Thursday, February 21, 2008
finely grinding almonds
Getting almonds ground finely enough to make smooth a macaron, marizpan or frangipane filling can be difficult in a food processor, which goes from coarse cornmeal to an almond butter rather quickly. Short of purchasing almond flour/meal, pulsing the almonds with whatever sugar or salt you are using in 10 second intervals helps put a finer grind on the nuts. Anyone else have a trick that works?
Ground almonds are sold in a packet in UK and used in many dessert recipes. I have yet to see them sold this way in stores in America so I just pass over any recipe which uses them. Sad!
Have you tried a coffee grinder? I have one that I use for spices/nuts/etc. and it works great. I haven’t tried to grind into almond flour yet, but I think it might work. To clean in between uses just throw in a piece of white bread and grind away; it picks up all the odor and little bits.
Ashley, I’ve made almond flour in the coffee grinder before and it worked much better for me than the food processor did; I was able to get it much finer. It will still turn to butter eventually though, if you go too far!
this is a item that vegetarians and vegans use alot. i am vegetarian. so i know of many online stores that carry this in bulk or small packages. this prices can go pretty low. have you ever mixed it with dried figs in a processor to make a nealthy crust. http://www.bulknuts4you.com has it 10oz for $6.43 but i have seen it lower.
i will let you know where later.
Bob’s Red Mill has products available in many stores in the us, esp. at places like whole foods and natural food stores (http://www.bobsredmill.com/catalog/index.php?action=showdetails&product_ID=29) and they make a great almond flour. You can also find ground almonds at trader joes.
Put a tablespoon or two of flour in with the almonds as you grind them. Don’t know why it works, but it works for me.