Baking with Ground Almonds: A UK Guide to Frangipane, Macarons and Gluten-Free Bakes
Ground almonds are a pantry staple for anyone who bakes regularly, but it's easy to reach for the wrong bag of almonds if you don't know the difference between the ground, flaked and whole versions. Here's what to use them for, how they behave differently to wheat flour, and how to keep a bag of them fresh.
What Ground Almonds Actually Are
Ground almonds — sometimes labelled almond flour or almond meal — are whole almonds milled to a fine, flour-like texture. Our Premium Ground Almonds are made from blanched almonds (skins removed), which gives a paler, finer meal than unblanched versions and a mild, sweet flavour that doesn't compete with other ingredients.
They're not the same product as flaked almonds, which are sliced whole almonds used for topping and decoration rather than for binding a batter. If a recipe calls for almond flour or ground almonds, flaked almonds won't give you the right texture — you need the fine, milled version.
Where Ground Almonds Earn Their Place
In British baking, ground almonds show up most often in frangipane, the almond cream that fills a Bakewell tart or sits under poached pears in a French tart. They're also the backbone of macaron shells, where the almonds are typically sifted with icing sugar to get a smooth, lump-free paste. Christmas cake and stollen recipes often include a portion of ground almonds alongside flour, which is part of what keeps those cakes moist for weeks of feeding and storing.
Outside of sweet baking, a spoonful stirred into a curry or tagine towards the end of cooking will thicken the sauce and add a nutty background note — a trick used in some korma and pasanda recipes as an alternative to cream.
Using Ground Almonds in Place of Flour
Ground almonds behave differently to wheat flour: they contain no gluten, so they won't give a cake structure or rise the way flour does on its own. In recipes designed around them — frangipane, macarons, some sponges — that's exactly the point: the eggs and sugar do the structural work, and the almonds add moisture, richness and flavour.
If you're substituting into a recipe that wasn't written for almond flour, a one-to-one swap rarely works cleanly. Most bakers find better results replacing somewhere between a quarter and half of the flour with ground almonds, keeping the rest as wheat flour (or another gluten-free flour blend if you're avoiding gluten entirely) so the bake still holds together.
Keeping Them Fresh
Ground almonds have a much larger surface area than whole nuts, which means their natural oils are more exposed to air and more likely to turn rancid if left in a warm cupboard. Store an opened bag in an airtight container somewhere cool and dark, and if you don't bake often, the fridge will keep them usable for longer. Buy in a size that matches how often you bake — a 250g bag for the occasional Bakewell tart, a larger bulk size if you're making macarons or frangipane regularly.
Getting Started
Our Premium Ground Almonds are milled from blanched almonds and packed in resealable bags from 250g up to bulk sizes for bakeries and cafés. If you need almonds for topping rather than baking into the mix, the flaked almonds are the better fit — scattered over a frangipane tart or a bowl of porridge for texture and a light, toasted crunch.