Whipped Cashew Cream

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.