How to bake with nut flours for gluten-free treats

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If you've ever tried gluten-free or paleo baking, enjoyed chewy amaretti, or indulgent financier, chances are you're already a fan of almond flour. But almond flour is just one small star in the nut flour universe.

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Lesser known flours made from finely ground walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios and chestnuts, among others, are nutrient-dense, full of flavor and add personality to whatever you bake or cook. They also tend to be expensive, so before you fill your cupboards with bags of nut flours, it's important to understand how they differ from grain-based flours and what they can and can't do. Read on to learn more about nut flours and how to best use them in your recipes.

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What is nut flour?

Nut flour is whole nuts ground into a fine, flour-like powder. Many store-bought nut flours are made from blanched nuts with the skins removed. Blanching the nuts before grinding gives nut flour a crumbly texture and light color, similar to all-purpose flour. Walnut meal is closely related to, but not identical to, nut meal, which is rarely blanched and usually more coarsely ground. Flours and products made from the same type of nut (say, almonds) can often be used interchangeably in a recipe. But the texture and color of the dish may vary: nut dishes give a slightly darker and denser result. Smart tip: It's best to store nut flours and flours in the freezer or refrigerator to prevent them from going rancid.

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What does nut flour add to recipes?

Nut flours add moisture to baked goods due to their relatively high oil content compared to grain-based flours. “This could be really interesting for things like cakes and quick breads, where you want a softer, denser crumb,” said Aran Goyoaga, author of three cookbooks, including “The Art of Gluten-Free Bread.”

Goyoaga cautioned that the sticky density of nut flours tends to work less well in cookie recipes where a crispy crust is often desired. But when they are added in modest quantities, such as in the form of hazelnut flour found in traditional Linzer biscuits, they impart a nutty flavor without negatively affecting the texture.

“I also like to use a little nut flour for pressing and crumb-based pie crusts,” Goyoaga said.

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Beyond the batter and batter, nut flours add a delicate flavor and plump texture to winter-warming horchata, help thicken the sauce for roasted vegetables and chickpeas in a creamy almond sauce, and create a creamy and decadent layer of frangipane in David Lebowitz's amanda croissants.

For home cooks looking to increase the nutrient density of their baked goods, adding nut flours provides protein, heart-healthy fats and fiber to the dry mix. Walnut flour alone may not turn a decadent Hazelnut Chiffon Cake with Nutella Ganache into a superfood, but it does boost its overall nutritional profile.

Where should you not use nut flour?

Nuts are high in protein, but don't contain the binding or structural proteins that can be found in the flours you typically use for baking, whether all-purpose flour, bread flour, or gluten-free flour blends formulated for breads and other uses. “I don’t use a lot of nut flours in yeast breads or sourdough breads,” Goyoaga told me. “What you want from bread is chewiness, crispiness and elasticity, and nut flours don’t do that.” If you're looking to add a nutty flavor to yeasted or sourdough bread, Goyoaga recommends adding some chestnut flour to the dry mixture because it's high in carbohydrates, which help the yeast or bacteria to flourish.

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Can I substitute nut flour for all-purpose flour?

Some recipes, such as Warm Blondie Pudding Cake, Chocolate Almond Tweed Cake and Pistachio Cookies, were developed to play to the strengths of nut flours. But in most cases, if a recipe was developed using all-purpose flour, substituting all the nut flours will produce disappointing results. “If a recipe calls for 1 cup of all-purpose flour, weighing about 125 grams, and you replace it with 1 cup of almond flour, weighing about 100 grams, you won't have enough dry ingredients to absorb moisture or provide adequate structure,” Goyoaga said. “Your cake will likely sink in the middle while baking or taste too oily or heavy.” Another option: recipes that combine gluten-free flour and nut flour blends for the best of both worlds, like Bakewell Tart Bars.

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Goyoaga recommends sticking to basic replacement rates. “For quick breads and savory pastries, you can usually successfully substitute up to 50% of the nut flour,” she said. For cookies that stay crisp when baked, she suggests replacing no more than 25% of all flour with nut flour.

Can I make my own nut flour?

Store-bought nut flours are convenient, and commercial mills produce nut flours with a fine texture and even consistency that are difficult to replicate at home. But buying whole nuts and grinding them in a food processor or high-powered blender is a great way to control the freshness of the flour. This may be more cost-effective, especially if you buy nuts in bulk and store them in the freezer until needed. Grinding at home also allows you to make just the right amount of nut flour for a specific recipe.

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“One of the problems with grinding nuts at home is that due to the concentration of oils in the nuts, they can quickly turn into a paste rather than a flour,” Goyoaga said. She recommended adding a tablespoon of all-purpose or brown rice flour to the food processor along with the nuts to absorb the oils released during the grinding process.

What should I do if I have a nut allergy?

Bakers looking to add a sweet, nutty flavor to their recipes without the nuts should consider tiger nut flour. “It acts like a nut meal, but botanically it’s a tuber, which means it can be tolerated by people with allergies,” Goyoaga said. “It’s great for baking, not too greasy and high in fiber.” Tiger nut flour is not widely available in stores, but it can be purchased online and used to bake Cranberry Five-Spice Thumbprint Cookies.

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