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Cooking deliciously: what can almond flour be useful for and how to prepare it? Almond flour – product description with photo, calorie content; recipe on how to make it yourself at home with video; use in cooking; benefits and harms of almond flour as sd

Almond flour is not often found in our stores. How to make your own almond flour? It’s not at all difficult, and in my opinion, homemade flour is even superior in quality to store-bought flour.

If the flour is used to make French cakes, then it needs to be sifted through a fine sieve, you will have to tinker. In other cases (sponge cake, frangipane, fillings for pies and pastries), particularly fine grinding is not required and the process is not so labor-intensive.

Pour boiling water over almonds and leave for 10 minutes.

Place on a sieve and rinse with cold water.

After this manipulation, the skin of the nuts is very easily removed. If the almonds were very dry, then you need to repeat the procedure with boiling water again.

It is very important to dry the nuts well; this can be done naturally or in the oven. If time allows, then it is better to act on the first option. Place the peeled nuts on a towel to remove excess moisture, then pour them onto a tray (plate, baking sheet) and put them away from the eyes of household members. As practice shows, peeled almonds attract them much more than unpeeled ones. 🙂 The drying process takes several days; according to my observations, it takes at least two days.

Second option. Turn on the oven at 90-100 degrees, pour the almonds onto a baking sheet and dry for about an hour. Be sure to ensure that the nuts do not darken. If the oven is electric, then this is easier; with a gas oven you need to be vigilant. Then the almonds need to be completely cooled, you can put them in the freezer for 20-30 minutes.

Grind dry nuts in a blender or coffee grinder in small portions, I prefer a blender. Grind for no more than 20-30 seconds, shaking the coffee grinder or blender periodically. Since the knives become hot during operation and the nuts may release oil, grinding for a long time may result in a paste instead of flour. For the same reason, if you are going to make almond flour for future use and more, take breaks from working - you can eat some nuts and cool the blender slightly.

The finished flour should be sifted through a sieve; if large particles remain, grind them again or set aside and use for biscuits. For example, which is used in coconut cake.

In recipes that do not require very fine grinding, you can grind the almonds directly with sugar or powdered sugar, just take the amount of sugar and almonds needed for the recipe. If the whiteness of the flour is not important, then you don’t have to peel the nuts; in a chocolate sponge cake, for example, you won’t see a difference. Almond flour can be stored in a container with a tight-fitting lid in a dry place. I won’t say the maximum shelf life, but a month or two for sure.

Now the absence of this ingredient will not stop you from culinary experiments, and to find out where you can use the prepared almond flour, fill out the subscription form and then you will definitely not miss new recipes.

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Used to prepare almond flour by thoroughly grinding the kernels. Flour is used mainly for culinary purposes. Added when baking confectionery and desserts, as well as in sauces, first and second courses.

Characteristics

Ground almond kernels contain all the nutritional and medicinal properties of whole almonds.
Thanks to this flour, the consistency of many dishes can be made thicker.
Gives dishes a nutty smell and taste.
Products with such flour can be prepared very quickly, since, in fact, this flour (nut powder) is a finished product.
Baking with almond flour will never turn out dry, thanks to the ability of almonds to retain liquid.
Does not contain gluten, a substance that can cause allergies.

Calorie content

Almond flour contains 602 kilocalories per 100 g. Of which:

Protein - 25.86 grams, which is 103 kcal.
Fat – 54.55 grams, which is 491 kcal.
Carbohydrates – 3.02 grams, which is equal to 12 kcal.

You can learn about the beneficial properties and contraindications of almond flour from the article about almonds.

A packet of almond flour usually contains 500 grams of flour.
One 250 ml glass contains 170 grams.
1 tablespoon of flour equals 32 grams of flour.
A teaspoon contains 12 grams of almond flour.

Where to buy and how to choose

You can make your own almond flour at home, but there are some difficulties in this process. Firstly, it is very difficult to obtain a homogeneous powder form on your own, and secondly, if you keep the flour in a food processor or blender, it will soon begin to moisten and can turn into a thick oil. For these reasons, it is easier to buy almond flour in the store.

