How To Make Almond Flour
Wondering how to make almond flour?
So as many of you know, I have recently given up grains. This produced a HUGE dilemma for me, especially right before the holidays when typically, I bake up a storm.
So I went down to my local Whole Foods and started looking at my options for flour (basically, coconut and almond flour). But I was absolutely shocked to find that a small package of almond flour was nearly $12, and it wasn’t even enough for me to make a typical batch of cookies. I was a little perturbed.
Not one to give up easily, I took a close look at the consistency of the flour. I mean, after all, it’s only ground up nuts, right? The only thing I had to do was grind some almonds to a fine consistency.
I finally decided on blanched, slivered almonds. I didn’t want the skins in my “flour”, (which is actually called “almond meal”) so these seemed to be the best and most convenient option.
I took them home and put them in my food processor. I had to let them blend for about 3-4 minutes with occasional stops to scrape the sides of the bowl. But in the end, I had almond flour that was comparable to what I saw in the store. I was mighty proud of myself. And the resulting cookies were so worth the extra effort!
But then, it really wasn’t much of an effort since my processor did all the work. But hey, I scraped the sides of the bowl, right? Plus, I paid $2.39 per package (I bought two 8 oz. packs) and ended up with just as much flour as the store package for a fraction of the cost. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
Really, it’s very quick and easy.
WHAT TO MAKE WITH ALMOND FLOUR
There are so many wonderful almond flour recipes out there! I have a few for you here, of course, but don’t be afraid to google for more recipes. It’s really pretty amazing what some people do with this stuff!
- Grain Free Crackers
- Irish Spice Bread – This is beyond yummy!
- Low Carb Muffins
- Cranberry Upside Down Cake
- Air Fryer Fish N’ Chips
- Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookie
HOW TO MAKE ALMOND FLOUR:
How To Make Almond Flour
Equipment
- Food processor
Instructions
- Place almonds in a food processor and blend until you have a relatively fine consistency. It won't be as fine as regular flour, but it will look pretty close.
- Note: You may want to blend the almonds in smaller batches. I've done this a few times recently, and it seems to blend better in smaller amounts.
I’ve only used almond meal a couple times.
Once as chicken tenders coating & once for cookies.
Would love to learn some toher ways you could use as well. Do you think it could be a substitue for whole wheat flour or would it be too heavy?
No, it can’t be substituted. It has no gluten.
I order all of my almond flour from Honeyville. They have both blanched and unblanched almond flour as well as coconut flour. If you sign up for their email, they also send coupons regularly for 15% off. Great quality, fast shipping. Might be worth price comparing with that site as well.
I also highly recommend checking out Elana’s Pantry. Her blog is great and has a lot of really good almond flour recipes. I have both of her cookbooks and use them regularly (especially the Gluten Free Almond Flour Cookbook.
Just thought I’d pass the info along! Thanks for all your great info!!
I feel the need to chime in 🙂 I have had to make drastic changes in my diet, cutting out gluten and dairy, which has been quite the experimental journey. In a very roundabout way, it finally brought me to paleo/primal. I initially tried gluten-free flours while in my “gluten-free” phase; brown rice, white rice, etc, and I had a very hard time with both price and taste. Almond flour is, to me, infinitely preferable to any other option I’ve tried in the process. I can’t afford to buy it so have been making my own.
To address the question of making it in a blender, absolutely, but dont expect a “fine” flour. it is very coarse, like breadcrumbs. I have heard of some using sliced almonds instead of whole, and frozen almonds when grinding, but haven’t tried either. My Vitamix has a special jar specifically to make flours. Yes, it can also make nut butters, but you have to grind for a while longer beyond the “flour” consistency, and to make it really palatable, you need to add a bit of oil, in my experience.
