# best food processor for making almond powder for macarons?



## zara (Aug 28, 2017)

hello all :]
i need advise on purchasing a good food processor for making almond powder for french macarons. i intend to make about 150 macarons a day ...


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

Why not just buy in almond flour and save yourself the labor of grinding the almonds yourself? The money you might save grinding your own are negligible if you add in labor/time costs. There is really no point or advantage to grinding them yourself where the quality of the macarons are concerned either. That said, if you own a commercial bakery/pastry shop, you probably should have a food processor as a necessary piece of equipment anyway. My professional choice is always a Robocoupe, but they are pretty pricey and maybe more than you need. I've done just fine with consumer equipment like Cuisinart Pro and KitchenAid processors. They do a fine job, especially when it comes to grinding nuts.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Almond powder for commercial purposes is not done with a food processer or even a grinder. Caveman technology is still best, and this means almonds are run through two rolling marble cylinders several times. Each time, the gap between the cylinders is adjusted finer and finer.

With a food processer, you will never get consistently fine powder, the "fines" settle to the bottom of the processer, and the largerpieces work their way to the top. I other words, you have to sift, and re-process the karger chunks. However, if you process too much you will get greasy or oily almond powder.

Like Chefpeon says, you'd be better off buying almond powder from a reputable supplier........


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## zara (Aug 28, 2017)

Thank you for your reply ! Sadly , we don't get almond powder in my country ... So my only option is to grind the almonds myself . I learnt pastry from Le Cordon Bleu and saw the chef's using robot coupe for making almond powder. I am interested in purchasing one , however, a model like robot coupe R 201 comes with a smooth blade. How good will that be for making a powder ? I am asking, since the robot coupe website recommends buying an additional "serrated blade" for making almond powder.


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

When grinding nuts, you need as much friction as possible to get the almonds to a uniform fine meal. A serrated blade provides more friction than a smooth blade, so yes, I would invest in the serrated blade. I actually never use a smooth blade for anything. I either use the serrated blade, or one of the slicing or grating disks if I'm needing something that doesn't need to be pulverized.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

I don't understand " we don't get almond powder in my country". Any purveyor brining in whole almonds will aldo bring in whole blanched, blanched sliced, blanched nibs, blanched ground, and yes, almond powder.

In any case, you can make your own serrated food processor blade. You just need a chain saw file and you can file your own serrations. It doesn't have to be pretty or even regular serrations.


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

foodpump said:


> I don't understand " we don't get almond powder in my country".


I understand it actually, and I'm thinking it's more like "I can't get almond powder in my area because my local purveyor doesn't stock it."

I live in the good ol' USA, but I'm in Ruralsville, which means only certain purveyors come out here and most of them don't keep 
"specialty items" in stock. Almond meal, to them is a specialty item, at least out here. So in order to get my 25 lb box of almond meal, which fortunately lasts me a pretty long time, I have to will-call it at a specialty food purveyor 3 hours away. So....yeah. If the OP is in a similar situation, it may not even be feasible for them to travel far to find pre-ground almonds and more cost effective to buy in what they can get delivered locally (in this case whole blanched almonds) and grind them themselves.


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