Making Almond Meal For Macaroons

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Nigella's Coconut Macaroons (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS) uses ground almonds (almond meal) and shredded coconut. Most macaroon recipes contain some type of ground nuts. It is possible to make your own ground almonds by pulsing blanched or skinned almonds in a food processor, coffee grinder or liquidizer. However you need to do this carefully as if you process the nuts too much they will release their oils and the resulting macaroons will be greasy.

It would be possible also to make the ground almonds by hand by chopping the nuts with a heavy, sharp knife. But as the nuts need to be chopped very finely for macaroons you would need to keep sifting the chopped nuts through a coarse sieve or strainer and chopping again any bits that are too big to pass through the sieve. This is likely to be very time intensive and fiddly, so it may be easier to buy ground almonds. You should be able to buy them in most larger grocery stores or cake decorating stores. They are also available on-line. Keep any leftover ground almonds in a tightly sealed container in a cool, dry place.