Almond flour can be purchased in stores and online. The average price for 1 kg of flour in Moscow and the Moscow region is 640 rubles.

Use in cooking

With almond flour do:

Nut fillings.
Sand-nut and protein-nut semi-finished products.
Various doughs - for pies, muffins and shortbreads.
Edible decorative decorations for dishes.
Almond cream – This cream is added, for example, when preparing tartlets and scones.
Sauces and soups – Popular in Mediterranean cuisine.

Macarons

Macarons (macaroons) are famous small round-shaped cakes made from almond flour. To prepare them you need:

Mix 50 grams of almond flour with 50 grams of powdered sugar.
Sift the mixture through a medium sieve directly onto a baking sheet.
Dry the flour mixture in the oven at 150 degrees for five minutes. Cool the mixture.
Sift again and add half the egg white.
Take a saucepan and pour in 50 grams of sugar.
Pour sugar with 15 grams of water and cook the syrup to a temperature of 110 degrees.
Beat half the egg white and pour into the syrup in a thin stream without removing from heat.
Beat until the mixture reaches 50 degrees temperature.
Add food coloring and one tbsp to the almond mixture. spoon of syrup (Italian meringue).
Stir lightly.
Add the rest of the meringue and mix thoroughly.
Do not knead the dough for a long time so that the circle does not spread.

Transfer the dough into a pastry bag.

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment and pipe out circles of dough 3 centimeters in diameter. In this case, you can use stencils. Leave the baking sheet with the circles at room temperature for 20-25 minutes.

When a thin film appears on the circles that does not stick to your fingers, place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 13-14 minutes.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and drag the paper from the baking sheet to another surface. Let the halves cool and then remove from the parchment.

Mix 40 grams of chocolate with 40 grams of 33% cream. Melt the chocolate and cream in a water bath or in the microwave. Grind 3-4 cocoa beans. Add to filling. Use a pastry bag to place the filling onto the round halves.

Cover the top with the “empty” halves and combine the cakes.

Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Remove the dessert from the refrigerator half an hour before serving so that the cookies are not cold and the filling is hard.

For the simplest recipe for making macarons, see the following video.

Marzipan

Preparing marzipan dough

Marzipan is an ancient confectionery product. They say that it appeared during a famine, when there was nothing to make bread from except almonds. It is loved and prepared in many European countries. There are two ways to prepare marzipan:

cold;
hot.

The cold method involves grinding all the ingredients and combining them. Instead of sugar, powdered sugar is used.

The hot method involves preparing sugar syrup and then combining it with ground almonds and the rest of the ingredients.

In both cases, the mass must be thoroughly mixed. Only by following this rule, the dough will turn out like plasticine, and it will be possible to sculpt different shapes.

The main ingredients of marzipan are bitter and sweet almonds, as well as sugar. However, today many variations of the marzipan recipe have been invented. Some of them are kept secret, some are available to everyone. Below are two simple marzipan recipes.

Cold way

Peel 200 grams of sweet and 2 bitter almonds. Dry in the oven and grind into flour. Combine 200 grams of powdered sugar, 1 egg white, 5-6 drops of lemon juice, 2 drops of almond essence and a little food coloring. Stir the mixture with ground almonds. Prepare 2 plates 3 cm thick. Wrap in foil and leave for a couple of days.

Hot way

Peel 1 cup almonds. Dry in the oven and grind thoroughly. Pour 1 cup of sugar with a quarter cup of water and prepare syrup. Place the almonds in the syrup and heat, stirring, for four or five minutes. Then add some almond essence and food coloring.

Make the desired shape. From this dough you can make candies, decorative decorations for cakes and many other figures (animals, fruits, flowers, etc.).

Mix 300 g flour with 200 g butter. Add sugar, soda (quenched with vinegar), chicken eggs, a little salt and 200 g of crushed marzipan. Knead the dough and put it in the refrigerator. After 1 hour you can prepare cookies. If desired, cover the finished cookies with chocolate or berry or fruit jam.

