How To Bake With Almond Flour {Tips That Will Transform Your Baking}
Eating and baking low-carb desserts can be so easy when you bake with almond flour. Follow these baking tips and you’ll make amazing recipes that never fail!
Chances are if you search for low-carb treats, you’ll find something made with almond flour. Since it’s basically ground up almonds, it’s really high in protein, fat, and fiber, and naturally low in carbs. This also means it doesn’t have any gluten – a key ingredient in wheat that gives bread and cookies their trademark texture.
Before you start baking with almond flour, you should take a moment and read this entire guide. I’ll tell you everything that you need to know – including some tips that will help your treats stick together and have a perfect texture!
Related: For more tips on low carb and keto baking check out this guide!
How To Bake With Almond Flour
So many gluten-free and keto recipes replace regular all-purpose flour with almond flour. You can avoid some of the common pitfalls by following these tips hen using almond flour.
Thankfully, after you learn how to use it, you’ll be able to make lots of different things. With almond flour, you can make:
- Tasty low-carb biscuits
- Cookies
- Cakes
- Pancakes
- And even bread!
So, there is definitely plenty of room for variety. With that being said, here are my top 10 tips.
1. Know The Difference Between Almond Meal and Almond Flour
Before you even begin baking or cooking, make sure you are using the correct ingredient.
The only similarity between the two mentioned is that they are both made with ground-up almonds but they are both processed differently. If you use the wrong one in your recipe, you’ll end up with a gritty cookie.
If you want a cookie or bread with a fine texture, then you will want to use blanched almond flour.
Blanched almond flour is ground up finer and doesn’t have any bits of skin mixed in. There is unblanched almond flour too – that means it was ground up with the skins still on.
Almond meal, however, is ground up with the skin with the nuts, so it has a coarse texture. Think of almond meal as a substitute for gritty breadcrumbs. It’s a fantastic option if you want to give your chicken a crispy exterior.
Fun Fact: Did you know that in each 1/4 cup serving, there are only 6 grams of carbs? That’s incredible!
2. Store Almond Flour In the Refrigerator or Freezer
Even though it’s called “flour,” don’t store it in your pantry with your other types of flour. Instead, keep it somewhere cold. It is full of oils, making it prone to oxidizing and going rancid.
It will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about 6 months or in the freezer for up to a year.
How can you tell if your almond flour is still good? Open the bag and smell it. Rancid almond flour has a bad odor and a bitter taste.
3. Follow Recipes Exactly
Before you start trying to make up your own recipes, follow a few already-tested recipes first. Due to its high fat and oil content, almond flour can’t always replace flour 1:1. This is because something that is supposed to be more dense – like these gluten-free blueberry cheesecake bars – will require a different amount of flour from something lighter – like this spiced pumpkin bread and homemade biscuits.
When you bake with almond flour, you need to consider these three things:
- Texture
- Density
- Moisture content
All of these factors affect how your recipe will turn out.
4. Almond Flour is Often Thicker Than Wheat
A major tip I have for you is to know that anything you make with almond flour is going to come out with a thicker consistency than wheat flour. If you are trying to remake a recipe that has wheat flour, expect a thicker end result.
But, don’t try to thin it down with liquids either. That will just make it a huge soggy mess.
Some of the recipes on this site, like our popular low carb birthday cake recipe have thick batters. They will not pour and you will be required to spread the batter out. Yet the recipe turns out a perfectly baked cake.
5. You Cannot Sub Almond Flour For Coconut Flour 1:1
If you try to swap the exact amount of coconut flour with almond flour, you will probably end up with some very similar to a hard, heavy, brick. This is because coconut flour soaks up way more moisture than almond flour, so it requires more of it and more oils too.
You want to use way less coconut flour than almond flour in recipes.
We have a baking guide for working with coconut flour as well.
6. Don’t Pack When You Measure Almond Flour
When you measure almond flour, don’t pack it in your measuring cup as tight as you can. Instead, just scoop it up and use a knife to level it off.
This will prevent you from using too much almond flour and making the final product too dense.
7. The Trick To Baking Bread With Almond Flour
Some recipes that only call for almond flour create a bread that turns out denser, like a cake. It also comes out moist – not exactly something you can place in the toaster or use to make a sandwich.
The trick is to use both almond and coconut flour.
Don’t add more wet ingredients like oil or eggs. The coconut flour will soak up the wet ingredients and make it drier and hold together better – which is what you want.
