Can I Use Ground Almonds For The Banket Bar Filling?

Our answer

Nigella's Banket Bars are small pastries made up of a log of almond paste that is wrapped in flaky puff pastry. They are a Dutch speciality at Christmas and can be formed into letters or longer logs, but Nigella makes bite-sized versions that are like mini sweet sausage rolls.

The almond paste is made from blanched almonds that are ground with sugar in a food processor, then mixed with flavourings and an egg to bind. We found that this gives a much more luxurious texture than using ground almonds or almond flour. So we would very much recommend making the filling with blanched almonds. However, if you absolutely have to use almond flour then you would use the same weight of 250g. But you may find that the filling is slightly looser and oilier than using blanched almonds.