tucked snugly into her bed, I took Julia (my Cuisinart®) out of the cupboard and got her ready to go.
Uh, a little note - I would not recommend using Spanish peanuts.  There isn't much difference between these peanuts and what might be labeled as dry roasted peanuts, but they have the skins on.  I am not sure how the skins would affect the taste and/or texture of the finished PB, but I didn't want to find out, so I relieved those little guys of their jackets.
I got a little nervous as the crushed peanuts started bunching up on one side, but I persevered, stopping every few minutes to scrape everything down and to even out the mixture.  Finally (seriously, it was like forever), the peanuts went from crushed mess to smooth, creamy yumminess.  I added kosher salt and my homemade vanilla extract, gave Julia another spin, and had... peanut butter (read those last two words in an awed whisper).
I couldn't wait - I threw a few slices of the bread I made this weekend into the toaster and waited impatiently to slather them up (isn't slather the most lovely word) and hork them down.
The result - definitely doing this again.  And again.  And again.

Homemade from base to top!