Almond flour, anyone?

[Irulan]

So I'm looking into this product and recipes that go with it. Sites like Elana's Pantry look terrific.
http://www.elanaspantry.com/ingredients/blanched-almond-flour/

Now, on her site she is very specific about which brands to use or not use, Bob's Red Mill being on the "do not use" list for poor results.
Has anyone used the almond meal/flour that Trader Joe's sells? Will it work equivalently to a blanched almond flour? Any other comments?

thx

Irulan

[Crankin]

I have used Red Mill Almond Flour and Trader Joe's and they were fine. I have also been on Elana's site and while I was happy with some of the recipes, I found her recommendations to be a bit much. I am no longer eating Paleo, and even when I was, I just couldn't be that picky. You can take the clean eating as far as you want; I've managed to lose weight and feel fine by drastically cutting my meat consumption, adding a few selected whole grain foods in, and keeping all of the great veggies, etc I learned about.

[Irulan]

Her brand recommendation was based on how the flour performed in the recipes, not on all that other stuff. ;)

[Crankin]

All I can say is that I used the Red Mill in her recipes and the earth didn't die. The recipes tasted fine, too.

[GLC1968]

Bob's Red Mill and TJ's almond flour are actually just almond meal. Great for some recipes, not so great for others. They are very, very similiar to each other with TJ's being slightly more 'mealy'...if that makes sense.

Honeyville's almond flour is blanched (the skins removed) before grinding and then it's ground very fine. It has a different texture, so if you are hoping for good baking results, it's a good option. I use all three with good results, depending on the recipe. The Honeyville will give you a lighter, softer result - more similiar to regular flour. The other two are more like a whole wheat flour texture in baked goods.

I know that Elena's chocolate chip cookie recipe was the one where she did the experiment and found that the Honeyville was best, but I've used Bob's in it and they were fine. Not AS good as with Honeyville, but still plenty yummy!