Peanut Butter Bourbon ｜ Make Your Own
Peanut Butter Bourbon
Equipment
- Jar or Container with Lid
- Large Bowl
- Rubber Spatula
- Nut Milking Bag
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Bourbon/Whiskey
- 32 g Unsweetened/Unsalted Peanut Butter (2 Tablespoons)
Instructions
- Stir peanut butter so thoroughly mixed. If you made your own peanut butter from our recipe, it shouldn’t need any mixing. The recipe is linked below.
- Measure and pour the bourbon into a bowl. Scoop the peanut butter into the bowl and stir thoroughly.
- The mixture will change color and become very cloudy.
- Cover with plastic wrap and allow it to sit at room temperature for 4 or 5 hours, stirring every hour to make the peanut butter gets fully infused.
- Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and freeze it overnight. If you're worried about it spilling, you can transfer the mixture to a jar or a container. Just make sure whatever you put it into has a large mouth.
- The next morning, there may or may not be solid fats frozen on top. Since I don’t use oil to make our homemade peanut butter and I use dry roasted peanuts, I don’t get any fat solids on top. Results may vary for you. If there are fat solids on top, scoop them out and throw away.
- After removing any fat solids, pour the mixture into a nut milk bag and drain into a new bowl. Use a rubber spatula to free any peanut butter sediment that has collected on the bottom of the bowl.
- Squeeze the nut milk bag to help separate the liquid whisky from the peanut butter.
- Cover the bowl and repeat the freezing process overnight again. Drain the bourbon through a nut milk bag again. This will help remove more fat solids.
- Repeat this freezing fat removal process until there are no more fats and peanut butter to remove from the mixture.
- Store in refrigerator.
Notes
DIY Peanut Butter Bourbon
Peanut butter bourbon, three words I never thought I would see together, but here we are. They actually combine together surprisingly well. The nutty flavor from the peanuts and sweetness of the bourbon join forces and create something that is amazing pleasing.
If you’re in the US or Canada, there are ready made products on the market already. The one that comes to mind is Skrewball. Being in Japan, unfortunately, means it’s very hard to get my hands on a bottle. Where there is a crisis there is an opportunity.
Honestly, it’s not as daunting of a task as it might first seem.
Getting Your Peanut Butter Bourbon Just Right
When flavoring liquors, it’s never a good move to use a bottle of something that well made and expensive. Imparting new flavors is going to ruin all the subtle complexities. In short, it’s a waste of money.
My go to flavoring bourbon is Four Roses. I use their cheapest version, which is NOT a sipping bourbon. It has a rough edge and some off flavor notes, but it’s not horrible. It’s also really cheap, coming in at less than $20 for a liter. All of which makes it a perfect choice. The peanut butter has a strong taste profile, which will smooth out the rough edge and hide the off flavors.
If you’d rather use whiskey instead of bourbon, go right ahead. I like bourbon better because of its sweetness, but this recipe will work fine with whiskey.
Although not required, making your own peanut butter is great way to ensure your final product turns out the best it could possibly be.
If you’re going to use something store bought, you really want to make sure it’s unsweetened. Unsalted to, if possible. You should avoid using something like Skippy. These might seem to counter the advice I gave about the bourbon, but most of the profile of the finished product is going to come from the peanut butter. Oils, sugars, and salt are going to alter how the finished bourbon tastes and feels in your mouth.
Lastly, feel free to scale the amount up from one cup. I gave the basic formula to make scaling as easy as possible.
How To Use It
To the surprise of no one, peanut butter bourbon is a key into a world of new and exciting cocktails. As we start experimenting we’ll be posting recipes, so keep an eye on this space.
Surprisingly, it’s good on it’s own and makes for a tasty shot. The only issue is that the finished product looks a bit cloudy. Don’t be shocked to see some sediment collecting at the bottom.
If shots aren’t your thing, it works nicely in coffee, imparting notes of butterscotch.
Come on, take a lesson now…