It is so easy to make your own hazelnut flour at home.
What is Hazelnut Flour
Hazelnut flour is hazelnuts finely ground into a nut flour. It is also known as hazelnut meal.
How to Make Hazelnut Flour
You can make your own hazelnut flour out of unsalted raw, roasted, or blanched hazelnuts. The method you choose will affect the look and taste of your hazelnut flour. Here are some differences to keep in mind.
- Using raw hazelnuts (have skins on) Just blend. Since raw hazelnuts have their dark brown papery skins still attached, they make a beautifully speckled, more rustic flour. Expect a subtle bitter contribution from the tannins in the skins.
- Using roasted hazelnuts (peeled or unpeeled) – Roasted hazelnuts take on a delicate toasty flavor and enhanced hazelnut taste. Also, roasting the hazelnuts helps loosen most of their outer papery skins, which can then be rubbed off to create a lighter colored flour with a richer nutty taste.
- Using blanched hazelnuts (without skins) – Blanched hazelnuts are boiled to remove their skins completely. You can leave blanched hazelnuts as is, or roast them to enhance their taste. Blanched hazelnuts make the lightest, most refined hazelnut flour.
I happily use all the above interchangeably in my recipes. Sometimes it is simply a matter of how much time I have, or pure laziness. Othertimes, I am actually looking for a toastier tasting, or more rustic or refined end result.
Generally, for the most elegant and refined baked goods, peel the skins, and process them to a fine ground. For more rustic baked goods and hazelnut ice cream, you can leave the skins on, and even leave some of the nuts more coarsely ground, with bigger granules here and there.
Great Uses For Hazelnut Flour
- Hazelnut Ice Cream
- Baked Goods– Hazelnut cakes, muffins, scones, cookies, meringues, pie crusts made with hazelnut flour are all amazing. Besides the wonderful flavor, hazelnut flour also helps tenderize baked goods.
Tools
- Food Processor or a stick immersion blender attached to the processor bowl that comes with it
Ingredients
- 1 cup hazelnuts, shelled, unsalted; raw, blanched (peeled), or roasted (peeled or unpeeled)
Instructions
- Pulse the hazelnuts until finely ground, about the consistency of grated parmesan.
Notes
- For the most elegant and refined sweets, use peeled (roasted or blanched) hazelnuts, and process to a fine ground.
- For sweets with a more rustic texture, color and taste, use hazelnuts with the skins on. If you like, leave a small portion of the nuts coarsely ground, with bigger granules here and there.
- Sometimes I add a small pinch of salt to enhance the nutty flavor.
- I have also used successfully a stick immersion blender attached to the processor bowl that came with it.
