I love peanut butter and sunflower seed butter, but this week it’s been all about another kind of nut butter.
Chocolate Coconut Cashew Butter anyone?
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Chocolate Coconut Cashew Butter
Makes about 2/3 to 3/4 cup
1/2 cup cashews, soaked (I used raw, unsalted, whole cashews from TJs. Use raw/unsalted if possible)
1/3 cup agave/honey/maple syrup (combo of one or any), to taste
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Optional and omit if you don’t like coconut flavored food; at which point you’d have Chocolate Cashew Butter:
1/4 cup coconut flakes (unsweetened or sweetened)
2 tablespoonscoconut oil
Soak cashews in water for at least an hour (4-6 hours or more is ideal). Remove soaked cashews and add them with the remaining ingredients to a Vita-Mix, high speed blender, or food processor. Blend until mixture is smooth.
Tips:
If you don’t have a Vita or similar type blender (i.e. you are using a Magic Bullet or mini food processor), your cashew butter may not get as smooth or creamy as it will in a Vita, but just keep blending. Scrape down the sides, blend. Repeat. Repeat. Even in the Vita, it took about 4-5 minutes on high to get the nut butter really smooth. Find those ear plugs. No one ever said nut butter has to be perfectly smooth. Crunchy nut butter is still great.
If the nut butter seems too thick and your machine is having a hard time really blending the butter, add a bit more agave/honey/maple syrup, or coconut oil to make blending easier.
I store mine in refrigerator; will solidify a bit in the fridge from the coconut oil but softens again at room temp.
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Everything in…
…Blend. And keep on blendin’
This was after about 2 minutes on high. It took another 3 or so to get it really smooth.
It all smooths out. It just takes awhile. And it doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, anyway.
Enjoy!
If this recipe looks a bit familiar, it’s because it’s the same recipe that I used for the coating of the Chocolate Coconut Kale Chips I made earlier in the week.
The coating was too good not to make and eat as nut butter.
Eat this on fruit, on bread, on top of oatmeal, in smoothies, as a smoothie “topper”, on crackers, or however you like to eat nut butter.
Or just dip your spoon into the bowl and go to town.
If you like chocolate, infused with coconut flavoring, then this recipe is for you.
The other great thing is that cashew butter is much easier to make than almond butter or even peanut butter. Cashews just soften up and blend far easier than other kinds of nuts, in my experience.
I should know. I’ve accidentally made cashew butter many times in the process of making Raw Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
So it was easy to make cashew butter for this recipe. And it was only natural, but of course, to add chocolate and coconut in, too.
From my last post about Locally Grown and whether or not you support locally grown foods or farmers, it was great to read how many of you do as much as you possibly can to support local agriculture. I think it’s wonderful to support small businesses, locally-owned, and family-0wned businesses from farms to restaurants to service providers when ever possible.
And yes, I can’t wait til my locally grown avocados ripen up! Thanks for sharing what you’d make with them.
Questions:
1. What’s your favorite kind of nut butter?
I have a serious love affair with peanut butter. I have an entire post dedicted to my peanut butter recipes. From tofu to desserts to peanut sauce, I use peanut butter all the time.
I also love sunflower seed butter. TJ’s sunflower seed butter, especially considering how inexpensive it is, is probably my favorite nut butter for just “eating” whereas PB is what I use in recipes. However, it’s like picking which blog is your favorite. Impossible to choose.
But it’s between PB and SFSButter for me.
All my recipes that I use PB or SFSB in, you could use Almond Butter in them, or another nut butter. I know some people have allergies or taste preferences and everything is interchangeable with my recipes.
2. Have you ever tried to make your own nut butter? What kind and how did it turn out?
I have tried to make almond butter before and it so-so. And I don’t really love almond butter anyway but this was a few years ago when I first got my Vita and wanted to make nut butter in it! Almonds don’t soften nearly as well as cashews, plus I didn’t flavor it well enough with agave/honey/maple, vanilla, and it was very boring tasting to me.