8. Use Protein Powder, Xanthan gum, or Psyllium husk powder as a binder
Protein powder, xanthan gum, and psyllium husks give structure and adhesion within gluten-free recipes that use almond flour. It works just like gluten does in wheat-flour baking.
These ingredients help your recipes rise and maintain their shape.
When a recipe calls for one of these ingredients, it is usually not optional. In the absence of gluten, we need to add a binder to hold everything together.
We created a guide for Xanthan gum and possible substitutes that you can use to add this binder back into your gluten-free low carb baking.
9. Keep An Eye On Your Baked Foods
Anything you bake with almond flour will brown and cook faster than all-purpose flour so, keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn. This also means you should follow recipes closely in regard to cooking temperatures too.
Often, when people convert recipes that use wheat flour and use almond instead, they will also decrease the cooking temperature by 25 degrees.
I used high end, heavy commercial grade pans for my low carb baking to prevent over browning, but you can do the same thing by wrapping the bottom and sides of your pans with a layer of tinfoil.
Our number one FAQ is all about tools for low carb baking and we created a guide for that too. The guide also includes the pans I recommend.
10. Cool Almond Flour Baked Goods Completely First
After your baked good comes out of the oven, let it cool completely before you touch it. This is an extremely important tip!
Letting your desserts cool down is just as important as letting them bake. As they’ve cooled, the baked goods will set and firm up.
If you pick them up too soon, they will still be too soft and could just fall apart. You can’t fix this by baking them longer because you could burn them if you do.
Bake With Almond Flour: My Favorite Recipes
There you have it! I hope these ten tips give you all the information you need so you can master how to bake with almond flour. If this is your first time, start out following established recipes before trying to create your own.
There is a lot of trial and error involved in making recipes with it, but when you master it, it can be a wonderful way to make some low-carb treats!
Here are some of my go-to baking recipes that contain almonds:
- Low Carb Short Cakes With Raspberry and Almond Cream
- Keto Blueberry Bread With Lemon Drizzle
- Gluten-Free Thumbprint Cookies With Raspberries and Pistachios
- Salted Caramel Keto Cupcakes (Gluten-Free + Low Carb)
- Keto-Friendly Lemon Cheesecake With Lemon Curd Topping
We also have a section on the site where we’ve created guides for our most frequently asked questions from sweeteners to flours, baking tools, etc. If you have a suggestion for that section of the site, please feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.
Thank you so much for this info. I am a conventional baker and don’t understand recipes with almond flour. This helps♥️
I am so glad this post helped Betty. I so appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment too, always appreciated!
Thanks so much for the tips!
You’re most welcome! Thanks for dropping by Debbie and leaving a comment, it’s always appreciated.
Thankyou so much for the info…my dietician was trying to give me guideline for switching….it’s more complicated than I thought
Thankyou so much for this info! I have been on keto diet over three years, and still sometimes have problems with recipes. Think this info will help me! Barbie
So glad you found the information useful Barbie, and thanks so much for leaving a comment. Cheers!
I was wondering what protein powder do you use in your backing. I see it in certain recipes but am unsure what to use.
Thanks
Linda
Hey Linda, I usually use Genpro unflavored – it’s a whey protein isolate. Any unflavoured protein will work in recipes where I state I used protein powder. I use Genpro because that is what my husband uses when he makes a protein shake, so it’s what we have on hand. He likes it because it blends easy and he likes the taste. Hope that helps!
That was my question also., Knowing any whey protein isolate will work.
Thank You,
Connie
When I make the buns with the almond flour they always turn out hollow. Why?
Hi Georgia, I’d have to see the recipe to be sure but I can fathom a guess. I can see this happening in a yeast style roll, yeast tends to be a bit challenged with the heavier fat-laden flours like coconut and almond. There are all kinds of chemical reactions happening in that dough. The yeast is forming, giving off-gases, and those gases want to rise. If the almond flour has no binding (something like additional protein, or xanthan gum) it tends to stick to itself, so the gases inside are creating a big bubble, but that bubble of gas cannot penetrate through the almond flour, so it blows up like a balloon instead of creating smaller pockets of air, it’s just creating that big one in the middle and that is what is causing the hollow middle. When a binder is used it forces the flours to connect to everything else preventing the large air bubble. If the recipe you used is missing that extra binding ingredient that could be why.
