Today I’m gonna be showing you how to blanch almonds, and how to make your own blanched almond flour at home.
Blanching almonds means you’re taking the skin off the almonds. The process is simple, so be sure to watch my video tutorial above.
You’ll see that once the almonds are soaked in hot water for a few seconds, the skin slips right off when you squeeze them between your fingers. It’s so easy to do, and takes no time. But one tip I can give you is to not let your almonds dry out! When they are dry, the skin sticks to the almonds again and you can’t easily remove it. If this happens, you need to soak the almonds again to loosen the skin.
Once you have your almonds blanched, you can then make blanched almond flour at home. You need a food processor for this, but a blender may also work. The trick is to process your almonds as fine as you can without over doing it. When you process the almonds too much, the heat causes the almonds to release some of the oils, and eventually you end up making almond butter.
So my best tip is to process them as fine as you can, and then sift the flour through a fine mesh sieve to remove the lager chunks (see in video).
But you may be asking, why remove the skin off of the almonds to make almond flour?
The answer is simply because using blanched almond flour in baking gives baked goods a much fluffier and lighter texture. You can bake with regular almond flour, but if you do a comparison, you’ll notice the different consistency.
A final important note I want to make is that it’s very hard to grind almonds to fine powder at home, so be sure to sift your flour. Commercial grinders do a better job, but like I always say, not all brands that sell almond flour give you good results in baking. My personal favorite brands are Honeyville, Welbee’s, and Blue Diamond.
Below you can see I made a batch of muffins (recipe here), one using store-bought almond flour and the other using my homemade almond flour. The results are interesting and they both came out tasting delicious and had a great texture.
But there were some differences. As you can see the muffin made with my homemade almond flour is a little flatter on top. The texture inside was similar to the muffin made with store-bought flour, but it was not quite as fluffy. Also the batter was thinner, and seemed to not absorb some of the moisture in the recipe. In the end, both muffins were great, and if you use this method of making blanched almond flour at home, you’ll also have good results.
Hope you give this a try, and after you bake with your homemade flour, please post your photos in the comments below so I can see the results.
- 1 cup whole almonds
- Fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add the almonds and cook for about 30 seconds.
- Place the almonds in a strainer and run them in cold water to cool them down. Remove the skin of each almond with your fingers. The skin should come right off.
- Spread the skinless almonds in one layer, in a large cookie sheet, and let them dry in a cool, dark place like your oven or pantry.
- Once your almonds are dry, place them in a food processor and pulse to break them down. Process them as fine as possible, but be careful to not process them too much or they will start to release some of the oils and turn into almond butter.
- Sift the flour with a fine mesh sieve to remove any larger chunks. Store your almond flour in an airtight container in a cool dark place like your pantry or fridge.
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Hi. I’m at the beginning of my home-made almond flour learning curve. I just got a Vitamix grain container and tried grinding a batch of almonds I prepared a few hours ago. I put the blanched almonds in the oven at 170F for a while, but I don’t think they were dry enough when I put them in the blender. How dry is dry? Thanks, Joy in Canada
Hi Joy, what happened when you processed your almonds? I’m asking because I’m wondering if your vitamix processed the almonds too much or too coarse. A food processor does do a better job grinding the almonds more evenly.
I don’t turn my oven on to let almonds dry, but you can and they should just have no moisture left inside and out.
This tutorial for roasted almond or not ?!
Love saving money by doing this myself, one question I have is can I dry them in a low temperature in the oven to speed the process?
Hi Sallyanne! Yes, you can dry them in the oven to speed up the process. Please keep me posted, share photos here and let me know how it goes.
Want to make almond flour at home. now i watched you do it , have one question I’VE Been told that one has to soak all nuts in salt water for 7 hrs to get the wild out. [There is another name for it,the meaning is the same] then heat to dry. you mention none of this. Can you say anything on this.
Hi Gerald, when you soak nuts in water (no need for salt) it makes it easier to digest. However, this step is not necessary to make almond flour. If you want to soak your nuts, dry them in the oven for a few minutes so they’re dry before you make your flour. Alternatively, you can buy raw, sprouted nuts and skip the soaking step.
I don’t have a food processor. Can I use a blender?
You can try using a blender but it may not grind it evenly. Try to pulse instead of blend and please let me know how it goes.
I only have dry roasted almonds (Trader Joe’s) — would these work to make almond flour? Thank you!
Should work fine Flo.
Can you suggest any other ingredient to replace blanch almond flour ? I think we only have Bob’s Red Mill brand.
Hi Yessy, can you order it online? I order mine from Amazon and my local Costco also carries it. If not, you can try using the Bob’s Red Mill brand and sift it before you measure the amount you need like I do here in the video.
Hi Adriana,
Thanks for the wonderful tutorial.
I’ve been wondering if it’s ok to use the almond meal left over from make almond milk as almond flour?
Does it need to be dried off first?
Would it be less tasty, or affect the texture etc??
Also would sprouting the almond have the same effect as blanching in regards to the easy peeling of the skin?
Wonder if the store-bought almond flour is drier and finer hence fluffier? (Or could they be meals from almond milk leftovers?)
Thank you~
You can use the almond meal you have left over from making almond milk to make some desserts, but it depends on the recipe you’ll be making. I think if you make cookies it might work, but for a cake or bread recipe it may not. The texture will be different and the batter may not hold together as well. If you sprout your almonds first it shouldn’t make a difference.
Even some store-bought almond flours don’t well for baking. One brand that fails over and over is by Bobs Red Mill. But these companies have better grinders and they can make a finer flour than we can with a food processor and a strainer.
Oi Adriana! Qual processador você indica para fazer manteiga das nuts? Leio sempre boas recomendações sobre o Cuisinart 14 cups. Você tem indicações? Obrigada pela receita! Beijos
Oi Luciana! Eu ainda nao usei o Cuisinart 14 cups processador, mas acredito que seja bom. O Vitamix liquidificador tambem funciona bem.
O processador que eu uso e do Magimix.
Thanks so much for this tutorial. I live in Australia and I have to get my Almond Flour from America because I can’t find anyone who stocks it here in Australia. And the flour I bought from America had the shells still on! So thanks again and I’m looking forward to cooking with my own homemade Almond Flour!
Hello – also from Australia here – where are you living that you can find almond flour?! Most supermarkets sell it – not just the health ones these days! Hope you can find some local source – maybe look round a bit more 😉
Hi Rose, I live in Brisbane, Queensland. I can’t find it at Coles or Woolworths, nor several specialty stores. I have found an organic foods shop which stock it, so I might go and check them out. Cheers.
Judi Brown, Manly IGA stock Bob’ Almond Flour. If you have found somewhere else I would love to know.
Great tutorial! Just curious – is there a cost savings to you for making your own almond flour? I’m honestly very lazy so I’ll probably continue to use store-bought unless there is an appreciable difference in price that would convince me to stop being lazy 🙂 Thanks!
Hi Bethany, making your own almond flour is definitely way cheaper! For example, a 3 lbs bag of Honeyville blanched almond flour costs $45 on Amazon and this gives you about 12.25 cups. A bag of whole almonds at Costco, also 3 lbs costs $12.99 (here in Hawaii) and makes about 13.5 cups of flour.
As you can see the difference is huge. BUT… I still prefer to bake with store-bought almond flour to make sure my recipe testings are spot on. Like I said above, I do prefer the texture of store-bought a little more but if you need or want to make it at home, this is the best way to do it.
Thank you so much for your reply! That cost savings is definitely eye-opening. I will have to reconsider my laziness 😉