Chocolate nut cookies

Cookies consist of two parts: dough and filling. For the dough you need 500 g of flour, 100 g of cocoa powder, 250 g of butter, 2 eggs, 100 g of milk, 200 g of sugar and salt. Prepare the dough and refrigerate for an hour.

Prepare the filling from 300 g almonds, 100 g flour, 50 g sugar, 1 egg, 150 g butter and half a teaspoon of salt. Combine everything and mix thoroughly.

Roll out the dough on one sheet of baking paper and the filling on another. Make one side of the filling 3 cm smaller. Place the filling on the dough and roll it into a roll. Place in the freezer. After 1 hour, remove the roll from the freezer and cut it into one-centimeter thick circles. Place in the oven at 180°C and bake for 20 minutes.

Almond pie “5 spices”

Grind 120 g almonds with 3 tablespoons sugar in a blender. Mix the resulting powder with 80 g of flour and 0.5 tsp. ground cinnamon, 0.5 tsp. ground ginger, 0.5 tsp. ground cloves, 0.25 parts. ground anise seeds, 0.25 tsp. ground fennel seeds. Mix 3 eggs with 1 cup sugar. Beat the egg and sugar in a water bath for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and add salt. Beat some more time. Soften the butter and gradually add the egg and almond mixtures. Bake the resulting dough in the oven for 30-35 minutes, covered with parchment at a temperature of 180 °C.

To prepare the glaze, beat 125 g butter with 125 g sugar. Add 0.5 tsp. almond extract. While whisking, add 125 warm milk. Cover the top of the cooled pie with frosting. Place in the refrigerator for 8 hours. The pie can be decorated with toasted almonds and pieces of candied ginger.

How to make at home

To make almond flour you will need some almonds. First, peel the skins from the nuts, scalding them with water first. Then dry in the oven at 100 degrees Celsius. After this, put the dried nut into a coffee grinder or other grinding tool. Grind the almonds for no more than 15 minutes, otherwise they will turn into almond paste.

For detailed instructions on how to prepare almond flour, see the following video.

Almond flour for weight loss

Despite the fact that almond flour contains more calories than other types of flour, including wheat, many nutritionists advise cooking with it for people losing weight.

Cooking, perhaps, can rightfully be considered a science. This activity can be amazing and exciting! To cook deliciously and efficiently, to keep a lot of recipes in your head, to be able to combine a variety of products or to make “candy” out of nothing - you truly need to be born with this talent. However, it is not the gods who fire the pots! So we can slowly replenish our “baggage” of knowledge!

Almond flour: scope of application

Almost everyone loves baked goods (butter and unleavened), as well as others. However, few people know that to prepare our dear pasta, buns or cakes, not only traditional wheat or rye flour is used, but also, for example, almond flour. The latter is made from almonds, which are ground. At home, this can be done using a coffee grinder. In the food industry, naturally, special mechanisms are used. In confectionery, almond flour is added as one of the main ingredients to nut fillings and creams that fill candies, etc. Nut-protein and nut-sand semi-finished products are produced from it. It can be included in everything, both butter and regular. Almond flour is also used as an independent dish.

And that's not it! This flour is used to bring soups and sauces to the desired thickness (in the process of preparing some national dishes). Moreover, it does not lose the special aroma and delicate taste inherent in the almond itself and preserves all the beneficial properties of this wonderful nut.

Not only that, almond flour is required for the cream that is used to fill buns and tartlets. She is truly for those who care about their figure. Its energy value is much lower than that of wheat or the ones we are used to. It also contains significantly less starch and gluten. In this regard, even mukarzhanaya is inferior to it. And for people suffering from allergies, almond flour is recommended more than others.

We do it ourselves, we cook it ourselves!

Before putting almonds into use, they must be cleaned of the bitter brown skins in which the grains are hidden. If you do this “dry”, the process will drag on for a long time. Therefore, there is a simpler option. Below is its description.

