I would love to bake a traditional French-style Macaroons but I am allergic to nuts.  Is there any viable substitute for the almond flour that would produce the same level of quality for this style of cookie?  I have looked high and low to no avail.  I know that almond flour is high in fat so could I just use regular flour and add butter?  Anyone have a viable option?  Thanks!!

That’s a tough one- regular flour would significantly change the texture of the meringue, because of its ability to form gluten. 

I don’t know if this will work to your liking, but if you were determined to experiment with the flour/butter substitution, you could try rubbing the butter into the flour to coat the particles and reduce its ability to form gluten.  Rose’s excellent pie crust recipe does this, as does S. Yard’s croissant recipe.  I have not tried it myself. 

Another thought is to substitute cocoa powder, though to do that for all of the nuts might not work, taste-wise.

I wonder if perhaps something like graham cracker crumbs, animal cracker crumbs, matzoh meal, finely ground panko or bread crumbs would work?

in my opinion, there isn’t such thing as a french macaroon w/o the almond flour!  r u allergic to all types of nuts?  perhaps you can use mac nuts instead of almonds.

Are you allergic to coconuts? I’ve seen coconut flour at Whole Foods.

I think if I were you, I’d just make meringues.  I believe that by definition macaron are a combination of egg whites, ground almonds and sugar with optional flavourings.

You could try using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-free all-purpose baking mix. I don’t recall it having nuts in it. It’s a mixture of legumes and vegetable-derived stabilizers. I would try subbing this for an equal amount by weight of ground almonds, adding additional almond extract (if you can use almond extract, if not, try armaretto liquor).

I agree with Hector, though, it’s not a French macaroon without almonds.

Hi, you might want to try looking up at http://www.mytartelette.com.
Helene has tried using other types of ground nuts in place of ground almonds.

How about peanuts?  I’ll bet folks would love those!!!  (The woman next to me is also allergic to nuts, but she can have peanuts, so I’m only guessing that can eat them, too.)  I think they’d taste like a fancy honey-roasted peanut.

Yum!

You can use pistachio flour