Almond meal in cakes and baking?

[jrshaul]

Unlike prepared almond pastes, almond meal is extremely cheap (Trader Joe's specs at $4/lb) and keeps pretty much indefinitely. I recently had great success using it in bread pudding, where combined with a bit of extract both thickened the custard and provided very good flavor.

I have, however, yet to find much else do with it. My last attempt at ground almond praline didn't work so well, though I may try it again after allowing the sugar syrup to partially cool. I'd like to use it in a tart in lieu of almond paste, which within the confines of my budget means a can of 40% high fructose syrup - perhaps someone can suggest a recipe?

[Lisa Shock]

Flourless chocolate cake uses a goodly amount.

[jrshaul]

Flourless chocolate cake uses a goodly amount.

Does anyone know a way I might be able to turn one of these into an almond cake? Most seem to be based around a mixture of almond meal or almond flour and whipped egg whites.

I've seen a few almond paste recipes that mix blanched, peeled almonds (life's too short to peel almonds!), egg whites, and soft-ball sugar syrup; while the use of raw egg whites in something stored at room temperature worries me, I might try it with the almond meal and see what happens.

[Kerry Beal]

Macarons, frangiapane tarts, about half the recipes in the River Cafe Pudding's, Cakes and Ice Creams.

I'll PM you an almond paste recipe with no egg whites.

[HungryC]

French & Italian baking abound with almond flour/meal as an ingredient. Here's a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's website for an almond cake: http://doriegreenspan.com/2012/03/im-chugging-away-on-a.html I adore Nick Malgieri's recipe for Pleyels: http://nickmalgieri.typepad.com/blog/pleyels.html

And Francine Segan's "Dolci: Italy's Sweets" has more than a few almond-flour recipes: http://www.amazon.com/Dolci-Italys-Sweets-Francine-Segan/dp/158479898X Ditto for Claudia Roden's books--she has more than a few almond-meal recipes in "The Food of Spain".

But I probably use almond meal most often in Greenspan's French Yogurt cake: http://doriegreenspan.com/2011/04/o-magazine-bonding-through-baking.html#more

Here's a pic of it.

[Chris Hennes]

I've made a number of cakes with almond meal: I think Friberg's books (1, 2) must have quite a few recipes, I think that's where I got mine.

[judiu]

Many Kosher cookbooks have almond meal recipes, since nutmeal can be used as a flour substitute during Passover, as can matzo meal. HTH!

[ChrisZ]

I use almond meal all the time, I love the stuff. It has the benefit of being gluten-free, which suits some members of my family, but that's just an additional bonus. I like the heavier, moister texture it gives cakes.

In cake recipes that use normal wheat flour, I substitute the same weight with a mix of 75% almond meal and 25% cornflour. Although gluten development in cakes is usually a bad thing, most cake recipes rely on starch to help hold the structure together, so substituting 100% almond meal for wheat flour isn't a guaranteed success. The cornflour helps in this regard, but it does depend on the recipe.

Almond meal pie crusts / tart shells are also great - plenty of recipes available if you google for them.

[jrshaul]

The almond meal cake idea is an interesting one. My almond meal is a bit on the coarse side for something described as "flour." If only I had a Vitamix...

I've only really seen almond crusts used with ganache tarts, but that's not a sensible limitation. Beyond the obvious "More almonds!", a cherry or apricot filling may also be quite satisfying. Or, at least, they would be if fruit weren't so $#@! expensive.

Mind you, I am due for a chess pie...

[HungryC]

I've only really seen almond crusts used with ganache tarts, but that's not a sensible limitation. Beyond the obvious "More almonds!", a cherry or apricot filling may also be quite satisfying. Or, at least, they would be if fruit weren't so $#@! expensive.

If fruit is too expensive, consider a jam-filled crostata. Apricot or raspberry jam pair nicely with almonds, and you can easily make crostate to serve a crowd--make it in a long, skinny shape and cut into slices. Crostata crust is usually some sort of Italian style pasta frolla; it's easy to use ground almonds in place of some of the flour in the dough.

RE: coarseness, the almond meal/flour doesn't need to be very finely ground at all. The stuff sold by Bob's Red Mill is coarser than rough cornmeal--the nut bits are about the same size as couscous grains, and it works in cake/pie recipes. If you decide to make French macarons, you might want to grind it a bit finer w/some sugar in a food processor.

[Dave Hatfield]

My favourite way to use ground almonds is in an open faced fruit tart. This is especially true this time of year when all the ripe fresh fruit is coming into season.

What you do is to make a pie crust, pate brise with lots of cold butter. Roll it out into a roughly round slab, sized to fit your pan & amount of fruit.

