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Espresso Cashew Butter (with Puff Pastry Coffee Knots)
-Heya friends! I made this espresso cashew butter the other day because I couldn’t find any espresso flavoured spreads in-store. It turned out so nice and yummy that I had to share this espresso nut butter with you guys! This vegan espresso spread is homemade with love and serves as the perfect edible gift. I also love how we can adjust the flavours to our liking as well. I have also included a second recipe that shows you guys an example of how I use the vegan coffee spread (other than spreading it on toast). It’s a delicious puff pastry recipe and we create coffee/espresso knots with it.
This recipe is part of the everyday plant-based series.
General
- Creates: 4 knots
- Dietary: V | VG | can be made GF
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 60 minutes
Ingredients
Vegan Espresso Cashew Butter
- 4 cups raw cashews
- 2-3 tbsp ground coffee (instant espresso)
- 2 tsp coconut oil*
- Maple syrup
- Sea salt
- 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Vegan Puff Pastry Coffee Knots
- 1 vegan puff pastry sheet, thawed if frozen
- A few tbsps of vegan espresso cashew butter spread (recipe above)
- 2 tbsp vegan butter, melted (optional)
- Flour, to dust surface
Directions
Vegan Espresso Cashew Butter
- Spread the cashews in a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Sprinkle some salt over the top and roast it at 150 deg C for 10-15 minutes. They are prone to burn so keep an eye on them! (If you have roasted salted cashews on hand, skip this step)
- When the cashews are done, remove from oven and let them cool. – In a food processor, add in the cashews and ground coffee. Blend until the cashews are pulverised. Scrape down the sides with a spatula if necessary. The longer you blend, the smoother and oilier the mixture will become. Add in the coconut oil to speed up the process.
- Add in cocoa, maple syrup, vanilla extract and salt. Blend again until everything is combined. You might see a large clump forming but it should smooth out again.
- Blend until you’re happy with the consistency before transferring it to a jar with an airtight lid. Add more coconut oil to make it more spreadable.
Vegan Puff Pastry Coffee Knots
- Lightly dust your work surface with flour and lay down the puff pastry sheet.
- Generously spread the espresso cashew butter across the middle third of the puff pastry. Fold the two outer thirds of the pastry into the middle one (overlapping). Cut the pastry into strips. Cut a line down each strip leaving some attachment at the top. Twist the pastry and roll it up into a knot.
- Assemble onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper (I used a muffin tray) and brush some melted vegan butter over the top (optional).
- Bake at 180 deg C for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Let it cool before eating!
Happy eating! x
Notes
*The nature of this recipe is for you to adjust it to your liking. Add more or less of each ingredient to adjust the flavours. Add more coconut oil to make it spreadable and softer – you can add more coconut oil if you’re not blending it for long.
Additional notes:
- To make it gluten-free: use GF flour to dust and ensure puff pastry is GF
How to Make it Whole Foods
At Embody Nourish, we promote a plant-based diet that comprise mainly of whole foods. This means no oil (even ‘healthy’ oils such as coconut or olive oil), refined or processed foods. However we understand that this ideal is not yet mainstream so we strive to accomodate everyone while encouraging small changes.
As you can tell, this recipe is on the sweeter side and as much as we love our whole foods, we adore desserts too! Even though we promote a whole foods plant-based diet, there is nothing wrong with indulgences within a balanced lifestyle. Foods like this increase our quality of life and it’s good for our mental health to be able to enjoy these recipes guilt-free. Plus, we often share them with our friends and family and that’s what life is about!
In dessert cooking and baking, it’s harder to make changes to whole foods but here are some things you could try (although I can’t guarantee the outcome):
You can make the espresso cashew butter and puff pastry coffee knots recipe more whole foods by:
- Using less maple syrup and coconut oil
- Instead of maple syrup, we recommend using date syrup or yacon syrup (according to our research, both are healthier especially the yacon syrup). Although this is the case, we don’t use yacon syrup regularly in our recipes because it’s hard to source.
- Using plant-based milk to brush over the pastry instead of vegan butter