The almonds are placed in a container and immersed in boiling water for 10 minutes. Then it is taken out, washed in cold running water and again sent to boiling water for the same time. Afterwards, it is rinsed again, cooled and cleaned. After such procedures, the skins are removed very easily, and the kernels literally pop out of them on their own.

Some more important information to help you use almond flour optimally.

Peeled almonds dry well. If you do this the natural way, you need to wait a day or two. To speed up the process, the almonds are sent to the oven - laid out on a lined baking sheet and dried at a temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. It is important not to let it burn!
When the beans have cooled, they are poured into the coffee grinder and the device is turned on for just a few seconds. Then shake the coffee grinder (otherwise nut crumbs will stick to its blades). The process is then repeated until the final result. But the process should be interrupted every 18-20 seconds, because... the blades heat up very quickly, causing the almonds to release oil and the flour itself to form into weird clumps.
If instead of a coffee grinder you have a meat grinder, then the process will be identical. Only the entire mass is passed through the unit twice.
The finished flour should be stored in a tightly sealed jar or bag, always in a dry place. She is afraid of dampness and moisture, instantly “huddling up.”
When adding flour to the dough, it is first sifted so that it is distributed evenly in the dough itself.

Related advice: if you need dark flour - for biscuits, cream, there is no need to peel the almonds, they are ground with skins. This does not affect the taste!

Almond flour is a truly healthy product, based on which there are many baking recipes. Partly for this reason, many housewives who are learning about cooking are interested in how to make real almond flour. All steps can be easily done at home, so we will analyze step-by-step preparation. Let's start!

Almond flour - recipe

1. Before preparing homemade almond flour, remove the husks from the nuts. To do this, rinse them several times in running or filtered water, then place them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them.

2. Time for 5-7 minutes, drain the liquid, remove the husks from the nuts. Place a dry frying pan on the burner, do not add oil. Heat it to maximum, pour in the almonds.

3. Fry the contents and stir for 3 minutes. Then turn off the heat and wait until all the nuts in the pan have cooled down. Pour into a container and place in the freezer for a third of an hour.

4. Prepare a coffee grinder, blender or device for making sugar flour. Using the selected unit, grind the nuts into dust in 1 handful portions. The device should operate for 30-45 seconds.

5. To prevent the flour from becoming lumpy during the grinding process, it can be mixed with rusk powder or regular wheat flour.

6. Once cooked, pass the mixture through a fine kitchen flour sieve. If there are large pieces left, pass them through the blender/coffee grinder again.

7. Now you know how to make almond flour. It is better to store the finished composition at home in hermetically sealed jars.

Oatmeal cookies with almond flour

oatmeal (coarsely ground) - 200 gr.
almond flour - 110 gr.
granulated sugar - 75 gr.
almonds - in fact
egg - 1 pc.
butter - 175 gr.
baking powder, salt - 6 g each.

1. Prepare the blender for use. Crush 150 grams in it. oatmeal, remaining 50 gr. we will add in whole form.

2. Take a suitable size dish. Pour into it the ground flakes, granulated sugar, salt in the amount according to the recipe, as well as almond flour.

3. Leave the butter to thaw first, then add it to the dry mixture along with the egg. Make a smooth dough, add the remaining whole oatmeal and mix again.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Scoop the dough with a spoon and place future cookies at a distance from each other. Press an almond into each piece.

5. Set the oven to heat up to 170-175 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes, after cooling you can take a sample.

Delicious honey cookies with almond flour

sweet nut butter - 0.1 kg.
honey - 130 gr.
salt - a pinch
almond flour - 160 gr.
baking powder - 4 gr.
sesame - 40 gr.

Before you make delicious honey cookies, you need to prepare almond flour. Technology at home has already been mentioned in the first recipe.

1. Mix together flour, salt and baking powder. In another bowl, combine honey with nut butter.

2. Now connect all the components from the two containers to each other. Beat the mixture with a fork.

3. When you get a dense, homogeneous dough, pinch off pieces from it. Roll into small balls the size of a quail egg.

4. Pour sesame seeds into another spacious bowl and roll the balls. Line a baking sheet with parchment, place the balls and press them down with your hands. You need to get flat cakes 0.5-1 cm thick.

