Not exactly reinventing the wheel...

Last night I decided I wanted to recreate an almond tartlet kind of thing that I used to buy at Deluxe Foods. It was sort of like a muffin, but not exactly. It had almond paste in it, but of course it was made of flour.

I have two different recipes that I thought of combining to make what I wanted, but then I wondered what I would find if I entered the words: "moist", "dense" "almond" and "tartlet" on google. What came up were lots of different recipes for moist, dense tartlets, most made with lemon or chocolate. Then I saw one for an almond cake. I checked the recipe and thought, "Aha! I can alter this recipe and perhaps it'll come out the way I want it."

This morning I made the experiment. I changed the recipe from using regular flour to almond flour, and from using sugar to using agave nectar. Instead of baking it as a cake in a springform pan I baked them in a muffin pan. Instead of sprinkling the tops with sliced almonds and sugar, I just used sliced almonds. I also cut down the baking time.

I like the results. They are nice and moist, and the flavor is good. Here's the recipe:
Ruth's Almond Tartlets
Preheat oven to 350 F
In one bowl combine
3/4 C melted butter
3/4 C agave nectar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 C blanched almond flour

Depending upon the size of the muffin cups, fill 10 of them with the batter, then sprinkle the tops with sliced almonds.
Bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.
Let cool in muffin pan for about ten minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack to completely cool.

I may continue to experiment. This is the one for today!

Making Blanched Almond Flour

Blanched almond flour is my flour of choice for making chocolate chip cookies, spice cakes, banana muffins, breading chicken etc.

Several months ago I bought 5 pounds of it from American Almond Products in New York, but I've also bought the blanched sliced almonds from Trader Joe's and the 3 pound bags of whole almonds from Costco with the intention of making my own blanched almond flour.

Somewhere I read that the only blender good enough to make ones own almond flour was the Vita Mix, so I bought the top of the line set. However, after buying it, I couldn't find the reference for making blanched almond flour with it, so I went online and hunted for directions. The only good directions said to use a clean coffee grinder and to only put in enough blanched almonds to just cover the blades.

Yesterday morning I checked the Vita Mix booklets and found where it gave directions on how to grind ones own coffee in the "Dry Container". Ah ha! I'll follow those directions for the blanched sliced almonds in the freezer. (Somewhere I read that it's better to grind frozen almonds because the oil doesn't get in the way.) Several articles warned about not over processing the almonds because they can quickly turn into almond butter.

I just barely covered the blades with blanched sliced almonds from one package of Trader Joe's sliced blanched almonds. I turned on the Vita Mix and turned the speed up to a 10 for less than a minute and had perfect almond flour!!!! It took three times to "do" the little package of sliced blanched almonds from Trader Joe's, but the result was perfect, and it didn't take much time. I ended up using all three bags of those almonds that I'd had in the freezer.

After doing that, I decided to attack one of the 3 pound bags of almonds from Costco. Blanching almonds is something I've never done myself. Once or twice I helped my mother when I was a child, and I remember how the blanched almonds will pop/fly out of their skins once they've been emerged in boiling water and how the water smells sort of like black tea.

I'd found two sets of directions on how to blanch almonds. The first one I tried was to pour boiling water over the almonds and let them sit for a minute, drain them, let them cool, and then start popping them out of their skins. I think that method works, but I had poured all 3 pounds of almonds into a bowl at once, and that was too many to do. So I tried the second method: boil water in a medium sized pot, add almonds, bring back to a boil for a minute, remove almonds, rinse and cool almonds, and then pop the skins off; then dry them on a large towel.

It took a long time to process the three pounds of almonds. I don't think I'll ever do that many at once again. I did use the same water for each batch, and I removed the almonds from the water with my Chinese strainer with the bamboo handle. It just took a long time.

Once the blanched almonds were cool and dry, I placed them in a ziploc bag and into the freezer.

Today I'm going to do a lot of baking. I don't think I'll need to use the blanched almonds I did yesterday, but if I do, they're in the freezer ready to go!

"Low-carb diet trumps low-fat on cholesterol"

That was the headline in an article in today's paper. People were followed for two years; the average weight loss for both groups was the same: 15 lbs. The difference was the improved good cholesterol level for the low-carb dieters. This study was done led by Gary Foster, director of Temple University's Center for Obesity Research and Education; this study was funded by the federal government.

This study shows the same results that the grain-free people have been talking about! In the newspaper article it said : "Why the low-carb diet had a bigger effect on good cholesterol isn't known, the researcher said." It's interesting that no one seems to do research on separating grain free diets from other low carb diets. I think there's a correlation between eating grain-free and better health, including blood glucose levels, cholesterol levels, and iron levels.

I wish I could get federal money and have people study the results I've been getting on the way I've been eating...