Blanching almonds is preparation, not a recipe in its own right. Anyone making marzipan, grinding almond flour or decorating a cake needs the skins off. The Thermomix® handles the hot-water stage in 8 minutes. The rest you do by hand.
Blanching and Peeling Almonds with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 2 ✓
- 200 g almonds
- 500 g water
Instructions 0 / 3
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1
Cook the almonds.
Add almonds and water to the mixing bowl and cook for 8 min / 100°C / reverse direction / speed 1.
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2
Refresh the almonds in cold water.
Drain the almonds into the steaming basket or Varoma and rinse with cold water.
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3
Peel the almonds.
The almonds can now be squeezed easily out of their skins. Spread the almonds on a kitchen towel and leave to dry for 1 hour.
Tip: In step 1, make sure reverse direction is activated, otherwise the almonds will be chopped instead of cooked.
Video
Nutrition per serving
The one thing you must not forget
Reverse direction. If you do not activate reverse direction in step 1, the blades will run forwards at speed 1 and chop the almonds instead of cooking them. It is in the recipe card too, but we say it here again because this is the only point where the result can really go wrong.
Everything else is straightforward. Add 500 g water to the mixing bowl, add 200 g whole almonds, cook for 8 minutes at 100°C, reverse direction, speed 1. Then drain into the steaming basket and refresh with cold water. The skins will now slide off: hold an almond between your thumb and forefinger, press gently, and the almond pops out. With very old or dry almonds the skin may cling more. Simply cook for another 30 seconds at 100°C.
After blanching: leave to dry
Damp almonds go mouldy. We always spread them on a kitchen towel and leave them to dry for at least an hour, ideally overnight, before putting them into a container. If you want to use them for grinding in the Thermomix®, you can start after 30 minutes. For storing or baking, it is better to wait longer.
Larger quantities work just as well: for 400 g almonds simply use 800 g water and keep the time the same. Anyone who regularly needs marzipan, caramelised almonds or almond flour is better off blanching a larger batch in one go.
How other methods differ
Goes well with: Marzipan and cake.
Many guides cook almonds briefly in a saucepan and plunge them straight into iced water. With the Thermomix® that is not necessary: 8 minutes at 100°C on reverse direction speed 1 is enough, and a cold rinse in the steaming basket does the rest. Some recipes work with only 100 g of almonds. We blanch 200 g from the start because anything less is hardly worth the effort. Other sources recommend machine-peeling by running the Thermomix® four to five times for 15 seconds on reverse direction speed 3.5. We advise against this: the almonds get damaged and are no longer usable for decoration. Peeling by hand takes about 6 minutes for 200 g and gives a cleaner, more even result than any machine method.
