A delicious silky smooth dairy free raw chocolate spread with cashew nuts. Works wells as a cake or biscuit filling and also as a vegan cheesecake. Easy to whip up in a blender.
As some of you may have gathered by now, I’m in thrall to my Froothie high speed blender. It gets used virtually every day and makes a wonderful job of finely blending the most unlikely of ingredients and making them silky smooth. Have a look at my nettle smoothie if you don’t believe me.
Raw Chocolate Spread
Just before I acquired my blender, I made my first ever chocolate cashew nut spread. I was delighted with it, but I suspected the Optimum 9200* could do an even better job. This time around, I wanted to try a completely raw version; in the previous one I had roasted the cashews.
Nuts and seeds have some sort of enzyme inhibitor that prevent them germinating too early and stop us digesting them properly. Soaking before eating tricks the nuts into thinking it is time to germinate, thus releasing the inhibitors into the water which is then thrown away. So a good overnight soaking of the cashew nuts is required. I also added a vanilla pod and dates to the mix.
The result was a silky smooth chocolate nut spread that tasted even better than the first one. I had been slightly worried about ending up with bits of stringy vanilla pod, but I needn’t have worried, there was no obvious sign of it, other than the flavour.
The dates give a slight fruity note which is an added bonus. We ended up eating most of it straight from the jar, but as well as a delicious spread, it works well as a cake filler and also as an alternative dairy free cheesecake – now on my list.
Can I Use Nuts Other Than Cashews?
Cashew nuts are particularly good for chocolate spread as they don’t have an overwhelming flavour of their own. This allows the chocolate notes to shine through. However, you could use pretty much any nuts to make this raw chocolate spread. If you have a favourite nut, try it. Everyone knows about hazelnut chocolate spread, but I reckon macadamias would be awesome too.
Raw Cashew Chocolate Kefir Smoothie
The nuts made for a rather stiff mixture and I had to use the tamper tool to push the mass down a few times. It was also a bit of an art getting the mixture out of the jug. In fact, I was unable to extract it all. Not being one to abide waste, I ended up “rinsing” the jug out with kefir and making an impromptu and quite delicious smoothie – win win.
Other Raw Chocolate Recipes You Might Like
- Cacao and Kefir Smoothie from Tin and Thyme
- Chocolate Truffles from Tin and Thyme
- Chilli Coconut Chocolate from Planet Veggie
- Ultimate Chocolate Green Smoothie from Tinned Tomatoes
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this raw chocolate spread, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate it. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more cashew nut recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Raw Chocolate Spread. PIN IT.
Raw Chocolate Spread – The Recipe
Raw Chocolate Spread with Cashew Nuts
Equipment
Ingredients
- 150 g cashew nuts
- 4 Medjool dates
- ½ vanilla pod
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 3 tbsp coconut nectar (or sweetener of choice)
- 2 tbsp raw cacao powder
- 1 pinch sea or rock salt (I used Himalayan pink)
- 3 tbsp water you may need more
Instructions
- Soak the cashew nuts in water overnight. Drain and rinse thoroughly.
- Throw the nuts along with all the other ingredients into a high speed blender and blitz until silky smooth.
- Scrape down the sides as needed and add more water if the mixture is too thick.
- Scrape into a jar and keep in the fridge until needed.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
This post contains affiliate links to Froothie Optimum products*. Links are marked with an *. If you buy through a link it won’t cost you any more, but I’ll get a small commission. Thanks to my readers for supporting the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
What an amazing-sounding recipe Choclette. Loving the addition of dates. I wasn’t aware of the enzyme-inhibitor issue….. interesting!
Great that you got an unexpected smoothie out of it too!
Choclette says
Thanks Kate. I’ve been aware about the nuts issue for many years, but I rarely do anything about it as it means getting organised. Sally Fallon reckons the best way to do it is to soak a load of nuts overnight and then put them in a very low oven for several hours to go crispy, then store until needed. I read that when I first got her book, but have never managed to do it.
fashion-mommy says
This sounds delicious, if there’s one thing I love it’s chocolate spread!
#UKBloggers
Choclette says
The beauty of this chocolate spread is that you can slather it on your toast in the morning and not feel the least bit guilty 😉
Rebekah Esme says
That looks out of this world! I’m getting into baking these days so I’m going to give it a try! X
Choclette says
Thanks Rebekah and good luck with your baking endeavours 🙂
Callie says
This looks simple and delicious! Thank you 🙂
Choclette says
It really is Callie and I’m feeling it’s about time for another batch.
Jen says
ps thanks for linking to my post 🙂
Choclette says
You are most welcome 🙂
Jen says
Cashews are my favourite nuts, though I don’t tend to have them with chocolate so I’m intrigued by this. It looks super smooth, I have a Froothie on my wish list as I’d love to make my own nut butters/spreads one day. Great idea ‘rinsing’ it out to make a smoothie too 🙂
Choclette says
Ah Jen, I love cashews too, but I find it hard to say which my favourite nuts are – I love them all. Good luck with the Froothie, it really is a veritable wonder and I’m really glad I’ve got one.
Chloe says
Yum. Now when I wrote my recent rant about how unnecessary smoothie makers are, I totally neglected to think about making nut butters and spreads. Some oversight it seems.
Choclette says
Haha Chloe, I’m going to have to come and read your rant. I’m thrilled to be making my own nut butters etc, but I’m also finding I can make so many interesting smoothies now that I never could in my old blender.
Elizabeth says
Sounds lovely! My one attempt at making homemade nutella ended up being very grainy, but I didn’t soak the nuts like I should have. Will give it another go!
Choclette says
Was that in the Froothie Elizabeth? I made another version in my mini food processor and that was delicious, but also a bit grainy.
Anita-Clare Field says
Wow, this looks lovely I love this sort of energising raw food. I wonder if it will work in my nutribullet?
Choclette says
It would be interesting to find out Anita, definitely worth a try.
Kerry @ Kerry Cooks says
Oh my goodness. This looks so yummy! Its when you try to make things like nut butters that you really realise the quality of your blender – I tried to make almond butter in my food processor yesterday and I thought it might explode! Can’t wait to make this when I get a better one!
Choclette says
I never dared try it in my old one Kerry, it does require something with a bit of oomph! Hope you manage to get your hands on one soon 🙂
Lucy @ Bakingqueen74 says
This sounds delicious! I bet it would give Nutella a run for its money spread on some toast.
Choclette says
Thank you Lucy. It wins hands down over Nutella for me 😉
Heidi Roberts says
This looks like a really creamy, velvety spread – bring on the crumpets!
Choclette says
What Have I been thinking of Heidi, I haven’t tried it on crumpets yet!!!
Janice says
Quite remarkable! I don’t have a high speed blender, but if I did I’d be sure to make a spread like this.
Choclette says
Haha, thanks Janice. I can highly recommend a high speed blender, but I suspect you’ve already guessed that.
Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe says
It looks very interesting – I like the idea of these sweet spreads but am not so sure about using them. I am also interested to hear about your using the Froothie – I find it frustrating trying to get everything out and I think I probably need to use my tamper a bit more. But it does make it all smooth (except pomegranate arils)
Choclette says
Getting thick things out of the blender is a pain Johanna. I’ve found the best thing to do is try and make a drink out of it or add a bit of water if it’s savoury and then add to soups.
Bintu @ Recipes From A Pantry says
Now this is the type of recipe I love seeing on a sunday morning knowing that I have everything in my pantry to make it.
Choclette says
Haha, and did you make it Bintu? It’s the sort of thing that pretty much everyone’s going to love but with no guilt involved.