Make your own cashew butter
A while back, Ellie Krieger tweeted something about saving butter for a treat and using a nut butter instead. I actually PREFER a nut butter because of the satiety factor.
Because I am a total brown noser, I tweeted at her about my home made cinnamon cashew butter and she retweeted me..
which is awesome.
It also raised a question from one of her readers looking for a recipe.
@ellie_krieger @piratejeniis there a recipe to be had?
— Kerry Weatherly (@KerryWeatherly) January 18, 2013
I forget that not everyone knows that nut butters are just.. well.. ground up nuts. I do add some oil because not every nut is as oily as say, peanuts. I told a friend of mine a while back that she could make her own nut butters and she was surprised that it was that easy.
She’s gone nut butter crazy and is doing things like grinding up entire jars of mixed nuts… shazam!
All you need really is a food processor and some easy to find stuff
Not shown: Drizzle in the melted coconut oil while the machine is running. It’s ok if it’s still hot. That stuff is solid at room temp so .. yanno…
Time to add the cinnamon and vanilla
Add salt.. yes really. Salt bumps the flavor and makes your vanilla and cinnamon more prominent
Now is a good time to taste it. Does it need more vanilla? More salt? More cinnamon? You decide.
Because of the coconut oil, this will get HARD if you refrigerate it… but it will soften up again at room temp. I used to keep my homemade nut butters in the fridge but since I started using coconut oil, I don’t think that’s necessary. Your mileage may vary. This little jar doesn’t keep for long in my house. I eat it with a spoon.
Side note: I don’t think this will save you any money. Cashew are expensive whether they are ground up or whole. But I like being able to add my own flavorings.
Also: the coconut oil adds a SLIGHT coconut flavor, which I enjoy. However, if you don’t enjoy that, feel free to use whatever neutral oil you do like.. you could also get fancy and get walnut oil or hazelnut oil, but that will get expensive quick. Just sayin.
I always figured homemade nut butters were that easy but never made my own, I definitely should now! I just saw that coconut oil at the store last weekend and I think it was over $20! Maybe I’ll go to Dick’s and get one of those massive containers of peanut oil. I love those anyway for frequent frying. Great post – as always, your kitchen adventures are so inspirational!
Yeah, coconut oil is spendy.. but that giant jar will last a good long time. I’ve also used safflower oil because it holds up to the high heat of the food processor blades.