vanilla cashew cream

Cashew cream, I’m fairly convinced, is a gateway drug.

…to almost any dessert imaginable. Or, if I’m being honest, breakfast too. It is stupidly easy to make, and makes everything it touches good. Here are some of the ways I’ve used cashew cream: in banoffee pie, with balsamic-macerated strawberries, on top of many, many cakes, on top of muesli, on top of boring fruit. You can even freeze it in a cake tin to get cashew cream cheesecake.

It stores in the fridge wonderfully, awaiting your every need, for about 1 week. It’s the sort of thing, that once you know how to make it, you can make it all the time, turning regular desserts or regular breakfasts or regular snacks into something special, delicious, and good for you. You may even find yourself baking cakes just to put cashew cream on them.

Vanilla Cashew Cream

makes about 1.5 cups

Recipe Notes:

Don’t stress over getting every scrap of cashew cream out of the blender. Get as much out as you can, then add 750 mL fresh water, and blend on high. You will have just made vanilla-flavoured cashew milk (and your blender is easier to clean). I have the wonderful Hannah to thank for this tip. Cashew milk will store in the fridge for 1 week.

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw cashews, soaked for 6 hours or overnight
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• seeds scraped from 1/2 vanilla bean

Scoop the cashews into the blender and retain the soaking liquid. Add the other ingredients to the blender with 1 tbsp of the soaking liquid. Blend slowly, then stop and scrape down the sides, blend again on a higher speed. Add 1 tbsp more liquid if required. Repeat until the cashew cream is silky and smooth, and thick. Remove from blender and refrigerate until needed.