How to Make Almond Flour or Meal

Almond flour and almond meal have a good role in baking recipes. Both ingredients are not only gluten free but also high in protein. Almond meal is also one of the parts to make almond paste. Baked goods get that rich nutty taste with almond meal, and many recipes that require breading may benefit from almond flour as a substitute. Luckily, making almond flour or meal is quite fast and very easy.

Steps

Almond Flour

Take any amount of blanched almonds, preferably sprouted. Any amount of almonds will do because the ingredients start and end with almonds. Nifty! Why blanched almonds for almond flour? Blanched almonds are simply almonds without their outer skin. These make for a more uniform-colored flour and a more even taste.
- In order to blanch almonds, boil them for about a minute or two, uncovered. Use a cloth or your hand by rubbing the skin off or removing nut from the shell. Completely dry the almonds before using, as the water will make it into butter.
- Why sprouted? Sprouted almonds simply mean almonds that are soaked overnight. They are easier for the human body to digest, making your overall experience more pleasant. Specifically, sprouting takes away toxic enzyme inhibitors so that the enzymes your body deploys during digestion can do their job.^[1]
Once dry, place any amount of almonds inside a food processor, coffee bean grinder, Vitamix, or blender. Again, it doesn't matter how many almonds you use. It's probably better, however, to err on the side of fewer almonds, as almond flour has a relatively short shelf life — 3 to 6 months in the fridge and even less outside.^[2]
Pulse until you get a fine, grainy consistency. This usually takes anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute, perhaps longer depending on your pulsing apparatus.
- If you want finely textured almond flour, be sure to pulse the almonds a little longer. Be advised, however, that pulsing the almonds for too long can result in almond butter.
Use immediately or label and store in a chilled place. Unused, room temperature almond flour can become rancid when it oxygenates for too long.

Almond Meal

Place any amount of sprouted almonds in a food processor, coffee bean grinder, Vitamix, or blender. While there is no official difference between almond flour and almond meal, the unofficial difference is that flour contains blanched almonds and meal contains almonds with the skins still intact.^[3] Therefore, if you decide to make almond meal or have a recipe that calls for meal, it may be preferable to make it using whole, sprouted almonds instead of blanched, sprouted almonds.
Pulse the almonds in the food processor for less time than you might have making almond flour. Almond meal is generally (again, unofficially) supposed to be coarser than almond flour. If you pulsed your almond flour for 45 seconds, only pulse your meal for 30 seconds.
Use immediately or label and store in a chilled place. Unused, room temperature almond meal can become rancid when it oxygenates for too long.

Tips

Avoid blending it too long or else you may get a paste-like butter.
To get the best results out of the almonds, try sieving the mixture. Remove any non-grinded bits and re-pulse until grainy.

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Sources and Citations

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