Replacing ground almonds in a recipe

[TheBlairSnitchProject]

Wasn't sure whether to post this in 'Christmas' or 'Allergies' but have gone with Allergies as I guess you guys will have the most experience with adapting recipes...

I want to make a Christmas pudding this year and ahve found a recipe I like the look of but one of the ingredients is ground almonds.

Both DH and I are Atopic so I have been avoiding nuts with my 2 year old DS and also avoiding eating them myself as I am pregnant again and due the week before Christmas (at which point I hope to be breastfeeding). So far DS shows no sign of any nut allergy.

My Brother has a nut intolerance (Almonds being one specifically mentioned in his report) too and will be joining us for Christmas dinner so I'd rather leave them out for his sake too.

Does anyone know what I should do about the recipe though? Do I just leave out the 100g of Ground Almonds or will this make the mix too wet? Should I replace the almonds with plain flour? More self raising flour (there is already 250g in the recipe)?

Any help would be appreciated. TIA

Ground rice has a reasonably similar texture, so is a possibility, but I'd be tempted just to increase the flour but to use wholewheat flour instead of white flour.

semolina. (the dried variety in a packet, not the pudding in a tin). This was always used during rationing as a substitute.

I'd just add a bit more flour

Thank you for such quick replies!!

I'm very tempted with just replacing the flour as I wanted to make them today and I'd have to go out shopping again to get Ground Rice or Semolina.

Will keep them both in mind though. I have the whole of Christmas dinner to do for my Brother and it will need more changes I'm sure..

I have used semalina, it does make it slightly drier and a slightly courser texture, but perfectly acceptable alternative.

The only thing about adding extra flour, is that you end up with a doughy texture that is not really like the texture of the ground almonds IYSWIM. Although if you didn't have the semolina, I am sure it would be perfectly acceptable.

I have never added ground almonds to xmas pud - bread crumbs in the recipe? If not add the same amount to make up

or vegetarian suet

I tend to think you could leave out the almonds without adding anything extra. Not that I'm an expert

I could try it and see if the mix is very wet without it...

Problem is, I've never made the recipe before so I'm not sure what it should look like IYSWIM

yes I always used to just leave them out and add flour instead