While I’m loving all of the almond-flour-based goodies coming out of my kitchen lately, unfortunately, almond flour isn’t cheap.
At first, I considered this a natural way to manage my baking habit– after all, I wouldn’t want to use such an expensive ingredient so often— but before long, my sweet tooth won out, and my bag of almond flour quickly disappeared.
I hate it when that happens.
—
Luckily, the lack of almond flour in my pantry gave me the perfect reason to try making my own almond flour.
I had no idea if a homemade version would work as well as my favorite Honeyville brand, but I figured it was worth a shot!
(And if you happen to have a Trader Joe’s in your area, blanched slivered almonds are pretty affordable!)
For my first attempt at homemade almond flour, I used a food processor to grind the almonds.
I was scared of turning my almonds into almond butter, so I used the “pulse” function to prevent the almonds from getting too blended. After a couple minutes of pulsing, I had a pretty good almond flour!
A little grainier than the Honeyville brand, but good enough.
—
Next, I tried grinding the almonds in my Vitamix.
Since this blender is SO powerful, it only took about 20 seconds to turn one cup of almonds into a very fine flour! Definitely a better texture than using the food processor, so this will be the method I use from now on.
—
Of course, simply grinding the flours wasn’t enough to know if they would really work in baking. I had to give them a test-run!
Oh, the things I must do for research.
I made a batch of almond flour sugar cookies, using one cup of the flour from the Vitamix and one cup of the flour from the food processor, and they turned out wonderfully! Perhaps just slightly grainier, thanks to the batch from the food processor, but still perfectly tasty and with a great texture.
I’ll definitely be using the homemade flour again!
—
Now, for the important part.
How does the cost of making homemade flour compare to purchasing the Honeyville brand?
Let’s do the math:
8 oz. blanched slivered almonds (from my local Trader Joe’s) currently costs $2.49. That comes to about $0.31 per ounce.
5 lbs. of Honeyville Blanched Almond Flour (from Amazon with free shipping) currently costs $36.99. That comes to $0.46 per ounce.
So, that means you’d save $12.19 for each 5 lbs of almond flour that you make yourself.
Not bad! Still not as cheap as traditional flour, to be certain, but definitely worth it for those us wanting a grain-free option.
A few helpful tips for making your own almond flour:
- One cup of slivered almonds = about one cup of almond flour.
- One 8 oz. bag of these raw blanched slivered almonds turned into exactly 2 cups of almond flour–> just what you need for my cookie recipe!
- I only processed one cup of almonds at a time, as I was afraid that trying to blend too much at once would create an uneven texture.
- If you don’t mind seeing specks of brown in your resulting baked goods, you can also use regular (non-blanched) almonds for a similar result.
—
I hope this helps you all create even more almond-flour-based goodies in the future!
Reader Feedback: Have you tried making your own flours before? Any good sources to share for cheaper blanched almonds or almond flour?
Tammy
Thank you for all your creative ideas! You have definitely made going grain free and dairy free a whole lot tastier! Question about the almond flour. I just made crispy almonds. That is where you soak them over night and then dehydrate them. Could you use these to make the almond flour?
Kathie
Wow thanks for that! I’m on the Ketogenic diet and this is perfect as I really love baking. Going to use almond flour to make my breakfast Bacon and Avocado muffins…Im so excited!
Madeleine
I’m making marzipan for my mum as one of her gifts for the holidays-we all miss it since we’ve moved to the US, but there’s only one place I’ve found that makes even halfway decent marzipan and it’s a 13 hour drive from here. Anyway, I just had to spend about twelve dollars on a 10oz bottle of rose water that I’ll be using a tiny dribble of (it was the only food-grade rose water I could find here) and then almond flour was near on 40$ for a decent size bag-15 for a little one. I was starting to worry until I found this-proper lifesaver you are!
Evy
I use the pulp from making Almond milk for almond flour, i just squeze the bag and put the pulp on a baking sheet and dry it carefully on low heat in the oven. Works and tasts just the same,maybe a little lighter, but i could not taste the difference.
So there you go – Almond milk and almond flour – at the same time!
Emily
Unfortunately, the blanched slivered almonds at my local Trader Joe’s are $3.99 for an 8 oz bag, so it’s actually more expensive. Booooooo! Lame!
diane
my trader joes has a lb bag of almond flour for $5.99 so it makes no sense to me to make your own……………..just saying
Jennifer
What blade did you use on your food processor to make the almond flour? Did you use a grater or the actual blade? I tried to grind up flax seed and it didn’t work but maybe since almonds are bigger and not as slippery as flax seed it may work.
Sarah
We use a coffee grinder for flaxseeds, works great!
Amanda
question did you use the dry or wet blade in the vitamix to make the almond flour thanks
Megan Gilmore
I only have the wet container, so that’s what I used!
Penny
This is a great help as we tried it in the dry container with patchy results. So, with using the Vitamix wet container for 20 seconds….did you use short pulses for 20 seconds? Did you have it on high or low? Or did you start at 1 and work your way up to full speed and then flip quickly to high? (Lots of questions, I know! But my husband spent the better part of an hour slowly grinding a lb of almonds in the dry container and then sifting out the bigger pieces, pulsing more and trying to avoid turning it into almond butter. Thanks, in advance, for your help! We should have looked here first!)
Nova
I’ve just been through this exactly and have the same questions! My almonds started turning into a paste in the vitamix!
Joel Godin
Wow, I’m on a diet for Ankylosing Spondylitis, and this is going to save me loads of money. So simple I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it on my own!
Bob
I recently made a cookie using the almond meal/flower that I think you gave the recipe for which was using the almond pulp and drying it out after making almond milk in the vita mix. The cookies came out awful and I had to throw them away. Could it be perhaps because using that type of Almond flour isn’t good for baking. Help
Megan Gilmore
Almond pulp cannot be used as a substitute for “almond flour” or “almond meal” in any recipe. Most of the fat is removed from almond pulp, and therefore it’s more similar to a grain flour than a nut flour for baking. I recommend ONLY using recipes that call for leftover almond pulp if you want to use that as an ingredient– I have a couple recipes here on the blog specifically for almond pulp, as well as in my cookbook.
Robert
Thanks so much I’m on a Keto life style and ran out of almond flour
MelodyWelch
I have almond meal .Can I make almond flour out of almond meal ? and how
Effie J. Sorg
Thanks a lot for the great post. I will share it with my known ones…..
Erica Esquivel
Do you think I can use whole almonds?
I have a grain mill, do you think I can use that instead of a blender or processor?
Megan Gilmore
I’ve never worked with a grain mill, so I couldn’t say for sure, but yes, you can use whole almonds. Almonds that are ground with their skins on are called “almond meal” and that bakes slightly differently than blanched almond flour, so just expect slightly different results. Almond meal makes more cake-like baked goods, while blanched almond flour makes more buttery, shortbread-like cookies and crackers.
Erica Esquivel
Thanks for you post, you have opened a new way of cooking for us and I appreciate it. Thanks for your info.
Kathy
Does a cup of almonds equal a cup of flour?