Newbie - Are ground almonds = almond flour ?

[Haglis]

Hi all,

I am new to low carb eating and not too experienced in cooking either, well not a lot of finesse anyway

I just bought The Low-carb Diabetes Cookbook recommended by Diabetes.co.uk and have tried a few recipes and guess I will get better with time.

I tried to make raspberry muffins this morning and they were awful.

I am guessing I didnt quite get what the ground almonds should be. I blitzed them with a hand held blender but not in to a fine power, just small bits of nuts mostly.

This then, with the eggs, didnt really get to the consistency that was expected, thick custard.

Anyway, my question really is, are ground almonds just almond flour ?

If not, how fine do they have to be ground down to ?

My first of many stupid questions

Thanks, George.

 

[Brunneria]

if you want to get fancy, you can search online and spend a fortune on ‘de-fatted’ almond flour which is finer and drier.
But if you want to be practical and economical, then ‘ground almonds’ will do the job nearly as well

 

[xfieldok]

You can get ground almonds from the supermarket, but usually in fairly small quantities. I use almond flour which is very fine and get it from Amazon.

Be careful when calculating the carbs and always check the packaging. The superfine I get is a lot higher than the supermarket one.

There are no stupid questions

 

[Haglis]

Thanks so much for your prompt reply and the info.

I have almond flour already but I suspect its full fat

I dont understand why the recipe says ground almonds but coconut flour. The worlds gone crazy.

Guess whats for breakfast tomorrow

Thanks, George.

 

[xfieldok]

Don't be tempted to change almond for coconut flour. They behave differently.

If you have a recipe but the wrong sort of flour, do a search for the recipe and add the flour you have.

 

[Resurgam]

I put ground almonds though a fine sieve to remove the coarser grains. You need to be careful making your own ground nuts, as you can easily end up with a nut butter instead, if it gets too hot in the process. If I need to start from whole nuts I cool them in the fridge before starting, then cool again twice - sometimes I will sieve out the finest bits after the second grinding and only put the coarser bits in for the third go.

 

[Redshank]

I buy Ground Almonds from the supermarket (bags of 200g).

 

[Haglis]

Hi All,

Thanks for the varied hints and tips, very useful.

I am not really counting carbs, I am just following the recipes in the book and presuming they will be low enough ? Perhaps I need to be more vigilant ?

I didnt think about replacing almond flour with coconut oil, the recipe called for both ground almonds and coconut flour. I should have mentioned that. I just thought it odd not to use both as flour ?

I dont think I will be making much more of my own ground almonds as my grinder doesnt seem to be up to the job. I'll see if I have any different blades if I havent lost them all already.

George.

 

[xfieldok]

@Haglis are you wanting to lose weight, or do you want to control your diabetes? What type are you?

I have put a link to Jo's blog in my signature it is worth a read.

 

[Haglis]

I am type 2.

Ultimately I would like to put this awful disease into remission or whatever the correct term is for that, tho I am aware this may not be possible, I m still hopeful.

I want to get my glucose levels under control as quickly as possible, which is happening quite quickly. But I would also like to loose plenty of weight too, especially for october as I have a wedding and am best man.

I will have s read of the blog.

Do you know if there is any specific forum for the diabetic cookbook or am I just as well to be asking directly here anyway ?

I have seen folk mention being purely carnivore. Is that not the same as the Atkins diet which I was lead to believe is pretty dangerous ?

Thanks, George.

 

[Resurgam]

Atkins is probably exactly right for controlling type two diabetes as it has a lot of info about adjusting levels to suit the individual, plus all the lists of low carb foods, recipes and meal plans. I use New Diet Revolution from time to time even now.
If you have a very low tolerance for carbs then carnivore might be the easier option.
Once blood glucose is under control it is not unusual to lose significant amounts of weight as the metabolism recovers.

 

[Brunneria]

@Haglis

Most T2 diabetics seem to get good glucose control by reducing the carbs in their diet. It can have a much greater effect than medication and can lead to impressive weight loss. You will find whole threads of success stories here on the forum about it.

However, it is always the individual’s choice what they eat and how much they eat, so you will be able to steer your own ship.

One of the best websites to introduce low carb and provide recipes and menus is www.dietdoctor.com

As with almost every way of eating on the planet, it is possible to choose healthy or unhealthy options. This means that both Atkins and carnivore can be healthy or not, depending on what foods are selected.

 

[Robbity]

I based my original low carb diet on Atkins before I found our forum - it was what my GP recommended I try for weight loss. As far as I was concerned it was both healthy and safe, and is essentially another variation of a low carb style diet. And as already mentioned, it's the food choices you make that will determine whether any diet is safe and healthy or not - I'm sure I could eat an appalling unhealthy processed junk food style of low carbing if I really set my mind to it.

I use ground almonds rather than almond flour in my baking as I prefer the slightly coarser texture. They are a lot cheaper, and supermarkets very often have packs on offer. I've not tried grinding my own, but I have successfully ground small quantities of hazelnuts in my little electric coffee grinder. Chocolate hazelnut muffins are one of my favourites.

 

[Haglis]

Hi All,

Thanks so much for all the info, so much to go thru.

I think carnivore is out for me as is Atkins tho I am probably taking something from each but mainly keto tho they are all quite similar mainly strictness is low carb being the main things.

I still like salads so lettuce, toms, onions, mushrooms and perhaps one or two other things have to stay in my diet otherwise its not going to be sustainable for me.

I am going to try to stay as close to 50 carbs per day for a wee while. I'll certainly see how I get on this week at least. I'm not going to freak out of I dont but I find it helpful to have a target to aim for. I'll adjust it if I need to of course.

How do you effectively count carbs especially when cooking at home ? Is there a good app that anyone can recommend for that ?

Thanks again, George.

 

[Glassel]

If you are interested in low carb and gluten free baking there are a few really good websites. My favourite is All Day I Dream About Food, google that name.

The author has written articles on different kinds of low carb flour, and after baking low carb for several years, I have recently found out about the difference between ground almonds and almond flour, and if you are going to make your own almond flour, you need a really powerful blender/processor. If you sign up for her baking tips you will get an email a day to introduce you to it. Her recipes are really good.

The other one I like is DivaliciousRecipes where the author uses mainly coconut flour, which I think is great for sweet things, but I find pure coconut flour recipes to sweet and coconuty. She's got some great recipes.