Almond Flour - Serious Envy!




Cake recipe made with almond flour in the top photo and almond meal in the bottom photo.  Compare the cakes - here is the one made with almond meal and the recipe for this cake.

On a recent trip to the States my sweet hubby, Ian, brought home some almond flour from Honeyville Grains Company.  I was thrilled to receive it, even although some of it spilled in the suitcase as government officials slashed a hole in the packet to check that it was really almond flour. 

Many of you know I use almond meal (ground sliced almonds with a tiny bit of skin on the edges) in my bake mix.  I was slightly concerned that there might be appreciable differences for folks using the convenience of commercially available almond flour, which is usually partially defatted.

I promised I would try almond flour in my Splendid Gluten-Free Bake Mix as well as coconut flour from Bob's Red Mill (I used Aloha Nu from Netrition.com which may have been discontinued).

Turns out baking with almond flour is a pleasure; love the convenience factor obviously!  The almond flour from Honeyville Grains is apparently the very best and they have a very good price; bought mine in a 5 lb bag.  Another 5 lb bag waits for me in Montana.  

The only difference I noticed is that the baking has a finer crumb and looks lighter in color.  Bob's Red Mill coconut flour performs much the same as the coconut flour I used.  This is all good news!  I think for cakes almond flour is superior but my cake with almond meal was still very good indeed.

I am envious of people being able to easily come by almond flour.  I used to have that luxury in Vernon, British Columbia in Canada.  We had not one but two incredible health food stores in the same little town when I was developing my 5 low-carb cookbooks.  I was so blessed.  Now I have access to a tiny health food store that has a cheek to go by that name.  Waah!