Low carb yeast recipes are challenging – and I find my brand of almond flour has a big impact on how well something will rise. I always look for a really fine grade almond flour – the lighter particles are easier to lift, and usually give a better lift than an almond flour that isn’t quite as light and airy.
If you send me the recipe you are using via email I can take a look at it and better help you troubleshoot. Cheers!
I’ve had trouble with almond flour cookies not spreading out. I follow the recipe but then they turn out more like scones…any tips?
Hi Marissa, sometimes it’s the ratio of fat to flours – or it’s a solid fat like butter, vs oil. I find oil in a cookie recipe will help it spread more if that is the type of cookie you’re looking for. I find with low carb cookies that are made with almond flour, if I want them to flatten I have to start out that way with them because they do generally hold their shape. If you found a cookie recipe that you really like the taste of but want to try to get a flatter cookie, I would test replacing half the butter (if they call for butter) with oil and go from there. I hope that helps!
Will vital wheat gluten work like zantham gum psyllium powder in almond flour rexeipies
Hi Caryn, vital wheat gluten will work – I am very unsure of the ratio substitution because I don’t test my recipes with it because my husband is gluten intolerant and most of my readers avoid gluten. But I know it does work – you may need to test the recipe a few times to get the right balance. Hope that helps!
Hi. Thank you for your info. I just baked some
Low carb raspberry cheesecake bars and they came out so mush. Almond flour and eggs and butter and fake sugar was the bottom layer or crust. And like I said, mush. Should I have added something else. Can you also explain how and when to use wheat gluten in keto baking? Thank you so much. Great website!
Jazz
Hi Jazz, without seeing the recipe you used it’s hard to know what caused the mush, my guess is too much liquid to dry ratio, too much butter, or not enough binders (like protein, or Xanthan gum). Wheat gluten is generally not used in keto baking, because of the high carb counts – unless you are using something like vital wheat gluten. I don’t bake with gluten at all, so I don’t have any experience of advice on how to use it appropriately. In keto and low carb baking, we use wheat gluten replacements like xanthan gum ( I have a post about it), protein powder, psyllium husk powder, konjac powder, guar gum (and a few others). I generally use xanthan gum to replace the gluten in my baking. I find a tiny bit of xanthan gum gives a whole lot of stability to things like cakes, muffins, squares, etc.
So helpful, thank you!! Yesterday I made some almond flour brownies that were super dry AND burned 😭
Don’t you hate that? I get super annoyed and super frustrated when a perfectly good recipe doesn’t turn out the way I expect it will. Almond flour is a picky ingredient – I call it the goldilocks flour because everything needs to be just right for things to turn out well. I am curious if you used monk fruit in your brownies? I find monk fruit, unless the recipe was specifically developed with it, will always turn out super dry especially things like cake, brownies, and muffins (just my observation). So glad you found the post helpful, and thanks SO much for leaving a comment, they are always appreciated. Cheers!
I just started baking with almond flour so found your site. How much xantham gum is needed to bake with almond flour. Is there a ratio per 1 cup of almond flour? I have a good oatmeal cookie we really like but when using almond flour, they seem to come out very airy. Thank you!
Hey LeeAnn, every recipe is going to be a bit different based on protein in the recipe or any other kind of binders like eggs. So there isn’t a single ratio for all that will work. For a cookie recipe, I would suggest starting with 1/4 tsp for a recipe that will make a dozen cookies. You would think 1/4 tsp wouldn’t add anything but it really does! If you add too much xanthan gum you end up with an off texture, almost slimy (best way to describe it). If 1/4 doesn’t work for you, test 3/4 until you get the texture you’re looking for. I hope that helped!
I just baked a Strawberry cake using Almond flour. Just before it was down it looked tall in the pan but it fell as soon as I took it out to cool any tips.
Hi Michelle, if there was no additional binder used (like xanthan gum, or protein powder) the leavening agents will create large bubbles inside instead of small bubbles – when the cake cools, those larger bubbles will deflate and your cake will drop. In regular baking, gluten binds and creates a sticky film for the bubbles and they hold together and create many tiny little pockets of air that help the baked goods rise. In gluten-free baking, we need to replace that gluten with something else to create tiny bubbles instead of larger ones. I usually use xanthan gum because it works exceptionally well to mimic gluten, doesn’t add carbs, and has no added taste. We created a story on our home page to demonstrate this process https://sugarfreesprinkles.com/web-stories/xanthan-gum-story/
If you did use xanthan gum (or another binder replacement) it is very hard to say what created the drop without seeing the recipe and process.
