This maple roasted vanilla almond cashew butter is so smooth and creamy it almost tastes like frosting.
Oh look, it’s Monday.
By today I was supposed to have 5 different meals cooked and ready for the week, have visited Homegoods, Salvation Army, Sam’s Club, the grocery store and cleaned my house.
Those were the “must dos”.
But somewhere around 2am Saturday morning I woke up with that nagging chalkiness in the back of your throat that you just know means you’re getting sick and then proceeded to spend the rest of the weekend on the couch finishing Divergent (awesome, awesome read by the way) and doing the bare minimum which somehow translated to baking these high protein cinnamon cake bars, a trip to Sam’s Club (only because our membership expires in a month and we’re not renewing it. I now have enough napkins to last until I’m 40 and 36,000 sheets of toilet paper) and 1 cleaned room in my house because I was getting out of breath from pushing the vacuum.
Does that happen to anyone else when you’re sick?
I was literally eating carrots yesterday and gasping for air as my mouth was shut trying to chew.
Weird.
Apparently, the bare minimum also meant making cashew butter.
Here’s my logic…
I have to have a nut butter besides peanut butter open at all times.
I just do.
In my mind peanut butter has very specific uses while all other nut butters are much more flexible (I’m aware of how loony this sounds, don’t worry).
We also happened to just finish off the last of the almond butter the other day.
Now, I totally have like 4 Trader Joe’s almond butters in my pantry but the effort of mixing the oil into the rest of the jar was just too overwhelming.
Especially, when chewing carrots makes you lose your breath.
I might’ve needed my inhaler for an event like nut butter mixing and that was upstairs. Stairs also equal an olympic feat for my lungs while sick.
Solution?
Stay on the same level in the house, roast cashews because I’ve been meaning to make cashew butter for awhile anyway and have a new nut butter ready to go with the simple press of “pulse” on the food processor.
Mouth happy, lungs happy and the damn black ants that invade my kitchen every year at this time happy to eat the crumbs off the floor.
Ever felt an ant being squished in a paper towel between your fingers? They kind of “pop”, it’s gross and satisfying (when you’ve been tormented by them for 5 days now) at the same time.
And since that’s not the most appetizing visual to end on, how about these roasted maple cashews instead?
If you can resist maple syrup roasted cashews straight out of the oven, I promise they make for one hell of a no-stir butter.
MORE HOMEMADE NUT BUTTER RECIPES TO TRY:
Creamy Vanilla Macadamia Nut Butter
Spicy Chocolate Walnut Butter
Roasted Almond Pecan Pumpkin Butter
Pumpkin Seed Butter
Java Almond Butter
Maple Roasted Vanilla Almond Cashew Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain cashews
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Toss cashews and maple syrup in a medium bowl to fully coat.
- Spread onto baking sheet and roast for 15-20 minutes, tossing once.
- Let cashews cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to food processor.
- Process for about 5-7 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed until completely smooth.
- Add salt, vanilla & almond extract and process again for another minute until smooth and creamy.
- Top with a sprinkle of salt.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
um wow, this looks dangerously delicious. cashews are my favorite nut, so i definitely need to get on this recipe pronto. good thing i’m going to the grocery store today… cashews are now added onto my list! ;)
lately I’ve been into raw butters (walnut, cashew, almond and peanut) but they are super dangerous…lurking in my refrigerator on pantry…so I plan on making ooey gooey cookies with them and gifting those luxurious wonders away…I just can’t say no to reasonable portion/snack sizes. Thank you for posting lovely pictures though Gina – I get to feast with my eyes on your AWESOME shots. they ROCK.
thank you :) Funny you say that about making cookies with it b/c that’s exactly what my husband said yesterday too! Now I’m tempted!
Roasted cashews are amazing but (somehow!) i’ve never thought to make nut butter out of them!
I never thought that making some sort of nut butter was so doable at home. Thanks for the inspiration. And I hope you feel better!
Very doable if you have a decent food processor! try it :)
the goal for me would be to keep the cop off my nuts.
The cashew butter looks amazing! I made something similar with almonds a couple of weeks ago, but cashews are going on my shopping list right away. I’ve been really into homemade nut butter lately as well :D Oh and I hope you’ll feel better soon!
Wow! I love cashews, and I love maple. These sound so good!
I love this butter! Makes me wish so damn much for a food processor!
I am loving all of your great ideas.. so glad I found your blog.
Are you starting out with raw cashews here? Must try this. My husband will fall in love all over!
Yep, raw/plain and then roast them with the maple syrup!
Aww, poor thing! Hope you feel better soon and hope this scrumptious looking cashew butter helps. Great recipe!