Then mix ground almonds, flour & sugar. Roughly 2/3 almonds & 1/3 each of flour & sugar. Mix well, then spread evenly over your rolled out dough.

Next layer the fruit on. Apricot or plums or peaches or nectarines or......

Finally turn up the edges of the crust & pinch to seal. Bake in a hot oven until done.

Hopefully, the picture will give you the idea.

Not a great picture, but I couldn't find the better one.

[DanM]

I have found that you can substitute 5-10% of the flour in most baked goods with almond meal. I especially like it in oatmeal cookies, waffles, and butter cakes.

[jrshaul]

Thanks for the suggestions! I particularly like the economical options: amateur chefs on the internet tend to default to expensive ingredients, and I prefer recipes I can afford more than once a decade.

Has anyone combined almond meal with hot sugar syrups to achieve a praline-like flavor profile? My attempt at a straight praline did not work well, but I'd like to try it again at reduced temperature. The marzipan formulation of hot syrup and egg whites I've seen is not so good for raw consumption, but it might make for a very effective - and gluten-free - tart filling.

I've also seen several leavened sweetbreads studded with cherries. Almond and cherry is a popular combination. Are there any extant recipes along these lines?

Edit:

Not a clafoutis.

That said - almond cherry clafoutis? Yes, please!

Edited August 3, 2012 by jrshaul (log)

[HungryC]

RE: praline, why not try a french almond cream? It's a classic filling for tarts, pastries, and to make bostock. Here's a recipe:

6 T salted butter, 2/3 cup sugar, 1 cup ground almonds, 2 tsp AP flour, 1 tsp cornstarch, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla; mix butter & sugar in food processor or mixer until fluffy. Add ground almonds, mix, then add flour, cornstarch, then egg, beating between additions to combine. Stir in vanilla at the end. Keeps for a week in the fridge. Lovely as a fruit tart filling--partially bake the crust, then add almond cream and dot with berries. Bake until puffy & browned.

But the best use of almond cream is bostock: stale brioche spread with almond cream & sliced almonds, then toasted until puffy/browned. Heaven.

[pastrygirl]

If you haven't already gone there, macaron. Perfect for those leftover egg whites from your ice cream experiments.

Almond tart dough:

Sweet Almond Tart Dough

powdered sugar 6 oz

soft butter 12 oz

vanilla extract 1-1/2 tsp

eggs 3 lg

AP flour 21 oz

almond meal 6 oz

salt 1/2 tsp

Cream butter and sugar until smooth.

Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Stir in dry ingredients on low speed.

Wrap in plastic and chill before rolling.

Edited August 5, 2012 by pastrygirl (log)

[jrshaul]

I made another bread pudding yesterday. It wasn't very good. Aside from using a different brand of generic off-brand almond extract (instead of the old stuff, which was generic, off-brand, and a lot better), I used Trader Joe's almond meal instead of the other stuff, and tweaked the eggs.

Egg-related issues aside, the almond flavor from the original was gone. The custard was too thick, and while replacing two whole eggs with four yolks may have contributed, I suspect the real issue was an increase in almond meal. The more coarse grind also was apparent in the texture. The largest flaw, however, was the flavor; I've had good results using nothing more than Penzey's almond extract in a white cake, but this stuff was altogether nasty.

I'm wondering if the almond meal I used last time was milled from toasted almonds. Toasting almond meal has been a less than satisfactory experience for me in the past, but I have heard that an alertnative is mixing almond meal into a ~250F sugar syrup. I might try another one tomorrow.

[flourgirl]

Unlike prepared almond pastes, almond meal is extremely cheap (Trader Joe's specs at $4/lb) and keeps pretty much indefinitely. I recently had great success using it in bread pudding, where combined with a bit of extract both thickened the custard and provided very good flavor.

I have, however, yet to find much else do with it. My last attempt at ground almond praline didn't work so well, though I may try it again after allowing the sugar syrup to partially cool. I'd like to use it in a tart in lieu of almond paste, which within the confines of my budget means a can of 40% high fructose syrup - perhaps someone can suggest a recipe?

Can Trader Joe's Almond Meal be used in recipes which call for grounding almonds in a food processor and using as part of the flour? If so, $4 is a good price. Almond flour offered by King Arthur Flour and Bob's Red Mill is much more expensive.

[jrshaul]

Can Trader Joe's Almond Meal be used in recipes which call for grounding almonds in a food processor and using as part of the flour? If so, $4 is a good price. Almond flour offered by King Arthur Flour and Bob's Red Mill is much more expensive.

It would seem so, presuming you have a good food processor. I might try re-grinding mine in the blender. At $4/lb, it is a stupendous value.