You've just made homemade almond milk or coffee creamer for the first (or umpteenth) time. You squeezed the living daylights out of the blitzed almonds and now there's a large pile of byproduct sitting in a cheesecloth, nut milk bag or fine sieve on your counter. The area is speckled with almond debris and nut milk flecks. You feel a sudden urge to clean up your mess, but something stops you. It doesn't feel right to toss out the sandish looking substance. Not when it's still useable. And that it is.
Does this scenario sound familiar? While it's not atrocious to throw away almond pulp, it's much more thrifty to get two uses out of the same almonds that made your beloved nut milk.
But here's the deal: the almond pulp is moist and preservative free so you can't dilly dally deciding whether or not to use it. In its current state, you can keep it in the fridge for a few days and after that, it'll have to sleep in the freezer.
However, if you want to give it a longer shelf life, you can remove the moisture by dehydrating it. Don't own a dehydrator? No worries. All you need is an oven.
How to Make Almond Meal (Flour)
Instead of throwing away the leftover pulp after making homemade almond milk, dry it at a low temperature to make almond meal, which can be used in a myriad of recipes.
Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients
2 cups of fresh almond pulp (leftover from making almond milk or cream)
Recommended Equipment
oven or dehydrator
large baking sheet
blender or coffee grinder (optional)
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to the lowest possible setting. Mine only goes as low as 170 degrees, but yours might be different. Break up the almond pulp in your fingers and spread it out on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Place it in the oven and set a timer for 2 hours. Walk away. When the timer goes off, check the almond pulp by rubbing it between your fingers. If you still feel some moisture, put it back in for another 30-60 minutes, or until it's completely dry. Mine took 3 hours, but it could take your more or less time than that.
In the pulp's current dried state, it's called almond meal. If you put the meal in a blender or coffee grinder and blitz it til it's super fine, it becomes almond flour. However, there are purists who only consider it true almond flour when the almonds have been blanched beforehand and the skins removed. For delicate baking recipes, this might be an important distinction, but for general uses it should work fine. Either way, once it has been dehydrated it will have a longer shelf life, but should still be kept in the fridge or freezer.
Notes & Tips
If you do happen to own a dehydrator (lucky you!) then simply keep the almond pulp in there overnight.
- - -
So now you either have raw, moist almond pulp or dried almond meal. Off the top of your head, you're probably considering tossing some into a smoothie or morning oatmeal. Both are excellent ideas. However, if you want some more creative uses, check out these recipes:
Almond Pulp, Meal & Flour Recipes
- Almond Pulp Bars by Good Girl Gone Green
- Raw Almond Pulp Energy Balls by Powered By Peanut Butter
- Raw Pumpkin Bread by Small Footprint Family
- Raw Almond Pulp Hummus by Eating Vibrantly
- Almond Pulp Blueberry Banana Bread by A Piece of Conversation
- Almond Pulp Freezer Fudge by Nature's Nurture
- Almond Pulp Crackers by Edible Perspective
- Baked Almond Pulp Brownies by The Bonjon Gourmet
- Chocolate-Almond Crunch Cookie (Made from Almond Pulp) by Reboot with Joe
- Almond Pulp Macaroons by Elana's Pantry
- One Bowl Banana & Chia Cookies by Plus Ate Six
Those are just a few to get you started! I have about four cups of almond meal in my freezer that I plan on using for some baked goods in the near future, so keep an eye out for that.
I'd like to hear from YOU!
What's your favorite use for leftover almond pulp?
I'd like to hear from YOU!
What's your favorite use for leftover almond pulp?
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P.S. Keep Reading! More Recipes From The Rising Spoon:
How to Make Coconut Butter (It's Easy & Will Save You Money!)
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