Wondering what to do with filbert flour? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 1 recipe to put it to work.

What is filbert flour?

Filbert flour is simply hazelnuts ground to a fine meal, and filbert is just another name for the hazelnut. Because it is a nut flour rather than a grain, it is naturally gluten-free and rich in oil, with a warm, sweet, toasty flavor.

That high fat content is both its strength and its catch. It bakes up moist and tender with a real hazelnut taste, but it brings no gluten and no starch, so it cannot build structure the way wheat flour does.

See the flour hub for how nut flours fit alongside grain flours.

Baking With Filbert Flour

Filbert flour is happiest in bakes designed around nut meal: tortes, financiers, macarons, and tender cakes that rely on beaten eggs for lift rather than gluten.

Its flavor pairs naturally with chocolate, coffee, brown butter, and pears, the classic hazelnut partners. A spoonful folded into muffins, like these Steve's muffins, adds richness and a nutty edge.

Because it browns and burns fast, drop the oven temperature about 25°F (15°C) below what a wheat recipe calls for and watch the color closely.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

The biggest mistake is treating it like flour. Build a cake on filbert flour alone and it will be greasy, dense, and prone to falling apart, since there is no gluten to hold it and plenty of oil to weigh it down.

The fix is structure. Lean on eggs, which is why so many nut-flour cakes are egg-heavy, or blend the filbert flour with a starch or a little wheat flour for backbone.

Sifting helps, too. The flour clumps because of its oil, so break up lumps before folding it in.

What to Use Instead

Almond flour is the nearest swap, near one for one, with a milder flavor and the same gluten-free, high-fat behavior. You lose the hazelnut character but keep the texture.

Other nut meals like walnut or pecan also work, each bringing its own taste. To make your own filbert flour, pulse toasted, skinned hazelnuts in a food processor in short bursts, stopping before the oil releases and turns it to butter.

None of these add gluten, so keep whatever structure the recipe was built on.

Buying and Storing Filbert Flour

Buy it in small amounts from a shop with good turnover, and check for blanched versus skin-on; skin-on flour is more rustic and slightly bitter.

Like all nut flours it is high in oil and goes rancid quickly at room temperature. Store it airtight in the fridge for up to three months or the freezer for up to six, and smell it before using. A sharp, paint-like odor means it has turned.

Quick facts

In Chinese

榛子粉

British (UK) term

Filbert flour

en français

la farine noisetier

en español

harina de avellana

Recipes using filbert flour

There are 1 recipe that contain this ingredient.

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