I have never tried to make my own peanut butter, or sunflower seed butter. For $3.99 a jar, max, at TJ’s, I’ll leave those to the pros.
However, chocolate coconut cashew butter, cost me less than $3.99 to make and took 5 minutes. Try it!
Oh my that nut butter looks amazingly smooth. I really need a vitamix, I am so jealous. I make nut butters occasionally but they’re still gritty. I can never get them smooth. The pictures look fabulous :D I make a chocolate hazelnut butter because we have a ton of hazelnuts from the trees in our yard. I really have to try again because it tastes great. I still think plain old peanut butter is my favorite though.
I’ve been loving your recent chocolate and nut butter recipes lately. Seriously, what can get better than that?? My favorite nut butter has to be the Dark Chocolate Dreams. Gosh its hard to resist attacking the jar when I need a study break.
Although I’ve tried tons of nut butter varieties and brands, I’ve never attempted to make my own. I need to upgrade to a better blender or food processor first..
Beautiful, Averie.
I recently made pistachio-honey nut butter. It was quite good. I let mine be somewhat chunky ;-)
My favorite kind of nut butter is def TJoe’s SFS butter. That stuff just rocks!
I can’t get over the beautiful composition of your photos. Every part of the shot was well thought out and it all came together perfectly. It’s inspiring that you’ve really put effort and thought into learning more about photography, on top of everything else you do!!!
I just got a brand new powerful blender and food processor in the mail yesterday, and this might just have to be the first recipe i christen it with! Looks fabulous.
-kate
thanks kate :)
Peanut butter is definitely my favorite nut butter, but when it comes to nuts in general, cashews win my heart! Especially in the form of cookie dough bites! In the past I’ve made cashew butter and almond butter. I used to love almond butter, but not so much anymore. When I made it myself, I blended it too long and it came out runny. The cashew butter was great though! Cashews are so creamy! I should make peanut butter. I don’t know why I haven’t.
Oh YUM! That looks so good and is so simple to make. Will have to see if I still have some cashews in the pantry that I can use for this recipe.
Your photos are really improving. Appreciating the contrast of the choc nut butter, the red strawberries, white bowl / plate / ramekin, and the green cloth brings it all together. Nice! How many arrangements did you try before you found the one you liked? Or did you just put it together in one go?
Nut Butters: I’ve tried a wide assortment of nut butters and pretty much enjoy them all. My husband can’t have peanut butter too often (so sad) so if I’m making something that he is going to eat, I don’t use peanut butter. Since we found the larger sized Almond Butter at Costco, that has been our “go to” nut butter.
Haven’t tried to make my own nut butter, but have accidentally had nut butter come out of the blender or food processor when making something else. What a nice surprise :)
How many arrangements did you try before you found the one you liked? Or did you just put it together in one go? =
Lots! I usually take at least 50 – 100 pics of the food in various arrangements and angles, then go in and edit the best shots. You never know what’s gonna work and what isnt!
This looks amazing, Averie!! I’m definitely going to try it out. And your pictures are so beautiful!! :)
The photos of the chocolate coconut cashew butter are AMAZING. It looks sooo delicious!!
My favorite kind of nut butter is pb&co’s white chocolate wonderful peanut butter with plain almond butter at a close second! :D
I’ve been dying to try making my own nut butters… I think this may have to be the first one! YUM!
Ohhhh… it’s like dessert nut butter! *drool*
I’ve never made my own, but I did finally get a new blender with good intentions of developing a nutty concoction of my very own.
Totally envious of your local avocados, btw. :)
I love cashews! I need to make this ASAP! I have made my own almond butter before, but it didn’t really come out that well.
PS. your photos look phenomenal!
Omg, this looks amazing. I can’t believe it’s real and possible to do at home. I’ll try it, for sure. Thanks a lot for the recipe!