Almond meals are extensively used in baking cakes, cookies, macaroons and tarts. They are also used in marzipan. Buying almond meal may be a bit expensive. Preparing it at home is a very interesting procedure. Peeled almonds are also used in a lot of desserts. You can blanch, peel, dry and store it in fridge for further use. I can not get almond meal in Madurai. So after going through the web, I decided to do it myself. Make sure that the almonds are dry before pulsing it. Else you will end up with paste rather than powder. The secret in getting the flour is to pulse your mixer. DO not run it continuously. And do not grind it for a long time. The heat generated will interact with the oil and the whole mixture will go clumpy.
I used the meal in home made Eggless almond paste / marzipan. The result was very nice.
Choose good quality almonds..
Wash and add enough water to soak the almonds. Heat it. When it comes to boil, switch off stove. Let it soak for 15minutes. Now wash in cold water. Drain the water.
Take an almond and press it with your thumb and fore finger. The nut will come out of the skin easily.
Peel all the almonds. Place it out in sun light and allow it to dry. You can also dry it in a n oven. Heat the oven to the lowest temperature. Arrange the almonds on a baking tray. Place the tray in the middle shelf. Slightly open the oven door and let the almonds dry in that heat. This is to ensure that the almonds doesn’t get roasted. You can store this in fridge and use it up in desserts and decorations.
For the meal, grind the peeled and dried almonds in a mixer grinder. Do not run the mixer on high speed because it will extract the oil from almonds and the meal will become clumpy. Run in short intervals until the almond is of fine grainy texture. Use it in cakes and bakes or store in refrigerator for further use.
Is okay if you do not remove the almond skin
Some prepare it with skin but the meal will be brownish..
Can you please let me know how to make cashew nut meal.
Thanks
Toast it slightly in oven until it is nice and crisp. Then cool and pulse it in mixer until fine. Again over grinding may release the oils. So be careful.
Hi
Can blanched almonds be fried to make it dry?
I have microwave oven butcant dry it out in the sun as I live in a flat . How to use a microwave for this?
Don’t fry the almonds. You can MW the almonds on medium at 10 seconds intervals and check whether they are dried. Don’t over heat it as they will burn easily.