How we do it in Honduras:
At the market in the city, buy one pound of raw peanuts and one block of rapadura (solid, unrefined cane sugar). One morning, use a knife to shave off a pile of rapadura and place it in a small pan with enough water to cover it. Over the breakfast fire, boil for several minutes, stirring occasionally until it is the consistency of runny syrup; remove from heat.
After breakfast, over the morning coals, roast the peanuts on the comal (flat griddle surface of the stove). Keep the nuts moving with a spatula, to assure even toasting. Once lightly browned, remove them to a metal dish to cool.
When the rapadura syrup is cool, filter it into a bottle, using a funnel lined with a loose-weave cloth. Once the peanuts are cool, remove the hulls by rubbing the nuts between your fingers. Pour them from one bowl to another several times in the breeze, so the hulls fly away. If there is no breeze, blow on them yourself.
Grind the peanuts in a food mill. Add a pinch of salt and rapadura syrup to taste. Mix in palm oil until you have the desired consistency. Voila! You have peanut butter.
Wash the mill parts and take a rest.
Collect an egg from the henhouse. Crack it into a bowl and beat with a fork. Measure into the bowl one cup of Honduran-grown, locally refined sugar. Add a cup of peanut butter and mix until smooth. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a pan. Cover the pan and wait for the next cook-fire.
At the next cook-fire, place the cookie pan on the edge of the hot comal. Rotate the pan regularly. After a while, flip the cookies to assure they cook all the way through. When they seem finished, remove from pan to another dish to cool and firm up. Continue until all cookies are baked. ~~~
Confianza del Señor is a nun at Amigas del Señor Methodist Monastary, which is supported by Multnomah Monthly Meeting (NPYM).