Peanut Butter Tips—Stirring and Measuring
Stirring
We’ve all been there, making a recipe and the old jar of peanut butter runs out. Your hand hurts just thinking about starting a new jar of natural peanut butter. What’s the best way to get that pool of oil distributed and all the hard lumps smoothed out?
I’ve read about many supposedly foolproof ways to get peanut butter well stirred. Here are the most common ones.
Empty the peanut butter into a mixing bowl and stir, or empty it into a food processor
Store the jar upside down (some say turn it right side up again; some say shake it)
Use a hand mixer with just one beater (either a regular beater or a dough hook)
Use a power drill with a paint/mud mixer, a spiral dough hook or beater from a hand mixer, or a wooden spoon
I’ve tried all but #4. A power drill just seems like overkill.
#1 works well, but emptying the peanut butter into a bowl or appliance means extra dishes, and then you have the task of getting the peanut butter back into the jar, which is messy and involves more dishes.
#2 did not displace the hard base of peanut butter at the very bottom of the jar. The oil line was visible about an inch from the bottom of the jar. So I didn’t gain much with this trick.
I found #3 the best solution, with a hack: take a knife or fork and submerge it to the bottom of the jar. Get the hard base of peanut butter unlocked. Then use a single dough hook or beater with a hand mixer and mix it up. I was just given a used Kitchenaid hand mixer, and it worked great!
Measuring
I know of three good ways to measure peanut butter.
Coat the measuring cup with cooking spray
Measure the peanut butter in water (i.e., if the recipe calls for 1/4 cup peanut butter, measure 3/4 cup water into a one cup measure, then fill it to the 1-cup mark with peanut butter), then discard the water
Use an adjustable measuring cup. You pull up the outer cup to your desired amount, then spoon in the peanut butter. Then you push up the inner cup, and the peanut butter drops into the bowl or container.
All of these work well, but I prefer #3, my Metric Wonder Cup, just because it seems easier to fill and empty. It also works well for other nut butters and tahini. It’s dishwasher-safe, so it’s easy to clean.