A few years ago, when it was practically impossible to find readymade store-bought almond flour here in Argentina, I made my own almond meal from scratch.
Before making my own almond meal at home, the thought of doing so seemed a little scary, but my experience in the kitchen (and life in general) has taught me that we tend to overthink things and sometimes it’s easier and simpler to just plunge right in and work on something instead of pondering over it for too long. 
Thankfully, now that we’re in the year 2020, almond flour can now be easily found in natural food stores (or “dieteticas” as they are called here in Argentina). While it is still quite expensive in comparison to normal gluten-free all-purpose flour, at least I now have the option of buying it already made.
Once in a while though, when a recipe calls for almond flour but I’m too lazy to go out just to get a packet, or simply don’t feel like paying so much for it, I make my own if I have almonds at home. Here’s the recipe for easy 5-minute almond meal. Note that almond meal tends to be a darker color than blanched almond flour, so if you prefer a whiter almond flour, simply use blanched almonds in the recipe instead.
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Nowadays, I also use other types of nut flours in my baking, and cashew flour has become a staple that I enjoy very much, because it gives baked goods a lighter color and is easy to work with. However, cashew flour isn’t available in the stores so once more I have to resort to making my own.
Homemade cashew flour is perhaps one of the easiest homemade flours to make – and because raw cashews don’t have a skin (unlike almonds which have a reddish brown skin that makes the almond meal a light brown color when processed whole), processing raw cashews directly produces a very uniformly-colored flour.
All you need is a high-speed blender or a food processor and a bunch of raw cashews, and then simply blend and process the cashews until you get as fine a flour as possible, scraping down the sides of the blender or food processor as necessary.
Once ready, make sure you sift the cashew flour through a fine-mesh sieve in order to remove any large unprocessed bits of cashews. Return those large cashew bits to the blender or food processor and process until all these bits are fine enough to pass through the fine-mesh sieve.
There you have it – homemade cashew flour in just five minutes! Is that a miracle or what?
Of course, if you prefer to just buy cashew flour readymade, you can also do so!
Now you can use it in all sorts of different recipes, substituting almond flour for cashew flour, making gluten-free cashew cookies, breads and everything you like! Enjoy, and let me know how this recipe turns out for you by leaving a comment below!
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Homemade Cashew Flour
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Yield: 3 cups 1x
Description
Super simple cashew flour that you can make in less than five minutes!
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw cashews
Instructions
- Place raw cashews in the bowl of your high-speed blender or food processor and process until you get a fine cashew meal, scraping down the sides as necessary.
- Sift the cashew meal through a fine-mesh sieve to filter out any large bits.
- Return the large bits of cashews back to the blender and process them until fine enough to pass through the fine-mesh sieve.
- Store in an air-tight container in the freezer until ready to use.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Category: Gluten-free Flours
Hi there! For a lot of cashew-based recipes, it’s recommended to soak the cashews before doing anything with them. Do you recommend soaking the cashews, drying them out then processing them into a powder?
Hi Emily! For cashew milk, I recommend soaking the cashews, but for cashew flour I normally blend them directly into a flour. If you prefer to soak them beforehand though, you could soak them overnight and then roast them slightly in the oven to dry them out before processing them into cashew flour. Although it may be a little darker brown in color.
May I know if you grind 2kg; 100g cashew will you get exactly 100g cashew flour?
Hi Jasline, yes, 100g of cashews will get you 100g of flour. The weight will remain the same, but the volume will be more in flour than in whole cashews.
My cashews were frozen and not getting powdery and I fear they’ll go straight to cashew butter! if I keep processing! Perhaps I should have let them come to room temperature first. Any comments?
Connie
Hi Connie! I’ve never used frozen cashews to make cashew flour before.. but I’m guessing it must be the ice crystals (and hence humidity) that formed while they were frozen that caused them to become more of a paste instead of a powdery flour. Maybe try with cashews that haven’t been frozen?
Actually, I decided to try drying them in the oven on a very low temperature, so we will see if it works.
Connie
That sounds like a very smart decision! Bear in mind that toasting them in the oven may make the cashews a little browner, so you might get a darker colored flour, but equally tasty! 😉 Would love to hear how that goes later, Connie!
Oh and if the cashews do turn into cashew butter, you can make these cashew butter cookies: https://www.dishbydish.net/cashew-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies-gluten-free-vegan/
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