Frangelico is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 19 recipes to get you started.

What is frangelico?

Frangelico is an Italian liqueur built around toasted hazelnuts, with a deep amber color and a sweet, nutty warmth that lands somewhere between praline and vanilla. It is bottled at 20 percent alcohol, lower than most spirits, so it sips easily and folds into desserts without overpowering them.

You will know the bottle on sight. It is shaped like a friar in a brown habit, complete with a knotted cord around the waist. That nod to a monastic legend is marketing, not history, but it has made Frangelico one of the most recognizable bottles on the back bar.

The flavor reads as roasted hazelnut first, then cocoa and vanilla, with a faint hint of coffee underneath. That combination is why it lives so naturally in chocolate and coffee desserts.

Cooking With Frangelico

Frangelico does its best work anywhere hazelnut belongs. Stir a tablespoon or two into a cheesecake batter and it deepens the whole thing, the way it does in Frangelico Cheesecake and the holiday-friendly Pumpkin Frangelico Cheesecake.

It does the same in a chocolate cake, soaking into the crumb in Frangelico Chocolate Cake with Frosting.

Because it is already sweet, treat it as both flavor and a little sugar. A splash deepens a Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse or rolls into the dough for Chocolate Hazelnut Balls, amplifying nuts the recipe already leans on.

It also brushes beautifully over a warm cake or biscotti. A teaspoon painted onto Cantucci Hazelnut Biscotti while they cool sinks in and perfumes each bite.

Coffee is its other home. A half-ounce in hot coffee or an Irish-coffee build turns dessert and drink into one, and it stands in for amaretto in many after-dinner glasses.

On the savory side it is rare but real. Catfish Frangelica leans on its nuttiness in a pan sauce, where a small pour reduced with butter coats the fish without tasting like dessert.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Frangelico was made for chocolate and coffee, and it flatters anything that already carries a toasted-nut note: praline, brown butter, caramel. It also plays well against cream cheese, mascarpone, and ripe pears.

The usual mistake is pouring with a heavy hand. It is sweet and assertive, so a couple of tablespoons in a batter is plenty. More than that and the dish turns cloying while the hazelnut goes one-note.

The second slip is cooking it too hard. Most of what you love about Frangelico is aroma, and a long hard boil drives that off. In a sauce, add it near the end and let it warm through rather than reduce for ages.

Substitutes

The closest swap is another hazelnut liqueur, such as Nocello, used measure for measure.

Amaretto is the easiest stand-in most kitchens already have. It leads with almond rather than hazelnut, but the sweet, nutty register is close enough to carry a cake or a mousse.

For a non-alcoholic version, use hazelnut syrup or hazelnut extract cut with a little water, or a few drops of vanilla plus a pinch of toasted ground hazelnuts. You lose the warmth the alcohol carries, so add it at the end where the flavor counts most.

In a pinch, coffee liqueur or even a splash of vanilla extract covers the role in a chocolate dessert, though neither brings the nut.

Buying and Storing Frangelico

Frangelico is sold in most liquor stores in that unmistakable monk-shaped bottle, usually in 750 ml and smaller sizes. One bottle lasts a long time in a baking kitchen, since recipes call for it by the tablespoon.

Like most sweet liqueurs, it is shelf stable and does not spoil. The sugar and 20 percent alcohol keep it safe, so store it upright in a cool, dark cupboard with the cap tight.

An opened bottle holds its flavor best within about a year, after which the bright top notes slowly fade, though it stays perfectly usable well beyond that. Refrigeration is not necessary, but a cool spot keeps the aroma livelier for longer.

Quick facts

Where to find frangelico: Frangelico is usually found in the liquor section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese

榛果俪

British (UK) term

Frangelico

en français

liqueur de noisette

en español

licor de avellana

Recipes using frangelico

There are 19 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 19 recipes