Best Way to Blanch Almonds?

[Shel_B]

I'm making more and more almond milk these days.  I buy raw, organic, unpasteurized almonds and have noticed that the soaking water sometimes gets murky and needs to be drained a couple of times during the soaking process.  I'd like to try blanching the almonds to see if the taste of the milk improves and also to eliminate the need to drain the soaking liquid.

 

I don't want to buy blanched almonds as I like the flavor of the raw, organic ones that I get at the farmers market.  So, what's the most efficient way to blanch almonds?  Thanks!

[CatPoet]

Plonk them into boiling water for a few minutes.  That is what I do when I blanch almonds.

[Franci]

You can blanch very easily almonds steeping them in just boiled water for a couple minutes. But by it is claimed there are benefits in soaking nuts for long time , and for me, especially if you consume big quantities. I would even considered sprouting them.

[Franci]

Have you noticed how popular and expensive are nowadays sprouted nuts and flours?

[andiesenji]

I buy raw almonds in bulk - a lot of almonds are grown locally and some of the growers sell them in 5-pound tubs.

 

I steam them - for about 10 minutes, immediately spread them on a thick terry cloth tows and rub to remove the skins while they are still hot. 

 

I have an appliance for making almond milk and the directions are to soak the almonds overnight but once they are steamed, I run all the newly blanched ones through the process and freeze the milk.

To get a richer, thicker product, I will process more almonds in the previous batch of milk.  I've done this to improve the thickness and texture of "yogurt" made with almond milk. 

[Shel_B]

Plonk them into boiling water for a few minutes.  That is what I do when I blanch almonds.

 

So, after plonking them into boiling water, then what?  Do the skins just float off?  How many minutes is "a few?"   Is there some minimum amount of time that the almonds need to soak?

Edited June 24, 2014 by Shel_B (log)

[Shel_B]

I buy raw almonds in bulk - a lot of almonds are grown locally and some of the growers sell them in 5-pound tubs.

 

I steam them - for about 10 minutes, immediately spread them on a thick terry cloth tows and rub to remove the skins while they are still hot. 

 

I have an appliance for making almond milk and the directions are to soak the almonds overnight but once they are steamed, I run all the newly blanched ones through the process and freeze the milk.

To get a richer, thicker product, I will process more almonds in the previous batch of milk.  I've done this to improve the thickness and texture of "yogurt" made with almond milk. 

 

Thanks!  I'll be making enough almond milk that I'll want to blanch relatively large quantities, and the steaming sounds like a good option, especially if the almonds don't need to be soaked further.  Big time saver.  I'll try the technique with my next batch of almond milk.

 

Although I resisted getting the Soybella (I think that's the correct name) earlier, it may come in handy now that I'll be making more and larger quantities of almond milk.

[CatPoet]

Sorry,   after  you cooked then for  5 min max, just pour in to colander and pour cold water over and the skin can squeezed of , just grab them and squeeze them between your fingers.

[lesliec]

From my experience making orgeat I'd say even five minutes is on the long side.

 

The technique I follow is to put my almonds in a saucepan and cover them with cold water.  Quickly bring to a boil over hight heat.  Remove from the heat (a few seconds boiling is all they need), dump into a stainer and rise with cold water.  Put some good music on and rub the skin off each almond.  Th skins will (mostly) just pop off as you squeeze the end of the almond.  Very therapeutic, if time-consuming.

[cakewalk]

From my experience making orgeat I'd say even five minutes is on the long side.

 

The technique I follow is to put my almonds in a saucepan and cover them with cold water.  Quickly bring to a boil over hight heat.  Remove from the heat (a few seconds boiling is all they need), dump into a stainer and rise with cold water.  Put some good music on and rub the skin off each almond.  Th skins will (mostly) just pop off as you squeeze the end of the almond.  Very therapeutic, if time-consuming.

Yes, time-consuming is the best description. The skins do pop off almost immediately, but when you're blanching a couple of pounds of almonds it gets old very quickly. I buy blanched almonds these days. But I guess everyone should try it just once.

[Shel_B]

From my experience making orgeat I'd say even five minutes is on the long side.

 

The technique I follow is to put my almonds in a saucepan and cover them with cold water.  Quickly bring to a boil over hight heat.  Remove from the heat (a few seconds boiling is all they need), dump into a stainer and rise with cold water.  Put some good music on and rub the skin off each almond.  Th skins will (mostly) just pop off as you squeeze the end of the almond.  Very therapeutic, if time-consuming.

 

Having asked in a few other places, and searched the 'net, it seems that only a minute, at most depending on technique, is needed.

[Chris Hennes]

Even a minute seems excessive to me, but I am often trying to avoid softening the almonds. For milk maybe that's not a goal, though.

[Shel_B]

Even a minute seems excessive to me, but I am often trying to avoid softening the almonds. For milk maybe that's not a goal, though.

 

Softer almonds is a good thing for milk.

[Chris Hennes]

In which case while it's not necessary for removing the skins, you may want to go with longer boils anyway. Are there actually any alternative ways of blanching besides what we've discussed here?

[CatPoet]

I forgot one thing,  our almonds are imported has thicker skins.

[Mjx]

In which case while it's not necessary for removing the skins, you may want to go with longer boils anyway. Are there actually any alternative ways of blanching besides what we've discussed here?

 

Since blanching involves a shortish dip in boiling water, essentially, there's just the one way to do it. I've come across different ways of skinning almonds (one involved some sort of toasting, and was an aggravating failure).

 

I haven't found that leaving the almonds in for longer than half a minute makes any difference to ease of skinning; i just chuck them in the boling water, wait half a minute, pull one out to see whether or not I can skin it, drain, spread them cool a bit, and get on with the skinning.

[Shel_B]

 I've come across different ways of skinning almonds (one involved some sort of toasting, and was an aggravating failure).

 

What  ways are there to skin almonds?

[Mjx]

What  ways are there to skin almonds?

 

There's blanching, which is easy and efficient, and there are other methods that I no longer recall, apart from the fact that they put me in a terrible mood, wasted my time, and I ended up blanching the wretched things anyway, to get most of the (still-firmly-adhering) skin off. I believe they were described as having the advantage of keeping the almonds dry (I cannot remember why I even cared about that), but you can shove them in the oven and dry them at a low temperature if that's crucial.

 

I cannot bring myself to resurrect the feelings of frustration and rage that the other methods inspired, so I'm not going to hunt them up, but an online search for "skinning almonds without blanching" should yield a handful of ways to waste a perfectly good afternoon and spoil your mood