Unblanched almond flour is almonds, ground to a fine flour-like consistency with the skins-on. Per pound it is much less expensive to make your own.
What You Will Need
- A bag of whole almonds, skins-on, NOT ROASTED and NOT SALTED. If you have a Costco or Sam’s membership, both sell 3 lb. bags for about $10. Your local grocery store should have these in the natural food section or even bulk bins.
- A coffee grinder, yes, what you grind your coffee beans in or a VitaMix.
- A flour sifter.
Technique
The technique is the same, whether using a coffee grinder or a VitaMix, it’s pulse, pulse, pulse, sift, sift, sift. Add almonds to canister, do not overfill, and pulse several times. Pulse too many times and you will end up with almond butter, not bad, but not what we are going for. You won’t be able to grind every last bit of almond into flour, don’t worry, that’s what the sifter is for. So, it’s pulse, pulse, pulse, then it’s sift, sift, sift. You will have beautiful, fine almond flour and then small pieces of leftover almonds. Set the little fragments of nuts aside and do the whole process over again until you’ve ground all your almonds. I save the little fragments and use in an almond cookie recipe. Store your freshly ground almond flour in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.
I have a bunch of recipes that call for the Honeyville blanched almond flour, which according to comments, is not readily interchangeable with others like Bob’s Red Mill. Have you done any experimenting with making a blanched almond flour?
Shauna, I have not made a blanched almond flour. Using my Vitamix I can get my homemade (unblanched) almond flour just as fine as the Honeyville and actually prefer the taste over it. I have also thrown the Bob’s Red Mill in there to grind it a little finer as well. And I always sift my almond flour.
Thanks. I may try to find blanched almonds to try making my own. Everyone says the BRM is too wet, and now that I have my dehydrator back, I am wondering if it would help to dehydrate it a bit. Maybe between that and the Vitamix it would be close.