Here's a sweet cashew cream that's dairy-free and can be used as substitute for heavy cream that's whipped. When you blend the ingredients at a high speed for a few minutes it becomes smooth and light. While it doesn't form stiff peaks like whipped heavy cream or meringue, it does taste like heavy cream that's been whipped for a few minutes. You can use it as a replacement for whipped coconut cream in recipes like a strawberry cream cake, and strawberry muffins.
If you want to make this, set aside about an hour or so. You'll need to soak the cashews for at least an hour, then blend the cashews at a high speed with some sweetener, vanilla extract, water, and a pinch of salt.
I have a few sweet cashew cream recipes in my cookbooks that use fruit juice and dates as sweetener. This version is a bit more flexible because you can use just about any sweetener with it, including replacing the maple syrup or honey with one pitted date.
Whipped Cashew Cream
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups raw cashews soaked in hot water for at least an hour
- ½ cup water
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey or one pitted date
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend until very smooth and light. The cream will form soft peaks.
- Store in the refrigerator for a week or so, or freeze for a few months.
Denise Vasey says
I make this and store it in the fridge in a mason jar and use 1 teaspoon in my tea in the mornings as my cream substitute. Anytime I am making a recipe that calls for milk I mix the cashew cream with water and use it as my milk substitute .
Great idea! thanks, Denise