I hope that helps!
Thank you, you’ve given me great tips. I found you by accident because I was looking for a Keto Zeppole recipe (Italian donut that is deep fried usually made in honor of St. Joseph) in my family. Since I haven’t I’m substituting my own just using the almond flour and seeing baking powder helps which it doesn’t but I’ll use the zanthum gum to help. Hope it works. Lol.
Do you also have these handy tips for coconut flour?
Hi Diane, yes, there is a full blog post about coconut flour. Just check out our home page and click on the FAQ – you will find loads of low-carb baking tips and tricks! Cheers. 🙂
I should have found your advise first before making mistake #10, Oh, well it is my first KETO sour cream pound cake, so disappointed the recipe called for 10 mins cooling and inverting cake in 20 mins
I followed and the cake fell apart (it was still warm) should have read your advise first.
other than that, I refrigerated what I could salvage last night and this morning I enjoyed creamy and crunchy almond. I am sure my next cake will be better. Thank you. i will return to your site.
I’ve done it, Isabel, SO many times. Just yesterday I turned out cupcakes too early and did the same. I was impatient and trying to get the post done and I ruined an entire batch. I was so miffed. But I am glad you found the post helpful! I just need to listen to my own advice. 😉
I have recently found out I’m prediabetic so excited to find your site! And excited to try some of your recipes using almond flour. Do you have a recipe for choc chip cookies using almond flour? I was always making regular choc chip cookies before this diagnosis 🙁 … I miss an occasional choc chip cookie!! ;0)
Hi Pam, yes, there is a recipe for chocolate chip cookies – they are soft and cake-like, I haven’t yet masted a thin chewy chocolate chip cookie but I am working on it! We have a few cookie recipes on the site, if you hit the search bar and type in cookies, you will find a full list of things like sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies etc. If you baked them let us know, we really really appreciate feedback! Cheers
Hi Laura. I’m so glad I chanced join your site before my “Goldilocks flour” cake-baking début today! It offered invaluable tips. Thank you so much.
A doubt… almost all almond flour recipes call for eggs to give the cake aeration and lift. I would like to cut down on the egg component. My recipe for today calls for 3 eggs and 2 cups of almond flour. Could I substitute them with 2 chia eggs plus 1 normal egg and replace 3/4 cup of the almond flour with 3/4 cup whole wheat flour to make the cake lighter?
Thank you!
Hi! Ok, so I have tried using chia eggs (we have vegan keto dieters in our family!) and my cakes turned out quite flat. They never had the lift and airy sponge they get with eggs. The cake wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. You also cannot sub wheat flour for almond flour 1-1 – it will require testing if you’re planning on making those swaps. Gluten-free baking is tricky with substitutes – I often test cake recipes 3-4 times before I get the ratios right. The liquid ratio to dry ratio is the big one that will need to be adjusted. Cheers!
If I have almond meal, can I process it more to make flour? Thanks!
Hi Linda, eh… in a pinch you could, but it’s really not quite the same thing and will impact the texture of your final recipe. I’ve tried to do that in a few recipes and it never quite turns out as well as commercially bought almond flour (and even almond flours seem to differ). If you process your almond meal in a food processor or blender you’re more likely to make almond butter vs flour before you ever get the fine grain of almond flour. Sorry!
hi laura i love chocolate chip cookies and anxious to start baking w almond flour.i only like brittle crispy cookies.how can i change your soft chewy recipe to suite my preference thanks bob
Hi Bob, I have yet to discover the mystery of the low carb – gluten-free brittle crispy cookie – I’ve spent an entire week working on a chocolate chip cookie recipe worthy of that description and came up flat. I don’t even have advice on what you could try because I think I have tried it all at this point. It’s one of those difficult recipes to make work because of the sweeteners and the flours. My next tests will involve a dehydrator but that’s a few weeks away. Sorry I couldn’t be more help! But if you find a recipe that works, let me know because I too love a crispy chocolate chip cookie!
Have you tried sweetening your chocolate chip cookies with Allulose? When I used Allulose to sweeten my chocolate chip cookies, the end result was chewy, crispy cookies.
Hi Lisa, yes I have and you’re 100% correct, I far prefer allulose over any other sweetener at this point!