I buy bags of raw almonds at Costco, I do not blanch them and I use them in any and all baking, on chicken for chicken nuggets and fried chicken, in pie crust, tarts, bread, muffins, etc. I do use specific recipes which call for almond flour. I no longer use my old recipes because they all have ingredients I now know are unhealthy and affect me negatively. I use almond flour pretty much equal to whole wheat flour, which I used previously. I don’t have the time to squeeze every single almond (blanching) so I just grind the whole thing. Our flour contains little dark specks, but so does whole wheat flour. I also make almond bread, which is different than traditional bread; much more dense and heavy, but I don’t have a choice. I like the taste; I also add larger chunks of almonds for a more ” nutty” bread. In cookies, almond flour (homemade) produces a cookie with a different texture than finely-ground flours. it also affects the appearance of the cookie but they taste just as good. Cookies are much flatter and spread quite a bit, but if that bothers you, add a bit more almond flour to keep the dough thicker.
You are absolutely correct (I’ve tried:), almond flour does not thicken anything. I no longer eat corn or corn products so cornstarch is obviously out. I now use arrowroot starch or tapioca flour for thickener.
I also make my own coconut flour out of unsweetened, shredded organic coconut flakes. I don’t like the taste of coconut so have tried toasting it first. Don’t! It brings out the oils and makes it even more difficult to get a finer consistency. I cannot get coconut finer than breadcrumbs, either. I use coconut flour much less than almond flour.
Sorry to have gotten so long-winded! I wanted to address each question from my own trials and tribulations.
I use oatmeal and oatfibers for some of my baking.. It doesn’t work all the time, but when making a crunchy applepie or so, it works fine. The oatmeal gives it a nice crunch by the way:)
I also bake pancakes with the oatmeal, by making thick porridge with oatmeal and some water and than baking small amounts of it in coconutoil (you might want to add one or two eggs, by the way, but I don’t do that). That works out pretty nicely as well:)
Also if you ever make almond milk, you can use those left overs to make almond flour too!
I’m wondering what would happen if you left the skins on? Because I’m sure it’s healthier to eat the skins, like most foods. Would it make a big difference?
Also – great idea Mica Kucera – make almond milk and use the leftovers for flour! Great idea! Especially since bulk almonds at Sprouts right now are just 2.99/lb!!
Chelsea – I’m sure it would be fine. I was just trying to replicate the flour I found in the store.
I bought a large bag with the skins on and blanced them myself! it was time consuming…don’t know if i will do it again…but i have an entire bag of blanched almonds now that I can make flour out of at any time needed!!!
Thanks for the idea! I made a pretty tasty raw cheese cake out of my flour…not sure where i found the recipe but will make it again!!!
Clean eating is flowing for me now, and my Hubby if finally onboard! yay!
Thanks for such a great site and recipies!
Looking forward to making my own Almond Flour. Once I purchased my Ninja Kitchen system, I have been making my own Almond milk, peanut and almond butter, breads, hummus, you name it. Once you start reading the labels of products and see what it contains, you would rather make your own. I too can’t have dairy as much as I use to so I’m always looking for products that does not contain dairy and ways to make my favorite dairy dishes without the dairy. It is a challenge. So thank you very much for this website.
Kristy, Thank you so much. I don’t think you were long winded, I found the information very helpful. Thank you.
What a great way to save money.
Greetings Tiffany:
Thank you so much for this post, I wanted to know if you do not use it right away, how long does it last in the fridge?
Angela
I would keep it in the freezer for up to about 5 or 6 months.
I .would like some bread recipes, peanut nut butter, and almond butter.
Thanks!!!
They are in the works. 🙂
I tried this – it turned into almond butter. Which I love! But, I was trying to make flour so I could use it in one of your cookie recipes. Ugh! Where did I go wrong?
Cindi – What type of almonds did you use and what type of blender/processor?
What kind of food processor do you use. I am not sure I can ask that or not. I keep trying to find one that gives you the best bang for your buck.
Jill – I got a Cuisinart off amazon. It was affordable and it gets the job done. But I don’t use a lot of fancy equipment anyway.