5. Bake almond flour cookies for a quarter of an hour at 170-175 degrees. Cool before tasting. This is such a simple recipe!

Amaretti cookies made from almond flour

chicken protein - 3 pcs.
almond flour - 0.4 kg.
granulated sugar - 80 gr.

When deciding how to make Amaretti cookies, you should first prepare the almond flour. You will find the technology for making it at home in the first recipe.

1. Combine granulated sugar with flour and grind with a blender for 20 seconds. Then add the whites and continue beating until soft and homogeneous.

2. When the dough is ready, scoop it into a spoon and place it on a parchment lined pan. Cook in a preheated oven at 150-160 degrees for 25 minutes.

French macaron made with almond flour

almond flour - 150 gr.
vanilla sugar - 45 gr.
egg - 2 pcs.
salt - 5 gr.
granulated sugar - 85 gr.
dyes (blue, red) - in fact
cocoa powder - as much as needed
whipped cream - in fact

Before you make the macaron, you need to prepare the almond flour. The technology for creating it at home has been described previously.

1. In a separate container, beat the egg whites with salt. After this, add granulated sugar and stir the mixture until the crystals dissolve. Next, add vanilla sugar. Beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.

2. Gradually add flour and continue stirring. Make sure that the foam does not settle. The finished dough must be divided into 3 equal parts.

3. Add blue dye to the first part of the dough, red dye to the second, and add cocoa powder to the third. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Fill pastry syringes with dough of different colors. Squeeze the dough onto a baking sheet. Fill the tray with colorful dough.

4. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Bake the cookies for about 25 minutes. At the same time, mix the whipped cream with couverture (dough with cocoa), refrigerate for half an hour. Connect the finished colored blanks together using the filling.

Almond flour chocolate chip cookies

egg whites - 4 pcs.
water - 20 ml.
dark chocolate - 110 gr.
powdered sugar - 300 gr.
almond flour - 150 gr.
instant coffee - 8 gr.
wheat flour - 55 gr.
cocoa powder - 200 gr.

Since making chocolate chip cookies is easy, prepare your almond flour at home ahead of time.

1. Beat cooled egg whites in a convenient container using a mixer. Sift the powdered sugar through a sieve and mix with the egg whites.

2. In a separate cup, combine coffee, cocoa and wheat flour. Pour in water and mix with a mixer for several minutes.

3. Pass the chocolate chips and almond flour through a blender. Mix all prepared products in a common container.

4. Place a teaspoon of the prepared mixture onto a lined baking sheet. Bake the cookies at 180 degrees in the oven for a quarter of an hour.

Now you won’t have any questions about what to cook with almond flour. It itself is quite simple to do. You don’t have to have culinary skills to regularly delight your household with various delicacies.

Sometimes there comes a time when nothing new comes to mind, how you can please your household. I want to cook something unusual and tasty. To somehow stimulate yourself, remember what interesting things you tried in a cafe or as a guest. Exotic foods come to mind. Almond flour can be classified as such. These raw materials make delicious desserts and dishes. You can make your own fancy flour.

