While shopping for baking ingredients recently, I was inwardly complaining about recipes that call for a volume amount of ground nuts. I’ve never been able to find ground nuts in my well-stocked grocery store. That means that I have to grind my own, which is annoying because my food processor takes up basically my whole dishwasher, plus, if we’re going to have to grind our own nuts, shouldn’t the recipe indicate how much whole nuts we’ll need to grind to get the right amount of ground nuts? Blah blah blah, whine whine whine, and then I stumbled upon this:
Never mind! Let me tell you some things that don’t matter to me about buying these: 1) It’s probably far more expensive than grinding my own. 2) It’s going to take me months to use up a pound of ground almonds. Oh, and 3) these were the wrong type of nut for the recipe I bought them for. Whatever! Yay for not using the food processor!
With pre-ground nuts, this cake was really easy. I had a bit of a time crunch due to traveling, so I made it at my place Thursday night, then packed it in my suitcase the next day when I flew across the country. My sister and brother-in-law and I snacked on it the next night after putting my nephews to bed.
Dorie says twice in her introduction that the recipe is foolproof, so of course I had problems. Clearly the top of the cake is too dark, bordering on burned. I’m blaming my pyrex, instead of metal, loaf pan. I suppose I should lower the oven temperature 25 degrees when baking in pyrex. I didn’t want to serve the burned portion, so I trimmed it off before planning to add the glaze. Then I ate the trimmings and found them so tasty (and not burned-tasting at all) that I decided to skip the glaze altogether.
The cake was easy and delicious, sturdy enough to travel across the country with me, and was appropriate after dinner one night and for breakfast a few days later. Plus, I’ve now fairly well established that there’s a difference between baking in pyrex and metal that I’ll need to make adjustments for in the future. Altogether, a good Tuesdays with Dorie week for me. The recipe is posted on Liliana’s site.
One year ago: My first attempt at sushi rolls
I also have a love-hate relationship with my food processor. It’s nice because it gets the job done, but I hate how much room it takes up in the dishwasher and I hate putting the pieces together. I avoid using it for things like this as well. Glad to know I’m in good company! Your cake looks wonderful!
I DESPISE using the food processor – hooray for not needing to do so!! 😀
Lovely cake!!
I have the exact same vent about recipes requiring ground nuts! I just skipped them this time and used flour instead. Maybe I’ll have to grab some almond meal to have on hand for recipes like this. Your cake looks wonderful!
Glad you found the Red Mill Almond Meal! 🙂 I loved the stuff the first time I used it, but then realized that it would be sort of fun to grind my own. And WOW what a difference it made! I actually am planning on making French macarons sometime before I leave for school and already bought a whole bunch of unblanched almonds; in my limited experience, the best way to grind almonds is 1) in small batches, about 1/2 cup each grind, 2) after freezing the almonds so it doesn’t turn into almond butter and 3) with quick pulses, constantly scraping the bottom of the processor.
Sorry for that rant, but almonds can be so cheap! It only takes me about 15-20 minutes to thoroughly grind the almonds into meal consistency and is well worth it in my opinion.
I glad you enjoyed the cake. I loved it with the lemon curd!
Looks delicious and so perfect!
Being a mostly gluten free household we use LOTS of nut flours. Bob’s Redmill brand is a staple with us!
A GREAT way to use the rest of the almond flour is for a pie crust, especially cheesecake!!!
Hm! I didn’t realize Bob’s Redmill had almond flour. Have to check that out next time I’m shopping!
I love Bob’s Red Mill almond flour/meal. It’s great. If you factor in the cost of your time to make your own ground almonds, the washing the processor, etc. It probably i s a wash in terms of cost. That’s the way I think about it anyway.
Your cake looks delicious.
Beautiful photos!! Thanks for the tip on baking in pyrex! I wouldn’t even think about lowering the temp.
i always buy preground almond meal…it’s finer and nicer than what you make in your processor anyway. great looking cake, and glad to hear it travels well!
Answer to big/bulky/dishwashfilling processor = Magic Bullet. They are really a life saver when it comes to chopping/mixing/spinning/grinding small amounts.
I need to find the Bob’s almond meal here. I want to go low carb again and the almond flour would be perfect.
And speaking of perfect, that is your cake. Looks great. And it was good, hunh!
I love the way this cake looks. Very moist and delicious!
Looks yummy!
i would worry about how fresh the almond meal is. I grind mine in a coffee grinder. Quick, easy only one tiny part to wash.
Don’t you love those pre-ground nuts? They’re my failsafe when I make macarons – no worries about oily ground nuts! Beautiful job! (I had problems with mine too – it didn’t rise – so no worries on that score)
I buy ground almonds whenever I can find them. I hate taking out the food processor just to grind nuts – one more thing to wash!
Your cake looks delicious. I have made pound cakes in pyrex loaf pans and I also ended up trimming the ends – thanks for the tip.
Thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked the recipe.