How to make Cashew Butter

In just 2 simple steps you can learn how to make cashew butter that is creamy, delicious, and ready to be spread on a bagel, drizzled on oatmeal, or used in other recipes! With this super quick and easy recipe, all you need is some raw cashews, a super powerful high-speed blender, and less 20 minutes! 

Jump to:

• 📖 Why make homemade cashew butter?
• 📖 Smooth cashew butter vs. Crunchy cashew butter
• 🌟 Why this is the best recipe
• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 🥣 Equipment notes to make homemade cashew butter
• 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
• ✨ Cashew butter flavor variations
• 🎓 Expert tips
• ❓Cashew Butter Recipe FAQs
• 🍰 Roasted Cashew Butter Uses
• More nut butter recipes
• Cashew Butter

📖 Why make homemade cashew butter?

It’s true that you can find cashew spread in the store a lot easier than Pecan Butter or Walnut Butter. But it’s just so darn easy to make cashew butter at home and has an incredible taste you just can’t buy in a jar. This homemade cashew butter has no added sugar or preservatives and store bought is usually pricey.

That being said, is it cheaper to make your own cashew butter? Most often yes depending on which cashews you use. Yet, anytime you make homemade nut butter it tends to come out cheaper, be a lot healthier, and it’s always more delicious. So if you love cashew butter you’re going to love this healthy cashew butter recipe!

Did you know that cashew butter is naturally gluten free and vegan?

📖 Smooth cashew butter vs. Crunchy cashew butter

Using this recipe you can make both smooth and crunchy nut butter. The only difference between the two is one step in how they are made. If you follow this recipe exactly as it’s stated below, at the end you will have silky smooth nut butter.

But if you want crunchy butter, you need to remove one-third of the cashews from the blender once they become a crumbly texture. Then finish processing the rest of the nuts in the blender until they are creamy and then mix the removed bits of cashews back into the creamy butter. Now, you’ve got yourself some crunchy nut butter! 

🌟 Why this is the best recipe

Quick and easy – This simple 2-step homemade cashew butter recipe shows you exactly how to make cashew butter that turns out perfectly silky smooth and creamy every time in just 20 minutes with some raw cashews and a super powerful blender. 

Crazy delicious – Homemade cashew nut butter is not just naturally vegan, dairy free, and gluten free! It’s also unbelievably good, fantastic on anything, and has no preservatives or added sugar. 

Versatile ingredient – Because it has a lovely rich but mild flavor, cashew spread can be flavored any way you like and used in lots of other recipes. You can use it to make cookies, energy bites, salad dressing, dips, and even ice cream.

📝 Ingredient notes

So what is cashew butter made of? Obviously cashews, but in this case, a little bit of coconut oil is used as well to create the perfect creamy texture. Yet, keep in mind that refined coconut oil has no flavor, but unrefined has a mild coconut taste. However, any flavorless vegetable oil will work.

In my kitchen, cashew butter is the only nut butter that requires a small amount of liquid (other nut butter can be made with the nut only), but you might be lucky and find cashew that releases more oil, so this ingredient is optional.

I also recommend using organic nuts to make organic nut butter. And never buy pre-roasted nuts. Toasting the cashews yourself makes this nut butter even better!

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

🥣 Equipment notes to make homemade cashew butter

The process of how to make homemade cashew butter is easy peasy! But you need a powerful blender to do the job right. A regular blender that isn’t high-speed will most likely burn down. They just can’t handle processing nuts into butter.

I used my Bosch VitaBoost High Speed Blender 1600W, which quickly turned the cashews into velvety smooth nut butter in just a few minutes. But there are other blenders just as good at making nut butter like the re Vitamix VM0197 Explorian Blender and the Ninja SS151 TWISTi Blender DUO.

You’ll also need a rubber spatula to properly scrape down the sides of your machine. And just as important as having a powerful enough blender, using a digital scale to weigh the cashews and a digital oven thermometer to ensure that you are roasting them at the right temperature is key for the best DIY cashew butter.

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

Now, let’s learn how to make cashew butter in a blender! And similar to other nut butter recipes you can also make it in a food processor if you prefer by following the same method.