Properties and composition of almond flour

The product is often called almond powder. The characteristics are determined by the fact that the powder is very finely ground. The product is obtained by grinding sweet nut grains. To obtain high quality flour, the kernels must be peeled. If this is not done, the grind will have a beige tint.
Basically, almond powder is actively used in the culinary industry and confectionery art. Flour is in demand among people who adhere to proper nutrition. The composition has a low carbohydrate content. People seeking an ideal figure often replace classic wheat flour with this product in baked goods and other dishes.
Regardless of the cooking method, almond flour serves well as a thickener and base for dough, as well as breading. It is worth noting that this product is ideal for marzipan. Walnut flour together with sugar syrup turns into an “ideal” plastic mass. Various candies are made from edible “plasticine”, the composition is malleable for sculpting various figures and similar decorations.
Almond flour is great for macarons. The French delicacy based on nut powder is currently very popular in various public catering establishments. Also, this unique flour is great for baking various cakes, muffins, breads and pies.
With this focus, it's safe to say that almond powder can come in handy in your kitchen anyway. Also, one should not exclude the fact that the product contains a large number of valuable enzymes for the human body. In terms of beneficial properties and nutritional value, almond flour is an order of magnitude superior to wheat flour.
On top of everything else, it can be considered that all the beneficial properties of the nut are preserved in the flour. The product has a high protein content, valuable polyunsaturated fatty acids, dietary fiber (slow carbohydrates) and complex amino acids. Premium wheat flour cannot boast of a rich composition. Almond powder contains vitamins, minerals and carotene.
Of course, you should not assume that the valuable chemical composition will turn various baked goods into low-calorie and completely harmless dishes using only nut flour. But if you compare such products with other confectionery products, you should give preference to almond ones. You will feel light nutty notes when eating the dishes. The body becomes quickly satiated, so you definitely won’t be able to eat much.

It is worth warning you that almond flour is not as easy to prepare as professional confectioners or chefs might tell you. If you are patient and carry out the manipulation carefully, there will be no problems with creating the powder. Before preparing the powder, it is also important to decide what you need it for. The method of preparation will depend on this criterion.
To get snow-white powder from peeled nuts, you should follow simple tips. This flour is more suitable for some cakes, biscuit dough or delicate desserts. The downside is that the process of preparing such a powder is much longer. You will have to peel each nucleolus from its shell.
If you have decided what you will cook, it's time to act. Place the nuts in a deep heat-resistant container. Pour in hot water (almost boiling water). Wait about 5-7 minutes. Drain and rinse almonds under cold running water. For convenience, use a colander.
Repeat the process with boiling water. The waiting time increases from 10 to 12 minutes. After a given period of time, the skin itself will move away from the kernels. Remove the casing. Unshelled nut flour is used in most recipes; here the color of the composition does not play any role. Among them are pastries, chocolate, salads, etc. Therefore, you can simply sort through the almonds and get rid of the spoiled kernels.
After cleaning, the nuts should be dried. Otherwise, after grinding you will end up with porridge. It is strongly recommended not to be lazy and place the almonds on parchment. After this, leave the nuts for some time in a well-ventilated place. Sunlight will also be useful. The drying procedure will take at least 2 days.
If you don’t really want to wait that long, you can significantly speed up the procedure by using a clever method. Preheat the oven, the temperature should be 80-90 degrees. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet. Arrange the kernels in one layer. Each specimen must be cut in two. Oven drying should take no more than a third of an hour.
After the first 10 minutes, stir the raw materials. You can do the same thing by using a dry frying pan, but there is a risk that the nuts can be overcooked. After the procedure has been carried out correctly, cool the product. The use of a refrigerator is permitted. Place the prepared nuts in a blender bowl. The container should be no more than half filled. Set the power to medium level.
Turn on the household appliance for literally 20 seconds. Tap the container until the powder falls off. Repeat the procedure for 30 seconds. Tap the bowl again. The flour is ready and can be used for its intended purpose. To get powder, you should consider grinding it using a coffee grinder. This requires a special approach, but the result will be worth it.
Keep in mind that such a household appliance should not grind raw materials for a long time. Otherwise, the hot blades will turn the dust into a paste. The procedure is carried out in short bursts of no more than 20 seconds at a time. It is mandatory to take a break. If you don't want to take that risk, it makes sense to consider a food processor. An electric meat grinder will also work. The almonds will have to be passed through it several times.
Keep in mind that it is not recommended to prepare nut flour for future use; it is better to use it immediately for its intended purpose. Otherwise, the composition will lose valuable qualities, aroma and gather in lumps. Over time, oxidative processes begin and the flour deteriorates. As a last resort, it is possible to store the powder in a dry glass container with an airtight lid.

Almond flour is a unique product. The obtaining process is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance. Also, in extreme cases, the product can be preserved for a long time if you pour the powder into an airtight container and place it in the freezer.