How to Make Homemade Cashew Butter (2024)

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Emily Bartlett 36 Comments

Why make your own nut butter?

Among the classic American comfort foods of childhood, a PB&J sandwich ranks pretty high. Sadly, conventional peanut butter is not a health food, but probably not for the reasons you may think. Some folks avoid peanut butter because it is ‘fattening,' and in recent decades there has been an curious increase in peanut allergies in children. Personally, I avoid conventional peanut butter because it usually contains a bunch of toxic ingredients including hydrogenated vegetable oils, refined sugar and salt, and preservatives.

And then there's theaflatoxins.Aflatoxins are a toxin produced by strains of mold that grow on nuts, grains and legumes that are stored in a humid environment. Aflatoxins can be extremely toxic to the liver, and peanuts in particular have gotten a bad rap for being associated with this toxin. Apparently Valencia peanuts are resistant to aflatoxins, so when it comes to choosing your nut butter, go with Valencia peanuts or, better yet, experiment with other nuts.

Growing up on Jif peanut butter, I've never considered almond butter to be a fair substitute–nice in its own right, but nothing like its peanut-y cousin. But cashew butter comes close,especially when it's made from scratch in my kitchen. And smeared onto a chunk of dark chocolate!

Soaking and drying nuts

Nuts contain plenty of good nutrition, but they also contain anti-nutrition in the forms of phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors which make the nuts difficult to digest and block the absorption of minerals. Phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors can be neutralized by first soaking and then drying nuts before eating them or using them to make butters or flours.Unfortunately even organic nut butters – regardless of whether they are roasted or raw – are typically not soaked and dried before they are made into butter.

If you want to save time, you can find properly prepared nuts to purchase…or you can easily do this all yourself.Luckily, the process is simple, requires only a bit of hands on time, and just takes a bit of planning ahead.

How to properly prepare nuts

Pour raw nuts into a glass or ceramic bowl.
Cover the nuts with filtered water.
Allow to soak overnight – with the exception of cashews (which should only soak for a 2-3 hours, and macadamia nuts which cannot be soaked lest they disintegrate into mush).
After soaking, drain and rinse nuts well.
Spread onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets and dry in the oven on the lowest setting overnight or until dried and crunchy. Alternatively, spread onto dehydrator sheets and dry at the setting recommended for nuts for the same amount of time.
Now your nuts are ready to be made into butter, ground into flour, or eaten by the handful.

Ingredients and supplies for making homemade cashew butter

I know I'm destined for some complaints about this, but I am not including measurements intentionally here, because so much depends on the type of nuts you use, how dry the nuts are, and your preference for texture. The only way you can mess this up is to add oil, honey, or salt too quickly, so simply go slowly. You will need:

Properly prepared cashews (you can experiment with other nuts too) – buy soaked and dried nuts here
Refined coconut oil – which will have no coconut flavor – in the proportion of approximately 1 tablespoon for 2 cups of nuts – buy coconut oil here
Raw honey (preferably local) – buy raw honey here
Unrefined sea salt – buy high quality sea salt here
Food Processor –like this one
Spatula
Glass jars for storage

Easy steps for making homemade cashew butter

If solid, melt coconut oil to liquid in a saucepan on the stove. You will need about 1 tablespoon of oil for every two cups of nuts.
Add a handful or two of cashews to your food processor, turn on, and slowly add melted coconut oil until you have a very smooth and liquid nut butter.
Add more nuts to thicken the butter, and then alternately add oil and nuts to achieve a uniform, desired consistency.
Add a drizzle of honey and pinch of sea salt to taste.
When your butter is the perfect thickness and balance of salt and sweet, scoop into glass jars.
If refrigerated, the coconut oil will cause the butter to harden, so I usually keep one jar in the cupboard, and back up jars wait in the fridge.
Enjoy!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

