Making Almond Flour at Home

Almond flour is my newest baking assistant in my kitchen. You can use it to replace flour in many recipes (breads may be one of the only exceptions). The biggest problem with almond flour? The price. I never baked with almond flour until recently because I just could not bring myself to buy a bag. At $36.99 for a 5lb bag, my wallet was staying shut and the door was slammed. But I’m cheap like that.

So, in comes my VitaMix. My best friend. My sidekick. Miss Vita is used every day in our household, usually multiple times a day. She really is awesome. Now, don’t stop reading if you don’t have a VitaMix. I hear you can make almond flour in a food processor as well, although it doesn’t come out quite as fine and may affect the texture of the cookies. But in some recipes, that doesn’t really matter, like my Almond Flour Banana Bread Cookies, which are chunky anyway!

The first thing you should know about making almond flour is that if you blend/process it too long, you are going to have almond butter. If this happens, don’t worry, as that is equally delicious and nutritious and can be used to make nut butter cookies. In order to avoid the nut butter, blend no more than 5-10 seconds (possibly longer in a food processor), and add no more than 1 cup of almonds at a time.

You’ll want to use raw almonds. Whole and slivered will both work. I buy a 3 lb bag of raw almonds from Sams for $10.99. You can’t beat it.

Your almond flour should look like this when it’s blended. I haven’t tried storing it for an extended period, as I always just make what I need for the recipe I’m making, but I’m sure it would keep in the fridge for at least a week. Good luck and happy baking!