Today I was going to make some Lemon Bars. I had everything except almond (or hazelnut) flour. I had to go food shopping anyway so I decided just to pick some up. They didn't carry any at my local Stop & Shop so I made my way to Whole Foods.
On my list: gluten-free pasta and almond flour.
I grabbed my pasta and then I went to the baking needs aisle. Unlike Stop & Shop, Whole Foods has a ton of different flours crucial to gluten-free baking. Almond flour, however, was SO expensive! Bob's Red Mill was nearly $10 for a box smaller than a cake mix! The recipe says that you can use hazelnut flour in place of the almond flour so I looked at that, it was $12!!
Now I knew it was going to be expensive, I was guessing maybe $6-8 but I was turned off by the $10 price tag. They also sell it at Trader Joe's for less than that but I didn't feel like taking the extra trip to Hanover. Since I also knew it was very possible to make your own flour using raw almonds I checked out the "wholesale" aisle where they sell nuts, rice, and flours by the pound.
I went ahead and I bought myself a pound of almonds for $6.
Now, I know it probably would have been more economical to just buy the pre-made flour but in general I feel that since my time is essentially free, (plus I wanted to see if I could actually do it) it would be a valuable learning experience.
The actual process is very simple. It wouldn't have taken quite so long if I hadn't been making so much. One-ish pounds of almonds yielded at least 5 cups of almond meal. I could have ground the almonds very fine but a. I was worried about entering the "almond butter" stage with my nuts and b. I prefer a slightly more grainy texture.
How to Make Almond Flour
Supplies Needed:
-Raw Almonds
-Boiling Water
-Food Processor or (Cleaned) Coffee Grinder
-Flour Sifter
-Sugar
1. Take your raw almonds and cover them with boiling water for ONE MINUTE. The skins need to be loosened but any longer and they will get water logged. This and the following steps, are called the process called "blanching."
2. After ONE MINUTE drain the nuts and rinse in COLD WATER until cooled. The skins will look a little wrinkly.
3. Peel each skin off of the almonds. They come off very easily! It didn't take too long to do the pound. Jill took Will for a short walk and when she returned I was done. That's a super vague period of time, sorry, I should have looked at a clock!
4. Let the nuts dry. Once peeled they are tacky to the touch. If you put them in the food processor they would gum it up.
Optional Step: I put mine in the oven (for about 5 minutes) on a low temp on the convection setting to evaporate the water more quickly.
5. Put the nuts in a food processor in a SMALL AMOUNT! I put approximately 3/4 c almonds in at a time. To create a finer product and absorb some of the moisture you can add some sugar. I put probably 1/4 c in the entire pound.
Important! If you grind the nuts for too long you will start making almond butter. Just the same as if you over ground peanuts you would make peanut butter. You could also use a coffee grinder but you need to work in smaller batches and be wary of over-grinding. Also you need to make sure it is clean and gluten free!
Optional Steps: I did the grinding in batches and then mixed them all in a large bowl. I then sifted it to sort out the larger from smaller pieces. I added all the larger bits back into the food processor just to create a consistent product. Mine was still slightly meal-y because I wanted the added texture to the lemon bars crust I was going to make.
After all done, I put it in a freezer bag and stored it in the freezer. Nuts can go rancid so I want to preserve all the work I did.
Since the flour making process was kind of extensive I didn't get to making the lemon bars but hopefully I will soon!
