Almond Flour
Whole almonds, skinned and ground fine. That is all. The result bakes differently than any wheat flour, and in the best possible way.
What It Is
Almond flour is made by blanching almonds to remove their skins, then grinding them into a pale, fine meal. Without the skin, the flour stays mild and slightly sweet, with none of the bitterness you sometimes get from almond products that skip that step.
It contains no wheat and no starch, which means it behaves nothing like all-purpose flour. Baked goods made with it stay remarkably moist and tend to brown quickly. It is a staple in gluten-free kitchens, but plenty of cooks who eat wheat reach for it too, simply because of what it does to a cookie or a quick bread.
What To Do
Use it one-for-one in recipes written for almond flour. Subbing it into a standard wheat recipe without adjustments rarely works, so follow a recipe the first time and then tinker. It shines in cookies, muffins, pancakes, and simple cakes. Watch your oven: start checking five minutes early because it browns fast.
Beyond baking, a handful stirred into a fruit crumble topping or pressed into a crust for a tart works beautifully. Store it in the refrigerator or freezer, since the natural oils in almonds can go rancid at room temperature faster than you might expect.
