Cashew butter

[KerrynN]

Hi all

I want to make Afghani Quinoa Stew this week for dinner. Last time I made it I used commercial peanut butter but thought to give it a try with homemade cashew butter (which we have wanted to try for a while). I have spent the last half hour trying to find a recipe but the closes I got was to follow the peanut butter (EDC) recipe and just replace the peanuts with cashews. I read another post from QuirkyJo which said that she uses macadamias in place of oil in her nut butters.

So i guess I'm asking if anyone has a specific cashew butter recipe or if I should just follow the EDC with QuikyJo's macadamias in place of the oil?

Thanks,
Kerryn

[Cuilidh]

Hi Kerryn

I would stick to Quirky Jo's suggestion.  I think you can basically make butter from any nut, using macadamias gives you oil, but if you haven't got macadamias and your butter is 'dry' most light tasting oils would do the trick - I tend to use rice bran simply because that's what I've got in the larder.

[goldfish]

Hi Kerryn . . I just googled "cashew nut butter in the thermomix" and there are a few sites to look at . . . have a quick look at these:

http://www.ukthermomix.com/recshow.php?rec_id=138  (This one comes with a youtube video - just cashews, oil and salt)

http://www.yummly.com/recipes/raw-cashew-nut-butter

http://www.food.com/recipe/thermomix-cashew-butter-461576  (this one adds 6 gm maple syrup - which should be interesting!)

[KerrynN]

Thanks ladies! I am off to the grocery store now, so will get myself some cashews and give it a go. I will try without maple syrup first as I don't want to get the kids too keen on a sweeter version if they are happy with the 'standard' one.

Cheers!

[KerrynN]

I just watched the video that Goldfish directed me to. It was interesting but she didn't say how fast she was going at any point which was a little annoying.

I ended up using 250g roasted, unsalted cashews and an additional 50g of salted, roasted macadamias. Based on a non TMX recipe I simply put the nuts all in and processed on sp9 them continuously until they started to come together as a butter (24 seconds, as compared to the 13 minutes of the food processor recipe). I scraped down the side and processed again on sp9 for another 20 secs, scraped down again, and repeated for another 10 seconds.

The final product is tasty but still quite 'grainy' as the nuts started to go to butter before they were powdered. I just tested it out on a piece of toast and will offer it to the kids for breakfast in the morning (perhaps I will just give it to them rather than offer it...).

I wonder if I should have done the macadamias first as they are a tougher nut, or whether I just needed to whizz them on a lower speed for a longer time before trying to get it to combine at the higher speed? Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how to avoid this? I know DS10 will say that he only likes smooth peanut butter...

Also, at the higher speed the TMX was making a horrific noise that is still making my teeth hurt to think about it - think blackboards and finger nails... youch! I have never heard it make that noise on that speed before.

[Meagan]

When I do peanut butter I just chop on spd 8/9 until fine and they start to combine or until the noise indicates it is enough. Then lower the speed to about 6 I use macadamia oil and drizzle it in to get the consistency I want hope that helps.
Keep blending on 5/6 to make it smoother.

[KerrynN]

Thanks Megan! I will give that a go next time. Guess there's not that much difference in adding the macadamias themselves or the pure oil anyway.