Macadamia Nut Cream

1/2 cup macadamia nuts, raw
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 pinch sea salt

In blender, combine all ingredients, blending for 5 to 10 minutes until completely smooth.
If desired, you can gently heat it in a sauce pan, simmering it for about 2 minutes.
Refrigerate until it is ready to be served.
If it is heated, it will keep refrigerated for about a week. If you do not heat it, it keeps a couple days less (and can get a slightly yogurt type flavor after about 4 days).
One serving is approximately 1 tablespoon.
VARIATIONS:
- You could use other types of nuts in place of the macadamia nuts. The nuts that puree to the smoothest cream are macadamia nuts, pine nuts (an excellent choice with a very good flavor), pecans, walnuts, and cashews.
Almonds, brazil nuts, and hazelnuts still have some grit even when pureed for a long time; therefore, these may not be the best nuts to use, but if you don't mind a little grit, give them a try. You can also try to put the cream of these grittier nuts through a cheese cloth, but with such a thick cream, I have not had the best of luck doing this; the straining either does not take out anything, or it take out too much of the body of the cream leaving the resulting cream too thin and without the creamy texture desired.
- As the sweetener, any combination of unrefined sweeteners (maple syrup, brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, agave syrup, etc) can be used, and in varying amounts depending on your tastes (see "Dessert Notes" for more information about sweeteners).