PB and J…From Scratch!!!

When we started with From Scratch Weekends at the start of 2010, I knew right away that this classic had to be made entirely from scratch before the year was through.  You might ask, “What was I waiting for?” and that is a great question. 

Well, this is what I was waiting for:

I wasn’t going to try an make peanut butter without a food processor.  Since Ryan gave me this for Hanukkah, I was finally able to take on my mission and meet the goal of a homemade PB and J.

I made good use of many kitchen tools and gadgets for this adventure.  I started off by using the bread machine to make jam.  I figured it would be easy enough since the machine came with recipes and has a jam setting.

 

I thought this blueberry lime sounded good but I was not sure how this would taste with the peanut butter.

Remember when I had the flu?  Note to self, do not grocery shop when you are recovering from the flu.  I was fairly certain that I needed 6 pounds of blueberries for this recipe.  Now you might think 6 pounds sounds like a lot, and usually it does, unless you are recovering from the flu.  Well, seems I only needed 6 cups.  6 cups!  Oh well, I have plenty of frozen blueberries in the freezer now, LOL!

I made sure since I used frozen to drain them well.  There was no way I was finding fresh around here.

I was super glad to know the commissary had pectin.  I wonder who else around here is making homemade jellies and jams.

The directions never said mash the blueberries up, so they stayed whole as I mixed all the ingredients together.  Once I get better at this jam making process I will try things without added sugar, but I limited the experimentation the first time around and stuck with the recipe.

How easy is this?!?!?

After almost an hour and a half, hot jam was ready to cool and be placed in the fridge overnight.

The next day I selected a bread recipe.  I went with a simple honey whole wheat.

 

In go the dry ingredients…

and out comes a nice loaf of bread.

While the bread was cooling I set up my food processor.

 

I had planned on using peanuts still in the shell but my sister suggested the first time using something already roasted and salted.  Again, as I get better and more practice, I will experiment with recipes.

I dumped in the peanuts.

Then I pushed the on button and look at this powerful baby go!

After a while it balled up, so I stopped to check it out.  My sister told me this would happen, so I just scrapped the bowl and got it off the sides before turning it on again.

 

After a little while it all smoothed out.  I think I could have done this a little longer but I didn’t want to risk overdoing it.

 

Not sure why this looks red.  Once it cooled down some I was ready to slice it up and make my sandwich. 

See, it is really not red bread at all.

I did a little of the PB and a little of the J.

Put them together…

 

and I was on my way to enjoying a PB and J entirely from scratch.

Seriously, this was amazing, and really easy.  Time consuming, maybe, but mostly time I could use reading or doing work on the computer.  Oh, and the blueberry lime jam tasted great, even with PB.  I loved the sour bite the lime juice gave to the blueberries.

Well, that does it for From Scratch Weekends for 2010.  Stay tuned for more in 2011.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever made homemade jelly/jam?  Have you ever made homemade PB?