How to Blanch Almonds

Blanched almonds are awesome. Essentially, they are just almonds with the skin off. After making my first batch, I was interested to see if my boyfriend Yan could eat them without an allergic reaction. He is usually mildly allergic due to his Hay Fever. After eating a few, I was ecstatic to hear he was not having a reaction from the blanched almonds!! So it wasn't the actual nut he was allergic to, it was merely the skin of the almonds.

I'm about to make my second batch since we've been flying through the first one so quickly, and I plan to use it to make blanched almond flour for a light fluffy almond cake recipe I'm working on. The one I was working on with unblanched almond flour will probably be too dense to be called a proper cake. Here's to experimentation!

To blanch the almonds, start out by boiling a sauce pan of water.Drop the rinsed almonds with the skin on into the boiling water for only about one minute. Emphasis on the one minute--if you boil them too long, you may end up with almond butter instead of crunch almonds. Nearing the one minute mark, most of the almonds will start floating to the top of the water, much like ravioli does when it's almost done cooking.

After one minute, strain the almonds out of the hot water and rinse them immediately with cold water to bring the temperature down. Once cooled, dry them off and begin lightly peeling the skin off. Usually they just slide or pop right out of the skin when light pressure is applied by the hands.

This is what we think of no more Almond allergies for Y:

He's "cured"! Well sort of.

And we're about to embark on a delicious Blanched Almond Flour cake recipe extravaganza. Hopefully.

Until then, we'll be enjoying the 80 degree weather (in March!?) while chomping on fresh almonds.

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