Hi, I bake breads and cakes using Zucchini and this time I tried using The Allman flour in place of my white flour. The bread came out heavy and like, greasy feel and taste. Plus neither cake or bread raised like it does with my white flour. What to do?
You cannot replace almond flour with white flour, it doesn’t swap 1-1. Baked goods with almond flour will never rise like bread flour but there are things you can do to get the best rise you can get (all those tips are in the blog post above). The biggest ones are insuring that you sift your flours, whip your eggs (very very well until they are very light and airy) adding an extra dash of acid (like lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar) using a binding agent to replace the gluten (like xanthan gum, psyllium husk powder, flax etc) and blending almond flour with a lighter gluten-free low carb flour like coconut or sunflour. Your recipe was greasy because the recipe needs to be adjusted to take the extra fat from the almond flour into consideration. There are so many things that can go wrong – my recommendation is to find a gluten-free low-carb zucchini bread recipe that has already been tried and tested to get a feel for the ratios and then tweak that recipe for your own needs. Hope that all helps!
When making a low carb pumpkin bread why did it come out like it was not cooked, it still looked like raw batter. I don’t know how much longer to cook the product. This happened with my pumpkin bread and again with a donut recipe.
Hi Kim, I would test the temperature in your oven to make sure that it is accurate. Stove ovens can go out of sync. If that’s 100%, not the problem I would bake it for 10-15 minutes more with a tent of tin foil over the top to prevent over-browning. I have found some low-carb recipes that try to bake at a lower temperature to prevent over-browning and this leads to non-cooked centers and dry baked goods. I try to bake my recipes at 350 to get a quick cook but do things like add tin foil to the top or bottom (depending on the recipe) to prevent over-browning – this seems to prevent the undercooked centers and creates better baked goods (in my opinion anyway). I hope that helps!
I have a 2 ingredient Bagel recipe that call for 1 3/4 cups of self rising flour. 1 cup of Greek Yogurt 1 tablespoon of butter or other substitute. Can I use almond flour instead of self rising flour?
Hi Pat, no unfortunately that won’t work. Self-rising flour and Almond flour will not swap 1-1. There will need to be other adaptations to the recipe for liquid and fat to make up for the extra fat in the almond flour. My suggestion is to search the web for an almond flour bagel recipe. Baking with almond flour is a bit of a challenge and requires a few extras like leavening, acid, etc.
Hi there
Loving this page and your advice.
I’ve been trying this recipe
And the bread always turns out soggy and undercooked. As well as a big air bubble at the top. So it rises but nothing fills it up.
Any tips on how to fix this, please?
I’d say the recipe doesn’t have enough protein to help create the chains required to keep the air bubbles small. The problem with low-carb baked goods, almond flour in particular will over brown quickly, so although the dough looks cooked, it’s actually still raw inside. I’d keep the dough lightly covered with a piece of tin foil for the first half of baking and pull it off for the last half to brown.
I’d add a 1/4 tsp of xanthan gum to this recipe. You can check out our post on xanthan gum and why it is a great addition to recipes just like this, it goes into the reasons why a binder is required. Large air bubbles like you mention is a good indicator that the bread doesn’t have anything to bind the bubbles – a tiny bit of xanthan gum should do the trick.
Without testing myself, all of this is just guesswork but I hope it helps!
I have baked with almond flour for a number of years, usually biscuits and pizza dough. I have followed many different recipes but both the biscuits and the dough invariably come out dry. I have also tried adding butter, more liquids, replacing milk with cream and eggs with the same results. Suggestion?
Hi Steve, almond flour baked goods will have a general dryness about them and I say generally because they never quite get as moist as regular baking, but you can balance it out a bit. I find in a recipe where I cannot balance the dryness, a dollop of cream cheese can help greatly. And although I do not do it myself, I have read that adding a bit of glycerine to recipes will help as glycerine is a humectant that will pull in moisture from the air. One of the many reasons why glycerine is often found in packaged baked goods, it keeps them moist. Adding glycerine maybe the trick you need, but you may need to tinker with the recipes a bit to get the balance right. Cheers!
Just received my first bag of almond flour
Trying a low carb diet for the first time in a long time
I just read that the flour should be stored in the fridge or freezer, thank you for that
Hi Rosalie, you’re very welcome. I find almond flour lasts for a while, kept in a sealed container in a pantry, but if I get it on sale (because wow, the price now!) I will toss the extra bags in the freezer, which lasts much longer. Cheers!