Almond oil is the oil extracted from crushed almond seeds, the oil is rich in vitamin E and is used for cooking, has culinary, cosmetic, and medicinal benefits. Almond oil can be used as a carrier oil when extracting carrot oil, rosemary oil, and fenugreek oil at home. It can be used for making lip balms or lipgloss for dry lips. The nutritional value of almonds makes it good for use in cooking (sweet almond oil is used for salad dressing) and it is also good for the skin, hair, and face.
Almonds can be roasted to increase the flavor as well as making it more palatable for eating. It is sometimes combined with honey, sugar, or dark chocolate. The health benefits of sweet almonds can be derived from almond milk, almond meal, almond flour, or using the almond oil.
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Types of Almonds
There are two types of almonds: bitter almonds and sweet almonds. The bitter almonds are not healthy and should not be eaten (they are not edible). Bitter almonds can be used for making almond oil but must be bleached to remove the unhealthy substances in it. Sweet almonds are edible and are used for making milk, meal, flour, or almond oil. The commonest is the sweet almond. In fact, what you have been eating is sweet almond nuts.
Uses of Almond oil
- You can use almond oil for roasting, frying and, the oil can be used for making salad dressings.
- It can be used to dilute other essential oil such as lemongrass oil, or peppermint oil.
- This oil is an important ingredient in many of our beauty products such as shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and creams. It nourishes the skin and hair and has a moisturizing effect.
- Almond oil is very great for hair growth, it stimulates blood circulation, and also prevents hair fall.
- It can provide your skin with extra protection by softening dry and rough patches.
- Since almond oil has a moisturizing property, it can be applied to the face as a face mask.
If you really want to know how to make sweet almond oil at home, here in this article you are going to see the step by step procedures that you need to take to achieve that. Alternatively, below is a youtube video on how to make almond oil from scratch without much waste of time:
You will need:
- 2 to 4 cups of sweet almond nuts
- Water, enough to dilute the almond paste
- Bowls and cheesecloth for mixing and straining
- A pot and spatula for cooking and stirring
- Storage jar to store the oil when done
How to make sweet almond oil at home
- Add raw almonds into the blender with the skin on, start crushing the nuts with a low speed first so that you don’t overwork your blender.
- Once you have broken the nuts into pieces, gradually change to high speed and blend until you have a smooth paste.
- Bring the almond paste into a pot add water to dissolve the paste, let it be slightly runny.
- Place on heat to cook for 10 minutes and then take it off on heat. The first cooking will help release the milk and the oil from the paste.
- Strain the milk using a cheesecloth into another pot and place back the milk on heat to boil.
- Let the milk boil on medium heat until all the water evaporates and you are left with a thick paste.
- Reduce the heat and cook the paste on low flame while stirring until the oil begins to flow to the top.
- Once you notice some traces of oil in the paste, do not go away, keep stirring occasionally until there is no water in it again.
- Take the pot off from the stove and leave to cool down a little bit so that you can handle it with your hand.
How to extract the oil from the paste
- Place a cheesecloth over a bowl and add 4 tablespoons of the almond paste at a time. Wrap the ends of the material together tightly and begin squeezing the paste until oil starts to flow out.
- Use a clean bowl to collect the oil, and repeat this process until you are done squeezing all the oil from the entire paste.
- Pass the oil over a fine strainer again to collect any particle that must have fallen in during the extraction process.
- Store the oil in an airtight jar away from moisture. Your sweet almond oil is ready to be used.