How To Make Your Own Almond Meal Almond Flour Food

HOW TO MAKE ALMOND MEAL

Steps:

• Add almonds to a high-speed blender and blend on high until a fine, powdery flour is achieved. We recommend turning the blender on the highest setting for 5-10 seconds. Then stop, shake the blender, and hit the sides to shake loose any clumps that have formed. Blend again until fine and powdery - all in all about 10-15 seconds of blending. You'll know you've gone too far if it starts turning to almond butter or clumping up on the sides.
• Check your blender for bits of nuts and continue blending, occasionally removing your blender from the base and shaking to ensure all nuts are well blended.
• Transfer to a jar or container and store up to 1 month unrefrigerated, often longer. See notes for recipe suggestions.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN ALMOND MEAL & ALMOND FLOUR

Steps:

• For ALMOND FLOUR, you first must blanch the almonds by boiling about 3 cups of water then soaking the almonds in it for 1-2 minutes. Rub the skins off with a dishcloth or squishing the almonds out of the skins by hand.
• Dry the almonds off or let them air dry-- water will turn those babies into almond butter!
• You need a really strong food processor blades for grinding and chopping to do this-- but be careful with this step! If the almonds are ground too hard and too consistently, you will end up with almond butter.
• Thus, the best thing to do is to use the pulse, not consistent run, on the processor until the almonds are ground up but make sure they don't release too much oil. If it looks like that, let the mixture rest for a minute or two before continuing to grind the almonds.
• Empty the unit's contents into an airtight container. Stir with a fork or small whisk to remove any oil dispersion or lumps.
• For best storage, keep refridgerated. Why? At room temp, unlike grain flours like regular all-purpose, oat, and barley flours, almond flour quickly absorbs flavors and odors its surrounded by. Almond flour is good for fine applications like cookies, cakes, breads, and as a gluten-free and wheat-free thickening agent.
• ALMOND MEAL: Follow the same instructions listed above-- except you don't blanch the almonds! Almond meal is better for coarser applications such as breading on tofu and fish, cookie garnish, etc.

HOMEMADE ALMOND MILK AND ALMOND FLOUR

Steps:

• FOR THE MILK: Soak the almonds for 6-8 hours. This helps remove the brown layering, which is an "anti-nutrient".
• Drain and rinse almonds.
• In a blender, blend 1 cup almonds with 3 cups of water for 30 seconds on high (for every 1 cup of almonds, blend it with 3 cups of water if doing this in batches).
• Strain the mixture through a large cheesecloth and into a pitcher. Squeeze out as much milk from the pulp as you can. Save the pulp!
• Pour mixture back into blender if using a sweetener. Blend the milk on high for another 15 seconds with a sweetener of your choice (I use honey or raw dates). Refrigerate. Keep in mind the milk will separate. Don't be alarmed, just stir it before use.
• Note: If you don't like plain almond milk, pour 1 cup of milk in a blender with one banana for a tasty smoothie!
• FOR THE ALMOND FLOUR: Spread the saved almond pulp evenly onto an ungreased baking sheet. Dry it in the oven for 2 hours at 200 degrees F, or until dry. Be careful not to bake it! Every 30 minutes I sift it around with a fork so that it dries evenly.
• Once the pulp is dried, scoop it into blender and grind for about 30 seconds until it's a fine flour.
• Dump your almond flour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and store away at room temperature. I use this flour to make muffins and have kept it around for at least 2 months.