More Almond Options for Healthy Baking

It's easier to be innovative when you have inspiring ingredients at hand. Stocking a range of almond products can help feed your creative juices and prompt you to explore some new territory. If you have never experimented with almond milk or almond oil, let culinary consultant Priscilla Martel introduce you to some of their best features:

Almond milk: This creamy non-dairy "milk" is produced either by combining almond flour with cold water and blending it to extract the solids; or, preferably, by soaking blanched almonds in water overnight, then processing the mixture and straining. Martel says she makes almond milk from scratch, although a commercial pastry chef may prefer to purchase it.

"It has a creamy, smooth, silky feel on the palate, with a delicate marzipan flavor and a natural sweetness," says Martel. Substitute almond milk for fluid milk—ounce for ounce—in any cake recipe. Use it in bread pudding, crème anglaise or a tropical-fruit trifle. "It works really well with citrus flavors," says the consultant. "Vanilla can mask some of its natural beauty."

Vegans customers and observant Jews (who don't consume dairy products in a meal with meat) will especially appreciate breads and desserts made with almond milk.

Almond oil: Pressed from roasted or raw almonds, this oil has a high smoke point (about 420°F) so it's suitable for frying. Made with raw almonds, the oil has a mild taste and fragrance; with roasted almonds, it is nutty.

"It can sub out directly for any kind of oil or melted butter," says Martel. "In a chiffon cake, raw almond oil would have that healthy halo that all almond products have, and a light flavor that wouldn't interfere." Replacing melted butter in a génoise or vegetable oil in a quick bread, roasted almond oil would contribute a rich, nutty taste.

Note that substituting almond oil for butter will make baked goods shorter and more friable because the oil contains no water.

Almond paste: You are probably familiar with almond paste in cakes, macaroons and fillings. But did you realize you can use it to make a refreshing granita? In Sicily, one of the most popular pastry-shop offerings is an icy almond-milk granita made by freezing a blend of almond paste and water. With high-quality almond paste (65 percent almonds, 35 percent sugar), figure about 1/3 cup almond paste to 1-1/2 cups water. Blend, chill, then freeze. Sicilians enjoy almond-milk granita for breakfast on hot days.

In this video demo, Culinary Institute of America chef-instructor Stephen Durfee uses almond milk and almond butter to produce an intriguing Almond Milk and Bitter Chocolate Sherbet.