Cashew Flour

cashewnutflour Apart from making your cashew flour taste and feel very fresh, this homemade version helps you keep more dollars in your pocket. You only need to buy raw cashews instead of paying for those expensive prepacked cashew flours. And if you use cashew flour or almond flour often to make your favourite Paleo recipes, you’ve probably realized that purchasing these flours at the store (or online) can add up a few $$ to your monthly grocery bill.

Cashew flour, also known as cashew meal or cashew powder, is basically cashew nuts that have been processed into a very fine powder-like flour. Cashew flour has become a staple that I enjoy very much, because it has a nutty flavour and gives baked goods a lighter colour and is easy to work with. It’s a great alternative to other nut flours (such as almond flour).

1 cup raw cashews

Make it in a Food Processor:
Place a cup of raw cashews in a food processor; pulse about 50 times, 1-second at a time. Stop and scrape the sides of the bowl every 10 seconds or so to ensure they ground evenly.

Make it in a High Speed Blender:
Place a cup of raw cashews in a blender, set the speed to a low speed setting (2 or 3) and pulse about 20-25 times. 1-second at a time. Stop and scrape the sides of the blender a few times to ensure they ground evenly.

Cook's Notes:

Make Sure to Sift: To get a uniformly even flour, make sure to filter the cashew flour through a fine-mesh sieve so as to get rid of any large uneven bits.
Prevent Overheating the Appliance: Continuous grinding in a food processor or blender can generate heat, potentially leading to overheating and affecting the texture of the cashew flour. To prevent this, grind the cashews in short bursts, allowing the appliance to cool between intervals.
Double the Recipe as Needed: Note that 1 cup of raw cashews generally makes 1¼ to 1½ cups of cashew flour. So you can make more if you need.
Is Cashew Flour Gluten-Free? Since cashew flour is made from cashews, and cashews are naturally gluten-free, yes, cashew flour is free from gluten.
Why Make Your Own Cashew Flour? While you can easily buy cashew flour at most supermarkets and natural food stores, I like making my own homemade nut flour for the following reasons:
Cost-Effective: If you use quite a bit of cashew flour or simply use it frequently, purchasing whole cashews in bulk and making your own cashew powder will be cheaper compared to pre-packaged cashew flour. I recommending choosing affordable bulk cashews to reduce overall costs.
Freshness: Homemade cashew nut meal allows you to control the quality and freshness of the product. Grinding cashews at home ensures that the flour is made from recently processed nuts, preserving their natural flavours and nutritional content.
Customization: Making your own cashew flour gives you the freedom to customize how fine or coarse of a flour you make based on your specific recipe requirements. Plus, you can use raw cashews for a lighter off white flour, or roasted cashews for a darker browner flour.
Avoid Additives and Preservatives: Store-bought cashew flours may contain additives or preservatives to prolong shelf life. By making your own cashew meal, you know you’re getting additive-free cashew flour.

Why This Recipe Works:

Just ONE Ingredient: All you need is one simple ingredient that’s available in your local grocery stores – raw unsalted cashews. I recommend using high-quality cashews and you can either buy whole nuts or chopped cashews, anything works.
Super Easy: With the help of a high-speed blender or food processor, and a fine-mesh sieve, making your own cashew meal cannot get any easier. Plus, it’s ready in just 5 minutes.
Totally Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free & Vegan: The best part is that cashew flour is 100% gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan, which means that even those with Celiac disease or gluten or lactose intolerances, or those simply on a gluten-free diet or vegan diet can enjoy it without issues.
Process Cashews: Place raw cashews in the bowl of your high-speed blender or food processor and process until you get a fine cashew meal, scraping down the sides of the blender as necessary.

How to Use Nut Flours:

Nut flour can be used in place of regular flour. One to one in baking recipes, but the final outcome will be different both in taste and texture. To compensate for the denser texture, use a little extra leavening in your baking recipes.
You can use nut flours in savoury cooking too. Try coating meat and vegetables in place of breadcrumbs.
For frying or baking, or sprinkling over soups, stews and pasta dishes to make a crunchy topping.
Nut flours can also be a great substitute for breadcrumbs in meatloaves or meatballs.
Nut flours can be used to make cookies, muffins, cakes, pancakes and pizza crusts.