The Liberated Kitchen, LLC via Facebook says
April 22, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Yup! We make our own. Here’s our favorite Walnut-Almond butter: http://theliberatedkitchenpdx.com/gaps/walnut-almond-butter/
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Reply
Sarah Tangalakis Breinich via Facebook says
April 25, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Is it really more economical? I’d love for it to be! Where does everyone source their nuts?
Reply
martine says
April 26, 2012 at 10:11 am
I’m lookink for a cashew butter recipe without oil
Reply
- Emily says
  April 26, 2012 at 9:36 pm
  Why no oil, Martine?
  Reply
- jb says
  September 21, 2013 at 8:40 am
  You do not need to use oil. There is enough oil released from the nuts to make butter.
  Reply
JoAnne says
April 27, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Love, love, love cashew butter!
Reply
Holistic Squid via Facebook says
April 29, 2012 at 7:34 am
Sarah – The nut butters at Wilderness Family Naturals are about $15 for an 8 oz jar – soaked and dried before making into butter. That is the only brand I know of that prepared the nuts properly first. I buy my nuts at Trader Joe’s – about $8 for a pound of cashews which makes about a pint (16oz) of nut butter. Even factoring in the coconut oil, honey and salt, this is a big savings. You can certainly find some nut butters that are cheaper, but the nuts are never soaked and dried first to neutralize the phytic acid and other anti-nutrients so the nut butter is less digestible.
Reply
Lea H @ Nourishing Treasures says
April 29, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back later tonight when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
Reply
Kathleen says
July 21, 2012 at 8:47 am
I am just curious if you have to dry them before turning into butter?
Reply
Claire says
July 24, 2012 at 8:06 am
How long do they last in the fridge for please?
Reply
Julianna says
July 28, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Is there another oil you could recommend? Coconut oil/butter/milk and I do not get along!
Reply
Emily says
July 28, 2012 at 8:15 pm
Julianna – What about palm oil?
Reply
Julianna says
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July 28, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Thanks for the suggestion Emily. I have always tried to stay away from palm oil, nutritionally and environmentally. My digestive tract has a hard time with heavy saturated fats. Though, nuts themselves don’t seem to give me a problem as long as I don’t too many. I’m wondering if one of the lighter oils would work in this case. I used to make my own peanut butter and that worked great with just peanuts. Not so lucky with almonds. It looks like cashews need some additional oil as well. I’m still learning!
Reply
kelly says
August 16, 2012 at 9:03 am
Hi Just wondering if its necessary to dry the cashews after soaking, meaning, can I make the nut butter from the soaking stage? (am guessing it might be a mold issue to dry them?)
Reply
- Emily says
  August 16, 2012 at 5:52 pm
  Kelly, It seemed like an extra step to me too, but I think not drying the nuts would yield a watery product. And if it didn’t taste weird, it would probably mold fast.
  Reply
- Tammy says
  July 3, 2014 at 1:02 pm
  i have done it without drying the nuts and it worked just fine.
  Reply
Nancee says
September 26, 2012 at 9:49 pm
I prefer not to refrigerate cashew nuts butter, but how long will it keep without refrigeration.
Reply
- Emily says
  September 28, 2012 at 7:55 pm
  Good question, Nancee. Mine never lasts long enough to go bad. But what I usually do is keep the jar on the go in the pantry, and any backups stay in the fridge until I need them.
  Reply
JE Hoyes says
September 28, 2012 at 7:50 am
Do you really have to add any oil? Another site shows that peanut butter can be made simply by processing the nuts, they turn into a butter from their own natural oils. http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/07/homemade-peanut-butter.html
Reply
- Emily says
  September 28, 2012 at 7:43 pm
  Hi JE… I find that the cashews don’t release oil like peanuts do, even when you process them for up to 10 minutes. Plus the addition of coconut oil adds extra nutrition, so I don’t mind.
  Reply
- LNMB says
  March 4, 2013 at 3:21 pm
  I actually add unsweetened coconut to my cashew butter (and a little vanilla bean, too), but yes, you can just make raw cashews into butter. I’ve never done it in a food processor, though, so I’m not sure how well that works.
  Reply
Sonya says
August 2, 2013 at 1:40 pm
I soaked my cashews for over 5 hours! Set the alarm but I got distracted and went over :/ I went ahead and dried overnight but are they still good?? Why should you only soak for 2-3 hours?
Reply
Emily says
August 4, 2013 at 12:40 pm
Hi Sonya, thanks for the question. If they taste ok they’re probably fine. Cashews can get mushy/slimy if you soak them for too long.
Reply
Stefanie says
September 14, 2013 at 6:46 am
I only had unrefined coconut oil, and I didn’t want a coconut taste, so I substituted BUTTER. Let’s just say it’s AMAZEBALLS!
Reply
- Emily says
  October 7, 2013 at 2:37 pm
  Hi Stefanie, that does sound amazing! Thanks for the great tip! Definitely going to have to try this.
  Reply
Shannon says
January 14, 2014 at 3:06 pm
Does the phytic acid/ enzyme inhibitor thing apply only to tree nuts, or does that include peanuts as well? Thank you in advance for the clarification. 🙂
Reply
- Emily says
  January 20, 2014 at 4:57 pm
  Hi Shannon – Thanks for your question. Peanuts need to be soaked as well. Hope that helps!
  Reply
  - Shannon says
    January 24, 2014 at 1:34 pm
    It does, thanks a lot!
    Reply
Tammy says
July 3, 2014 at 12:59 pm
I have soaked and dried macadamia nuts without any problem.
Reply
Ginger says
December 8, 2014 at 10:51 am
A “greener” and easier way to dry soaked nuts is to put them in front of a heat vent in winter. This saves energy (also money) and humidifies your air at the same time. I put my tray of soaked nuts inside a large cardboard box to trap the heat from the toe kick vent in my kitchen. In summer, you can dehydrate nuts or herbs, etc. in a hot car.
Reply
Michael Tardif says
February 25, 2016 at 9:05 am
I am trying to find a way to make cashew butter using ready to eat, salted cashews from the store.
I have been told there is a way to do it, and to make it lactose free.
If anyone knows how I can do this, please e-mail me a recipe so I can make it.
My e-mail is…. maddogri@rocketmail.com
Thank You
Reply
- Pixiefly says
  August 1, 2016 at 7:25 pm
  How would dairy products make it into your cashew butter in the first place? The word ‘butter’ is simply a descriptor, and doesn’t mean that there are any lactose-containing ingredients in it.
  Reply
Sadie says
March 28, 2017 at 2:31 pm
How much benefit is lost by using steam pasteurized cashews? Can it be done that way?
Reply
- Emily Bartlett says
  April 18, 2017 at 8:37 am
  Hi Sadie, I believe that you can make the cashew butter with pasteurized cashews but if it was pasteurized using a gas, the cashews are not 100% organic. So it’s a matter of preference.
  Reply
Simmy says
May 19, 2017 at 7:11 am
I’m in the middle of “The Whole 30” eating plan. So this is my first attempt at making cashew butter. I’m going to use ghee (clarified butter) in place of the oil. Any reason that’s not a good idea?
Reply
- Emily Bartlett says
  May 29, 2017 at 6:00 am
  Hi Simmy,
  I haven’t made it with ghee before. If you try it out, please do come back and let us know how it turned out.
  xoxo
  Emily
  Reply