Ground Almonds?

Does anyone know where I can get ground almonds/almond meal? Oh, how I miss Home Economist.

Whole Foods, Jewel, Dominick's, you name it. Look for the Bob's Mill almond flour. I've picked it up at all of the above. It's usually next to the other Bob's Mill products (polenta, flours, etc.).

Trader Joe's carries it. It's called "Just almond meal" I think.

Not 100% sure, but I think the Trader Joe product is either ground unblanched and/or roasted, if that makes a difference in the recipe The Bob's Red Mill product is ground blanched almonds, which is what is usually used.

Bob's red Mill products are also available at Marketplace on Oakton, but they have a smaller selection than normal and I'm not sure if almond meal is always there.

The Trader Joe's almond meal is seasonal and will start disappearing soon. I get the Bob's at Jewel for macaron-making.

If you're going to need a lot of it (and/or not planning on making brightly-colored macarons with it), you may want to scout out/stock up on the almond meal from TJs. It's 3.99/lb as opposed to the Bob's Red Mill bleached almond flour which is close to 12.99/lb most places in the Chicago area.

FWIW, I happened to be at the Village Square Shopping Center recently and so stopped in to visit Garden Fresh Market. If you're not familiar with it, they remind me of both Lincolnwood Produce and Marketplace on Oakton in terms of a variety of offerings. I always enjoy walking the aisles there. In any event, they offer what seems to be every product made by Bob's Red Mill. So if you're in the vicinity, this may be a place to check out.

Garden Fresh Market
275 Skokie Boulevard
Northbrook, IL 60062-1611
(847) 272-0300

spinynorman99 wrote:The Trader Joe's almond meal is seasonal and will start disappearing soon. I get the Bob's at Jewel for macaron-making.

Are you certain about this? I went through a multi-year kick of eating oatmeal with almond meal for breakfast & always found it in stock at TJs. (That said, I was eating a couple teaspoons at a time, so I wasn't buying it more than a few times a year.)

I will say that TJ's almond meal is a much better value than I've found anywhere else.

Gypsy Boy wrote:FWIW, I happened to be at the Village Square Shopping Center recently and so stopped in to visit Garden Fresh Market. If you're not familiar with it, they remind me of both Lincolnwood Produce and Marketplace on Oakton in terms of a variety of offerings. I always enjoy walking the aisles there. In any event, they offer what seems to be every product made by Bob's Red Mill. So if you're in the vicinity, this may be a place to check out.

Garden Fresh Market
275 Skokie Boulevard
Northbrook, IL 60062-1611
(847) 272-0300

Garden Fresh actually has seven stores. They vary quite a bit in what they stock. For example, the Northbrook store has kosher meat and deli departments that the other stores don't have and the Wheeling store leans more Eastern European than the Arlington Heights store, which offers more Latin goods. However, I would think that they'd have something like almond meal in every store. They also stock a good selection of nuts and other "bulk" type foods in clamshells, so it would be worth checking that department as well.

http://www.gardenfreshmarket.com

All right, I found it at the Jewel in Evanston, on Chicago. They didn't have it at the one in Skokie or at Fresh Farms.

Bob's Red Mill was $11.99 or so for 16oz. That's a steal compared to the $2.39 per 2oz that I used to buy in the baking section.

I would like to echo the sentiment at the top:
I REALLY miss The Home Economist.
FWIW, it is very easy to ground your own almonds and save some money. I use a coffee grinder and sometimes a good blender can do the trick.