cashew butter

[guajolote]

My wife loves paenut butter but can no longer eat it. I was going to buy her some cashew butter at the grocery store, but they didn't have any. What the hell, I'll buy some cashews and make it myself. Has anyone ever done this? I was going to put the cashews in my food processor (blender?) and add a little powdered sugar.

[carswell]

Have made cashew and other nut butters in the food processor. Works fine. Sometimes it helps to add a bit of oil (I usually go with peanut but any neutral oil should do; untoasted sesame oil is good for tahini). For chunky butters, chop a couple of handfuls of nuts in the food processor first, set them aside, make your butter and mix in the chopped nuts at the very end.

Edit: The nuts should be lightly toasted before grinding.

Edited July 1, 2003 by carswell (log)

[Katherine]

The blender makes a smoother nut butter. Best of all, buy raw nuts, toast them yourself, and blend hot, adding a stream of oil to the blender container as needed.

Better use a blender with a glass container, though.

[elyse]

Have you gone to a health food store?

[sml311]

My wife loves paenut butter but can no longer eat it. I was going to buy her some cashew butter at the grocery store, but they didn't have any. What the hell, I'll buy some cashews and make it myself. Has anyone ever done this? I was going to put the cashews in my food processor (blender?) and add a little powdered sugar.

Did you ever try this? Did you end up adding sugar (or salt) and how much? How much oil and what kind? I, too, am allergic to peanuts and want to try this. I have no food processor but have a regular blender and a stick blender. Was thinking of using the stick blender in a recycled glass jar (could store in that too). Does that sound like a recipe for disaster?

Thanks!

SML

Suggestions from anyone greatly appreciated!!

[achevres]

Tha Vermont Country Store has Bazzini's Cashew Butter, in case you just want to order some...

Vermont Country Store

[Scotty O]

I would use the blender if I were you. I don't think the stick blender will get the job done. I add a squeeze of honey instead of sugar, and then just add oil in a stream, just until it becomes creamy. I think I usually use about 1-2 Tb's or oil (walnut, peanut, or neutral) per half cup of nut butter.

[PamelaF]

You can usually find cashew butter (and other types of nut butter, almond, macadamia) at Trader Joe's.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Why can't she eat peanut butter? If she has a severe or life-threatening peanut allergy, I'd be very careful about trying cashews. An allergist told me once that if he has a patient who is allergic to one nut, he cautions them about eating other nuts that they aren't allergic to because often they're processed in a facility that also uses the nut they are allergic to.

So if you were allergic to walnuts, but not pecans, he recommended not eating any commercially processed nuts, but it was ok to eat pecans you'd shelled yourself, since you knew they weren't contaminated with walnuts. And the way cashews grow, I don't think you can get them "unshelled" like that.

At the very least, I agree that you should buy the whole cashews yourself, since you might recognize any peanuts that happened to fall into the cashews, which you can't do once they're turned into butter.

[Scotty O]

Aren't peanuts not technically nuts though? That may have some bearing on it.

[jayt90]

Peanuts are legumes, and are harvested beloe the soil. Cashews are not legumes, and harvested above the soil.

[scott123]

I've tried, unsuccessfully, to make creamy nut butters at home. I have to admit that I haven't tried adding oil, though. The only way to get absolutely creamy nut butter without adding oil is to use the huge steel rollers they use in the factories. Crunchy nut butter can be made at home quite easily.

[Pitter]

Simply swirl roasted nuts in the food processor or blender. It takes a few minutes -- before it's done, it's not done. You'll know it when you see it. I've done cashews, almonds, peanuts and hazelnuts this way, without adding oils. If I were to add oil, I would probably use a nut oil such as walnut or macadamia, which are readily available.

[laurel]

I've made nut butters in a big Thai granite mortar and pestle. I like it chunky, but I imagine if I had the patience to pound for another 15 minutes or so, I could get it pretty smooth...

[Wholemeal Crank]

>> Aren't peanuts not technically nuts though? That may have some bearing on it.

True they are legumes, not nuts, but this is a case where allergies don't follow the botanical relationships.

The important point, though, is that even if you know you're not allergic to a particular nut, it can be hard to be sure that there wasn't cross-contamination in a food processing facility at some point. For mild allergies, where you have to eat a large quantity of something to feel sick, it's not a problem, but if you anaphylax, it can be deadly.

That's why these days so many manufacturers are putting warning labels on things about "this product made in a facilty that also processes [thing x, y or z]." They don't want someone allergic to thing x, y, or z to sue them because they weren't warned.

[sml311]

Thanks for the advice everyone. As far as allergies, yeah it's common for people with one tree nut allergy to be allergic to several; peanut, as pointed out, aren't tree nuts but instead are legumes. Fortunately, peanuts are the only legume I'm allergic to.

For me personally, I can tolerate the cross contamination of peanuts into other products, but I can't eat peanuts themsevles and have to be very careful about peanut oil and how things are fried. I do miss nut butter sandwiches, so I was looking to make my own as a fun project. I'm sure I could probably find it somewhere around here, but sometimes it's just nice to try making it yourself. I'll probably try the blender method next weekend--I'll be travelling and working all this week--and don't want to deal with any possible disasters which might ensue and actually usually do when I'm making something new.

SML

[Joel Hicks]

after reading through the above posts i made my first cashew butter, which was delicious. i live in the middle east so i can get access to many fresh nuts at very cheap prices, so now our pantry holds cashew butter, almond butter, pistachio butter and mixed nut butters. my family love them as we find the American peanut butters far too sweet.

all these butters can be made very very easily, and a fraction of the cost.

Recipe Guide

1. roast a good quantity of nuts i usually make it in 1/2 kg batches and then you can share with your friends

2. salt to taste

3. Oil, what ever you prefer.

• roast nuts in oven utill nice and fragrant and then allow to cool
  
• transfer to a food processor and whizz till nice and smooth. You can reserve a handful of nuts to add later if you want a chunkier style of butter.
  
• drizzle in your oil of choice as if you are making a mayonaise through the throat of the food processor, untill you reach a peanut butter consistency
  
• add salt to taste
  

you will find that after you store it that the oil will separate from the nut mix, you just need to mix it back in with your spoon or knife.

Enjoy

Joel