Blanching Almonds

Not really a recipe, but we had some almonds sitting around and my mom wanted them ground for a recipe. They didn't need to be blanched, but I thought it would make the cookies look prettier...Big mistake to do it without research, lol!

Good old Joy of Cooking came through with the how-to. I was surprised it worked!

Blanched Almonds


Put however many almonds you have in a big enough bowl. Cover with boiling water for a minute (I didn't boil enough water, so I did 4 minutes with stirring). Drain and peel.

I was...let's say silly enough...to do it all by hand. At first one by one, but eventually by rubbing handfuls between my hands since it was 2/3 lb of almonds.

I took this to remind me why it's a bad idea to ever do it again, lol, such a big pile of skins!

Then when my mom wakes up, she tells me most people do them in batches between a folded towel...yeah, really should have done more research than yanking open one cookbook! Live and learn. Aside from being tedious, it's not so bad though.

At least I looked up how to grind almonds properly though. Best method is a hand grinder? I'm not even sure we own one! Food processor is good though; just need to lightly pulse in intervals to not release the nut butter if you want a dry grind. :)