1. How to roast cashew

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / 356 F (no fan).
2. Evenly spread the nuts out on a baking sheet in a single layer. Now, roast them for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are slightly darker and fragrant. 
3. Allow the cashew nuts to come to room temperature before processing them.

💡 Top Tip: Flip the cashews over and rotate the pan halfway through toasting them. This helps the nuts to brown more evenly on all sides and not burn.

2. How to make cashew butter

1. Put the toasted cashews into your blender or food processor. Then begin processing them on high power, pausing every 30 to 60 seconds to scrape down the sides of the machine. 
2. First, the nuts will break down into chopped-up crumbs and then turn into a thick cashew paste before they become a smooth liquid texture. 
3. It typically takes between 2 to 10 minutes to make this nut butter depending on the power of your machine. After 5 minutes of processing, I slowly added one tablespoon of melted coconut oil and then it came together just a few seconds later. 
4. Once you achieve your desired consistency, you can then add a pinch of salt, sugar, or any other spices you like to the cashew butter ingredients to balance the flavor.

💡 Top Tip: It’s really important that you do not add any other ingredients aside from the coconut oil until after the nut butter is completely processed or it can seize up and not blend easily.

✨ Cashew butter flavor variations

This creamy homemade cashew butter is absolutely divine right out of the blender! But if you thought to yourself, can you make cashew butter flavored!?! Well, yes you can! Now, that you’ve learned how to make cashew nut butter, here are some of my favorite ways to add flavor.  

Chocolate: Mix in a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder and some sweetener to make chocolate cashew spread. You can mix in some mini chocolate chips too if you like. 

Coffee: Fold in a bit of espresso powder to make the nut butter coffee-flavored. And if you add a bit of chocolate too it’s mocha flavored.

Vanilla: Add a bit of pure vanilla extract or vanilla sugar to make it vanilla flavored.

Almond: Make it almond-infused with just a tiny bit of almond extract.

Caramel: Blend in some of my yummy Homemade Caramel. 

Chai Spiced: Make it chai spiced by adding a combination of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and just a bit of ground cloves to the nut butter.

Maple: Sweeten it with a bit of maple syrup. Honey is also delicious.

Freeze-dried fruit: Make it fruity by mixing in some ground freeze-dried fruit like strawberries or mangos.

Seeds: Make an ultra-healthy nut butter by mixing in some chia seeds, hemp seeds, or flax seeds. 

Nuts: Blend two different kinds of nuts! Popular combinations with cashews are made with Pistachio Butter and Hazelnut Butter.

🎓 Expert tips

1. Do not use pre-roasted nuts. Toasting the cashews yourself in the oven releases the natural oils of the nuts and makes the nut butter much more flavorful and easier to process. 
2. You can also toast the nuts in a dry pan on the stovetop if you prefer.
3. You must use a high-speed blender or food processor to make this recipe. This is not optional. A standard machine will burn down.
4. The roasted cashews must cool down to room temperature before you process them. Hot nuts can easily overheat your machine.
5. The coconut oil used to make the nut butter must be melted and added slowly. You can also use flavorless vegetable oil if you prefer. 
6. Always use the right quantity of nuts for your machine. If you don’t use enough cashews they can get lost in the blender, but if you use more than 4 cups it can be really hard to process them.
7. Any additional ingredients or mix-ins that you wish to use to flavor your nut butter must be added after it’s made or the nut butter can seize up in the blender.

❓Cashew Butter Recipe FAQs

🍰 Roasted Cashew Butter Uses

Once you’ve made it, what to do with cashew butter? Don’t worry, just like almond butter the options are endless! There is so much more to creamy cashew butter than just spreading it on toast. Here are a few ideas to inspire your taste buds.

Spread it on my Pumpkin Bread with or without the cream cheese frosting. 

Use it in place of the pistachio paste to turn my Pistachio Ice Cream Bar recipe into cashew ice cream.

Make the ultimate cookie sandwich by spreading it between 2 of my Biscoff Butter Cookies. 

Mix some together with the filling in my easy Puff Pastry Pumpkin Turnovers.

Make some cashew chocolate spread with my Easy Homemade Nutella recipe.

Drizzle a bit over these Espresso Brownies. 

Add it to overnight oats, as a topping for ice cream, or use it in your breakfast yogurt bowl. Feel free to use cashew butter the same way you would use peanut butter.

More nut butter recipes