How to make almond flour

Post holidays are the perfect time to get cracking on some slightly healthier cooking {and baking too!}. Almonds seems to be the the latest health food trend, with all sorts of recipes popping up from almond milk to almond flour. I came across a delicious looking recipe for pumpkin and chocolate chip cookies, which calls for almond flour in place of regular wheat flour. Being in South Korea, it is often a struggle to find ingredients for most recipes, so I went looking on trusty google for a recipe for almond flour. And it couldn't be easier!

All you need is a blender or food processor and blanched almonds (click here for a recipe to blanch your own!).

One cup of flour is equivalent to about 1 cup of almonds.

Simply pop the almonds into the blender and chop away. Make sure not to blend for too long, rather use the pulse function if you can, as you don't want to release the almond oil and be left with a sticky clump. 

Super easy to do. No more excuses about the lack of almond flour in the stores. Now you can make your own, and even sprinkle it over your breakfast of cooked oats as an alternative to whole or sliced almonds...yum!

Happy Baking.

x

How to Blanch Almonds

Today I am trying my hand at making almond flour {recipe to come soon} and it is recommended that you use blanched almonds instead of raw almonds to achieve a smoother texture when baking. Blanching almonds is really easy, and far cheaper than buying them in the shops. A lot of baking recipes call for blanched almonds, so save yourself a few pennies by doing them yourself...

You will need:

-almonds

-boiling water

-collander/strainer

All in all this is going to take you a one whole minute (yup! one minute!) to do!

Simply place your almonds in the boiling water (I was making 2 cups of almond flour and so had rather a lot of almonds, so I did mine in two batches, using the same water for the second batch). Place the almonds in the boiling water for 60 seconds only - any longer and your almonds will start to soften.

Drain the almonds immediately and place onto paper towel to cool. Then the fun part. Peel the skins off, one at a time (or two at a time once you get the hang of it!) the skins will simply 'pop off' leaving you with perfect, cream white almonds to use in your baking. You can discard the skins, or roast them in the oven with your favourite spices (we have only used salt and vinegar so far) to make delicious, virtually fat free, crispy snacks....yum!