After a long hiatus from making homemade “nut” butter, I tried a new approach . . . and it worked great!
So, for a couple of years, up until October 2022, I used my VitaMix to make homemade peanut-and-cashew butter. But I stopped doing that for two reasons:
First, I started making A LOT OF FOOD for my Va-Va-Vegan clients. I had to pick and choose very carefully what to make for Ron and me because my kitchen time was mostly used up! No complaints: I love cooking for clients. But I had to make some sacrifices.
Second, making peanut-and-cashew butter was a pain in the ass. The Vitamix would overheat several times during the process, and I would have to stop for up to two full hours for the machine to recover! Big-time bummer☹️. What should have taken less than half an hour ended up taking ALL DAY.
So I stopped. I switched to eating Trader Joe’s Organic No-Salt Creamy Valencia Peanut Butter most of the time because unsalted organic cashew butter was hard to come by. I don’t know why that is, since I much prefer cashews to peanuts. Oh well, the nut market is what it is (although, technically speaking, the cashew is not a nut but a DRUPE!)
Anyway, sometime around April 2023, I started getting an upset stomach after eating even one tablespoon of peanut butter, so I stopped altogether.
Then, while Ron and I were on our epic summer roadtrip, I had a revelation, or maybe a “I-hope-I’m-having-a-revelation”:
Maybe I could make 100% CASHEW butter! Forget peanuts (which are technically a legume, since they grow in the ground)!
Today I tested my wish, and it came true. I made cashew butter; the Vitamix didn’t shut down even once; and the “creaming” process took only about 20 minutes! (If you make your own cashew butter, leave time to both scrape out the butter into your selected jars and also wash the Vitamix and tools, which will add about 15 minutes to total recipe-making time.)
I used 1 1/2 cups of whole cashews, which were also roasted. I have a feeling that buying raw cashews that are also “pieces” instead of the larger whole cashews may expedite the nut-butter-making process, so I’ll try that next time.
Meanwhile, I now have two small jars of yummy cashew butter! I can’t wait to add a bit to some squares of my homemade Chocolate Zucchini Breakfast Bars tomorrow morning!
This post may not be super-exciting for you, but I wanted to share my experience in case anyone has a similar issue to mine, or simply wants to make their own cashew butter!
As always, I wish you all excellent health, well-being, and life-affirming creativity.💖
Sounds delish, especially with your breakfast bars!! I have several recipes for various "nut butters," but just have not had time to make them, yet.
I will share this with my executive chef, thank you for sharing.