3 Ways To Use Up The Peanut Butter In Your Almost-Finished Jar

Getting to the end of a jar of peanut butter is upsetting for two reasons. The first is that all that peanut butter, all that delicious, creamy, gooey, flavorful peanut butter, is gone. The second is that cleaning peanut butter jars is really annoying. And yes, I know there are ways to make it easier! But it’s still annoying, and it takes time to do it right so you can recycle it. 

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So, when ways come along to both make cleaning out old peanut jars simpler while simultaneously making sure you’re getting every scrap of flavor out of them – and then, on top of that, sometimes making brand-new dishes or food items – then we’re all ears. Make the most of that almost-finished jar with these clever little techniques.

Turn The Dregs Into A Noodle Sauce

Peanut butter is an essential ingredient in a lot of noodle sauce recipes, both those designed for cold and hot dishes – but in both situations, you can make the sauce in the jar itself, instead of decanting all of your ingredients into a bowl. Just add your sauce’s components to an almost-finished peanut butter jar; you probably want around a tablespoon or two left of peanut butter here, but honestly, you don’t have to be strict about it. Then, shake everything together, and the PB will loosen into the sauce. 

Quick tip, though: If your peanut butter is a little dry, avoid the temptation to add more soy sauce to soften it, as this will make the sauce too salty. Instead, add some extra splashes of water. If you’re then simmering the sauce, it’ll concentrate again, so you don’t have to worry too much about losing flavor. 

Peanut Butter Iced Latte

Nut flavors and iced lattes are a natural pair, but instead of using a hazelnut or almond syrup, use your peanut butter dregs instead. Add a shot of espresso to a peanut butter jar, and shake, shake, shake. The heat from the espresso will help soften the peanut butter and, crucially, will mean you don’t have a load of blobs of it in your drink. 

Then, open it back up, and add milk and sugar syrup or honey, plus any other ingredients you want to mix in. Close and shake to froth it up a little and mix everything, and then pour it into a cup of ice and be on your merry way. 

Add It To Brownies

Swirling peanut butter into brownies is, of course, an utterly delicious thing to do, and a canny way to use up any leftover PB sitting in a jar in your pantry – and while you can just scrape the dregs out with a spatula, you can also make your life a little easier by warming up the jar first by popping it in a hot water bath. 

Once the peanut butter is soft, pour a little melted butter and a squeeze of honey into your jar, and shake gently to combine. Then spoon the mixture over the top of a prepared brownie mixture in little blobs, swirling it in with a toothpick before baking. Perfection.