Fall in love with this 10-minute homemade Cookie Butter Peanut butter, it’s rich, wholesome taste will leave you with a smile!
I love Peanut Butter
I love Cookie Butter
It was about time I combined the two.
I won’t say that this spread tastes exactly like Cookie Butter or Biscoff Spread because they’re not made from peanuts, whereas this is. But it’s definitely more along the lines of cookie butter than peanut butter.
I thought long and hard about what to include to achieve the flavor I wanted. Although it would have been possible to omit peanuts and make cookie butter by pulverizing gingersnap cookies with heavy doses of cinnamon, spices, and sugar, I would have had to grind a ridiculous amount of cookies and add a considerable amount of oil, which didn’t seem appealing.
Peanuts are an easy choice to give this spread bulk and volume. Plus, I didn’t have to add a drop of oil thanks to the natural oils in peanuts.
The spread comes together in about five minutes in a food processor and is basically work-free. Grab your ear plugs and get ready to blend your way into a new pants size because once you make this, you’ll eat half the jar the first day. And if you don’t, please lend me some of your willpower.
I’ve made this with both lightly salted roasted peanuts and honey roasted peanuts. Using honey roasted peanuts creates a spread that’s slightly sweeter and with a greater depth of flavor than lightly salted peanuts, but using either are fine. Unnroasted or unsalted peanuts are far too bland for my taste and I wouldn’t recommend them. You could likely substitute cashews or almonds in place of the peanuts but I strongly prefer peanut butter to all other nut butters and used peanuts.
Like making Homemade Peanut Butter, much of the process is the same.
Begin by adding just the peanuts and nothing else at all to the canister of food processor.
Turn it on and the first initial seconds are incredibly loud as the peanuts rattle against the plastic, but it softens after just a few seconds. I always tell my family members before I make nut butter so no one jumps out of their chair with that loud blast coming out of no where before I power the machine on.
There peanuts go through various stages in the approximately five minutes it takes to go from peanuts to peanut butter:
crushed peanuts
crushed into a fine powder
a paste
a thicker paste
and a big peanut butter “dough ball” forms
Then the big ball magically breaks down.
It starts out gritty and thick but in just another minute it smooths out and liquifies.
As you keep processing, the peanut butter becomes smoother, creamier, and thins out. Keep processing until the peanut butter is very smooth and liquidy, another minute or two.
I like my peanut butter buttery smooth and allow it process for a couple minutes after it’s liquified until I’m certain that’s it’s velvety smooth. I’ve never experienced any issues with over-processing and it may seem almost too liquidy and runny but this is normal. Because it’s natural peanut butter and hasn’t been treated with hydrogenated oils like storebought, it’s going to be runnier than Jif or Skippy.
It firms up at room temperature and solidifies much more in the refrigerator. As a bonus, it doesn’t separate into a layer of oil and a solid dry mass, which is something I dislike about many storebought ‘natural’ peanut butters.
To create the wonderful cinnamon-ginger flavor of Cookie Butter and to provide the ever-fine gritty texture it has, cinnamon-ginger cookies are added to the warm, fresh peanut butter. They also serve to bulk it up and solidify it.
I used one dozen speculoos cookies that I brought back with me from Aruba. I recommend using cookies that are gingery, crunchy and crisp, with ample amounts of cinnamon and spice, such as Trader Joe’s Bistro Biscuits, Biscoff cookies, Nabisco Gingersnaps or similar gingersnap cookies, or even Cinnamon Graham Crackers. Plan to use about twelve to fifteen cookies.
I have a ferociously strong food processor and throw them in whole, all at once, through the feed tube but if your machine is older or not as strong, crushing the cookies in your hand and sprinkling the crumbs in may prevent your machine from struggling.
Along with the cookies, add one tablespoon of cinnamon and about one-half teaspoon vanilla extract. The values are approximate and based on taste, but I find anything less than a tablespoon of cinnamon just gets lost in all that robustly-flavored peanut butter and seasoning aggressively is necessary in order to create the Cookie Butter flavor profile.
Process until the cookies are blended and the spread is smooth, another minute or two. I’ve never need to any oil for the spread to become smooth, but if you do, adding a tiny amount of vegetable, canola, or palm oil will help. Peanut oil is too pungent and coconut oil solidifies at colder temperatures and imparts a flavor profile that isn’t consistent with Cookie Butter and I wouldn’t use it here. Do not add honey because it will glom up your machine and the mixture, making it even thicker and more difficult to blend.
