When a recipe calls for “blanched almonds,” do you run to the store to buy a bag? No need! You can easily skin a batch of almonds using the simple method outlined below. Certain dishes require the use of skinless almonds. Removing the skin gives the almonds a smooth texture, which is helpful in making dishes like almond flour, almond butter, or marzipan.
Blanching your own almonds is more cost-effective than buying the skinless kind at the grocery store, and it only takes a minute… literally, just one minute! You’ll never spend the extra money on pre-blanched almonds again.
How to Blanch Almonds
You will need
- Pot of water
- Raw unsalted almonds, skin on
- Paper towels
- Colander or strainer
Cook Time: 1 Minute
Total Time: 5 Minutes
Servings: Varies
Kosher Key: Pareve
- Bring a small pot of water to a boil.
Place your raw almonds into the boiling water. Let them boil for exactly one minute. Don't boil for any longer than 60 seconds, or your almonds will start to soften.
Drain the almonds immediately in a colander or strainer and rinse them with cold water to cool them.
Blot the almonds dry with a paper towel. You'll notice that the skins will be slightly shriveled.
Use your fingers to gently squeeze the almonds and loosen the skin from them. Careful, if you squeeze too hard they'll shoot across the room-- which is fun, but not super practical! You can squeeze them from one hand into another to keep them from "launching" too far.
Once you remove the skins, let the almonds dry off completely. Discard the skins.
Now the almonds are blanched and ready to use in your recipe!
So funny to see this here! My grandma taught me this procedure many years ago, and I showed my daughter a few weeks ago when all we had was a big fat bag of regular almonds from Costco. All I do, BTW, is soak them in the hot water, I don’t even boil them. Squishing them out of their skins is rather fun, and yes, a little dangerous as they can shoot across the kitchen.
Great to know hot water works just as well! We had great fun “launching” almonds when I photographed this blog…
i must do this just to launch them, practical and a giggle. thanks.
Simple pleasures! Haha
Thanks for sharing! What is the recommended storage for these or should they be used right away?
Hi Esse, make sure you dry them out completely. They should store fine at room temperature in a sealed plastic bag for a few weeks. If you want to keep them fresher longer, store them in the fridge.
Perfect post for Wat am breaking my head right now:) thanks a ton going to try french macaroons
This is such an easy ad simple way to skin almonds, it worked just the way you described! I mentioned it in my post today about making pignoli cookies.
link to 100miles100foods.org
Fantastic, I just skinned 200g of almonds in 10 minutes. Thank you for the tip
I just walked all over my shopping centre looking for ground almonds to make Amarreti biscuits and nobody had them it was quicker to do it myself.
How do you recommend drying them thoroughly if you don’t have a dehydrator?
I don’t usually dry them, since I generally blanch them for immediate use. I suppose you could dry them in a low temp oven, but I’ve never tried it myself.
Thank you for this post. I peel my own almonds to make my own almond flour and didn’t even realized it was called blanching. A new cookbook I called stated that her recipes require blanched almonds and I got nervous until I realized I’d already done that. I do put my almonds in a food processor, then lay them out onto a baking sheet and place them in the oven on the lowest temp to dry out. I leave the oven door open a crack. It takes a little over an hour. Then I put them back into the food processor for a final spin and am left with a very nice almond flour.
Heather, I will be making almond flour for the first time ever! First, thanks, The Shiksa, for showing me how to blanch….I have been looking and this will be so much easier and I already have regular almonds.
My question to Heather is put them in the food processor long enuf to get chunky and then dry? for hour or so?….two things: final spin means? and how many cups whole almonds make 2 C almond flour?
thanks so much
I put them in the food processor until they are all ground up looking. They are still kind of chunky and sticky feeling. It takes only a minute or so.
Then I spread the almonds on a baking sheet and put them in my oven on its lowest setting. I leave the door cracked as the actually temp is supposed to be around 117 or something, but my oven doesn’t go that low. I just keep checking every twenty minutes or so by touching the almonds to see if they’re dry.
After they feel all dried out (after an hour or so) I take the almonds out and put them back in to my food processor. Processing them one more time after they are dry makes the almonds turn into a finer feeling powder/flour. I’ve found that 2 C of almonds basically makes 2 C of almond flour. Good luck. I LOVE it!
It works great in all my baked good so far.
Heather, the flour/meal turned out great and I made some muffins. Thanks for the info to both of you. The blanching/skinning is good for my fine motor skills and patience….lol….thanks again, Teysa
I’m so glad you liked it Teysa! I enjoy peeling; it is very relaxing for me
And so worth it! I feel so Amish when I make my own flour, lol!
Heather thanks for answering Teysa’s questions! I’ve been a little swamped this week. Seems like this might be a topic worth covering as a how-to on the blog. I’ll work on it this week!
Thank you. I tried this for the first time and had pretty good results. I do see that you need to work very quickly as when the almonds begin to dry out, with their skins on, they will not longer peel. I guess the skin reattaches to the nut.
I am using them to make my own almond milk with purified water as a basis for fruit or vegetable smoothies. We drink a lot of these a day as it is much more digestible for my husband who is undergoing some medical issues.
Thanks again!
I am eating skinned almonds as I read this. Lol.
Fabulous! So I’m guessing the tutorial proved helpful…