Friday, December 4, 2009

Peanut Butter Separation Anxiety - Solved!



Do you like peanut butter? Mmm...I sure do. But wait - I'm not talking about that peanutty spread pictured above. That's just hydrogenated oil and icing sugar mixed with some crushed peanuts. Yeccccch!

I'm talking about ground peanuts in a jar. It's yummy stuff and it's one of my favourite treats, drizzled onto a banana, spread on toast with honey, on a cracker at night time. The problem is, there is a lot of separation of liquids and solids in a jar of peanut butter while it's sitting on a store shelf waiting for you to take it home. I have spent many collective hours wiping oily splotches off my counters made by an attempt to stir the PB oil and peanuts back together so that they become a homogenous spread. This has always been a tricky job, until now. I have discovered the secret to mixing natural peanut butter back into a lovely, smooth consistency.

Many people decide they'd rather buy the Kraft-type peanut spread pictured above because it's just so much easier to open the lid and spread away! Now you'll no longer be tempted by these horrible spreads because here is the solution you've been waiting for.

Buy a new jar of PB before your old one runs out. Place them side by side on the counter, lids removed. Using a fork, take out several forkfuls of peanut butter out of the new jar and place it into the "old" jar. Be careful not to let any of the oil drip onto the counter as you transfer the ground peanuts between jars. No focus on the new jar: use your fork to stir the oily, peanutty mass into a nicely blended spread. If it looks like you have too much in the new jar and the oil levels might seep out of the jar as you're stirring, simply take a bit more out of the new and place it in the old jar. Now put your newly-blended jar of PB and put it in the fridge. It will stay blended. And use up that old jar as quickly as can be. No mess, no fuss, no spills!

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