Next add about one cup of white chocolate chips and process them until smooth. You’ll be amazed at how one cup literally disappears in the canister before your very eyes and how they blend down so quickly and easily that you’d never even know they were there. If you want to add more; that’s just fine. I’ve made this using nearly two cups. And I loved every spoonful.
Even if you’re not a white chocolate person, you’ll want to use it here. It adds butteriness, richness, creaminess, and overall smoothness to the spread. Plus, it lightly sweetens it. Storebought Cookie Butter is lightly sweetened and up until this point, no sweeteners have been added, other than the gingersnap cookies and that’s not enough. White chocolate works it’s magic and the resulting spread is sweet enough, but not too sweet, and it doesn’t taste like white chocolate-peanut butter at all.
Transfer the spread into a glass jar or other container with a lid. I’ve kept it in plastic yogurt containers and old butter containers. The batch will fill a 16-ounce jar (one pint) to the brim, plus about one-quarter cup.
I store my spread either in the refrigerator or at room temperature. At room temperature it firms up some but stays soft. In the refrigerator, because of the white chocolate, it does harden but softens up again after ten minutes at room temperature. I estimate that it could be stored at room temperature for at least two weeks without issue, but with anything, let common sense be your guide. In the refrigerator it will keep for months. The shelf life at either room temp or in the fridge will far exceed your willpower and longterm storage issues will be moot.
The spread has just the right amount of spice from the cinnamon as well as from the gingery, cinnamon-laced cookies. They also add the perfect amount of texture and tiny bit of grittiness like storebought Cookie Butter or Biscoff. White chocolate is a stealth workhorse, providing creaminess, richness, and the perfect balance of sweetness, creaminess, and richness.
It’s one of the best things I’ve made in ages and considering it takes about five minutes, it’s dangerous. I’ve remade it three times in two weeks. Yes, four batches in two weeks. Save me.
I wish I could say I bake with it and use it in recipes, spread it on toast, or dip apples into it, but no.
I happily eat it by itself by the spoonful.
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Homemade Cookie Butter Peanut Butter
Ingredients
- 16 ounces honey roasted or lightly salted roasted peanuts
- 13 gingersnap-style cookies, Speculoos cookies, Trader Joe's Bistro Bisuits, Biscoff Cookies, Keebler Gingersnaps, Cinnamon Graham Crackers, Kinnikinnick Ginger Snap Cookies, or similar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, or 6 to 8 ounces diced white chocolate, or vegan white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Add peanuts to the canister of a food processor, process on high power until creamy and smooth, about 5 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the canister if necessary however I find the less scraping and interruptions, the better.
- The peanuts will go through stages of: crushed, crushed into a fine powder, a paste, a thicker paste, a big “dough ball”, and then the ball will break down into runnier peanut butter. At the point the peanut butter is runny, continue processing for about 1 to 2 more minutes, making sure the peanut butter is as smooth as desired.
- Add the ginger cookies, cinnamon, vanilla, and process for 1 to 2 minutes, or until smooth and incorporated. I add the cookies whole through the feed tube but if using a weaker or older food processor, crumbling the cookies in your hand first and sprinkling them in may prevent your machine from struggling. Add the white chocolate and blend until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. I've made this with up to 2 cups white chocolate and at 1 cup, it's not discernible but at 2 cups it is more so. Transfer spread into a glass jar or other container with a lid.
- Store spread either in the refrigerator or at room temperature. At room temperature it firms up some but stays soft. In the refrigerator, because of the white chocolate, it does harden but softens up again after ten minutes at room temperature. I estimate that it could be stored at room temperature for at least two weeks without issue, but with anything, let common sense be your guide. In the refrigerator it will keep for months. The shelf life at either room temp or in the refrigerator will far exceed your willpower and I fine longterm storage issues to be moot.
- Recipe can be kept vegan and gluten-free by using regular roasted peanuts rather than honey roasted, gingersnaps that are vegan and gluten-free, and vegan white chocolate. Another option for gluten-free is to make homemade gingersnap or molasses cookies using your favorite GF recipe, bake the cookies to an extra-crisp state, and add those to the recipe in place of storebought cookies.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Do you like Cookie Butter or Bisocoff or peanut butter?
Have you ever made your own nut butter, spreads, or condiments of any kind?
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