1,533 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

The skin of the almonds

If you like almonds, in their dried fruit version, you must use them quite often in cooking or baking, whether powdered or whole.

It is not obvious, but in fact there is 2 kinds of almonds in the market, wholesale with or without the skin.

23 K 4.7/5 (15 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Almonds Dry fruit Skin White Grey

Last modified on: February 8^th 2020

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

The skin of the almonds

For whole almonds, there are 2 versions in stores: so-called "white" or "blanched" almonds, ie without their brown skin, and "whole" almonds with their skin.

amandes blanches almonds with skin

For the almond powder, there is the same powder known as "white almonds" where they are almonds without the skin which are reduced to powder, and the so-called "gray" almond powder where they are the almonds. whole which are crushed.

poudre amandes blanches powder almonds gray

Is there a difference?

Yes, and it is important, first of all the taste: whole almonds, with their skin therefore, have more taste than white almonds, precisely because the skin participates in the taste. It's pretty easy to check, bite into one then the other, and you'll quickly feel the difference. So as a general rule, it is better to use whole almonds or gray powder, your cake or whatever you bake will be better for it.

Then there is a question of aesthetics: the white almond powder is purer, which means that it does not color the preparation in which it is incorporated, which can sometimes be something desired. The most common example is the marzipan, if you want to obtain a smooth paste and of uniform color, it is better to use white almond powder.

white almond paste

So you can see that casually, this skin of almonds which seems quite harmless has consequences on your future pastries, and (a little) on your wallet also, the powder of gray almonds and whole almonds are less expensive than the white ones.

Does this apply to all dried fruits?

No, it's often even the opposite, see for example hazelnuts and pistachios, for these 2 it's exactly the opposite, the skin does not add anything at all, it is even quite unpleasant to the taste, and it is strongly advised to withdraw it, or to buy "hulled" ones because for both it is rather painful to withdraw.

If you have to do it for hazelnuts for example, the best way is to roast them in the oven for 15 minutes at 320°F (160°C), then rub them out of the oven in a tea towel, the skin comes off in the form of a powder that you can dispose.

remove hazelnut skin

In summary: For almonds always prefer the version with the skin, much better, unless you need aesthetic purity (marzipan, macaroons), and for other dried fruits, hazelnuts in in particular, it is the opposite, prefer the version without the skin.

Lasts posts

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20251,9405

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20257,1013

The grease spray

As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26^th 20256,5835

Cake moulds

When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25^th 20256,6585

Thinning out herbs

If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8^th 20254,7765

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

The beautiful story of the croissants

As you may have already noticed, cooking, baking and pastry-making are full of stories or legends, usually very romantic, about this or that product or recipe. This is often the case for named recipes, for example tarte tatin, peach melba, paris-brest and many others, but it also applies to very...
October 10^th 201819 K5

The march forward

When professionals get to work in their kitchen, lab or bakery, they are (if they are conscientious) very sensitive to hygiene and cleanliness. It is impossible for a good baker for example to do a day's work without regularly cleaning the table where he or she works, and it is even more...
June 30^th 202119 K5

The 3 secrets of Parisian flan

A flan Parisien, or boulanger, is a simple yet delicious cake. A cream, a mixture of milk, eggs and sugar, is poured into a raw pastry base and baked in the oven until the pastry and cream are cooked. This is the simplest version of the recipe, probably the original one, but nowadays the cream...
July 21^th 202315 K4.7

Cream and sauces

Have you ever wondered why making beautiful tasty sauces is so easy when you use cream? .
October 15^th 201223 K4.4

Steam for baking bread

What does steam have to do with bread-making? This is not only a bakers' secret, it is something you might not think of at all: if you make bread and bake it like a cake, you will end up with bread, but pale and with a thick, hard crust – a long way from the golden-brown crusty loaf you had in...
June 16^th 2021146 K4.5