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Ever wondered how to make homemade nut flour? From almond meal to almond flour, hazelnut meal and even cashew meal, this step-by-step tutorial will teach you how! Stop paying for overpriced almond meal, almond flour and other nut flours make make cheap almond flour and the likes at home!
If you’re a THM regular then you know how much I love my nut flours. And apparently you love them too! When I asked you guys what type of tutorial you wanted to see here, it was a resounding request for diy nut flours. My guess is because nut flours can be insanely expensive to buy but also make great grain-free substitutes in baking.
So today I’m walking you through the process on how to make nut flours at home using your blender. It literally takes 10 seconds and while the nuts themselves certainly aren’t cheap, it’s substantially cheaper than the jacked-up prices you often see for nut flours in stores. But first, let’s chat about nut flour…
What is nut flour?
Nut flour is essentially ground up nuts that can be used in place of wheat or types of gluten-free flours. Sometimes it is a 1-to-1 replacement ratio but oftentimes less nut flour is needed since it tends to be more dense. It’s flavor tends to be a bit sweeter and earthier than traditional wheat flour.
Technically if the skin is still on the nut it is considered a “meal” rather than flour, but a kitchen hack to make almond flour (rather than almond meal) is to just buy slivered or sliced blanched almonds and grind those! So much easier and cheaper than buying almond flour or blanching the almonds yourself.
Nut flour isn’t just almond meal or almond flour. It can include any nut. Today I’m also showing you how to make cashew meal and hazelnut meal both of which make an awesome low-carb and grain-free substitute to standard grain flours. Even better, they tend to be higher in protein and nutrients than traditional grain-based flour.
How to Make Nut Flour
The process is actually fairly simple. All you need are two ingredients:
- Nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, cashews)
- High speed blender (a food processor works too though not as well)
The biggest thing you want to lookout for is not over-processing the nuts. If you blend for too long they will become creamy and turn into almond/hazelnut/cashew butter. You’re likely only going to need to blend for 10-15 seconds maximum unless your blender is not the greatest. Just pulse a few extra times if your flour is almost there but not quite.
How long do nut flours last? Store them in the fridge in an airtight container or glass jars to last for several months.
Here are the directions with some delicious recipes below! Enjoy.
To Make Almond Meal:
Place almonds in blender and blend on high for 10 seconds or just until almonds are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency.
To Make Almond Flour:
Place blanched almonds in blender and blend on high for 10 seconds or just until almonds are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency
To Make Cashew Flour:
Place cashews in blender and blend on high for 8 seconds or just until cashews are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency
To Make Hazelnut Meal:
Place hazelnuts in blender and blend on high for 12 seconds or just until hazelnuts are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency
*hazelnut meal is different from hazelnut flour. To make hazelnut flour you’ll need to remove the skins from all hazelnuts before blending.
NOTE: You can also make walnut flour and pecan flour but both tend to break down very quickly and can easily turn into walnut or pecan butter quickly, so I’d recommend pulsing for 1 second at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Wondering what to do with all this flour? Here are some delicious recipes from The Healthy Maven:
- Grain-Free Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (almond meal)
- Cashew Crusted Chicken Fingers (cashew meal)
- The Ultimate Grain-Free Brownies (almond flour)
- Broccoli Cheddar Fritters (almond meal)
- Blueberry Hazelnut Crumb Bars (hazelnut flour)
- The Best Grain-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies (almond meal)
- Paleo Mexican Hot Chocolate Pancakes (almond meal)
- Almond Flour Banana Bread (almond flour)
How To Make Nut Flour
Ever wondered how to make homemade nut flours? From almond meal to almond flour, hazelnut meal and even cashew meal, this step-by-step tutorial will teach you how! Stop paying for overpriced almond meal, almond flour and other nut flours make make cheap almond flour and the likes at home!
- Prep Time: 0 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 minutes
- Total Time: 2 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups nut flour 1x
Ingredients
For Almond Meal:
- 2 cups raw almonds
For Almond Flour:
- 2 cups blanched almonds (whole, slivered or sliced)
For Cashew Flour:
- 2 cups raw cashews
For Hazelnut Meal:
- 2 cups raw hazelnuts
Instructions
For Almond Meal:
- Place almonds in blender and blend on high for 10 seconds or just until almonds are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency.
For Almond Flour:
- Place blanched almonds in blender and blend on high for 10 seconds or just until almonds are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency
For Cashew Flour:
- Place cashews in blender and blend on high for 8 seconds or just until cashews are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency
For Hazelnut Meal:
- Place hazelnuts in blender and blend on high for 12 seconds or just until hazelnuts are broken up but do not blend for long enough that they become “butter-like” consistency
*Times will vary by blender. I use a Blendtec Designer Series. You can use a food processor but I find you get a better texture with a blender. If using a food processor you’ll want to process for slightly longer than the blender.
hi..some sites or brands say that nut flours are made with defatted nuts.or else its just nut meal.if i want to defat them at home should i make nut milk first?or grind to a fine flour whole nuts blanched or not are the same and i can use it in recipes that call for a nut flour from a brand?
Hi Demi, thanks for your feedback. The only nut (although not quite a nut) I’ve seen defatted is peanut flour. Otherwise I’ve yet to come across any defatted nut flours. I wouldn’t recommend using them in place of recipes that call for standard nut flours as it will likely affect the fat ratio in the recipe and implicate the results. I’m unsure of how to defat the nuts at home, unfortunately. As for the nut meals/nut flours. Yes, you can use them in place of recipes that call for store-bought versions.
If you want your nuts defatted then you simply need to grind them, add little bit of water,mix , squeeze off all the liquids and then dry the floor in the oven, out in the sun or on a skillet. You can use the liquids produced as nut milk. Its important to soak and wash the nuts especially the once you’ll be grinding with the skin on in order to make the milk safe for drinking.Hope its helpful
What an awesome guide; the visuals are so helpful. I’ve baked with almond flour/meal quite a bit and use cashews all the time, but have somehow never used hazelnut meal. I see a Nutella crust in the cards…
OMG! YOU MUST SHARE WHEN YOU Doooooooo
This post is AMAZING.
aw thanks babes!!!
Great hack!!! I heard there’s also such thing as walnut flour too! Have to try that. AND I want hazelnut pancakes now!! 😛
I’d love to try walnut flour!!
Love all your photos in this post! They’re super helpful and super pretty too (jealous of your lighting 🙂 ) I’ll be honest, the main reason I don’t work with nut flours is because they are so darn expensive. I cannot wait to give the homemade almond flour and cashew flour a go!
I agree! Even nuts on their own are expensive but I’m just blown away by the price difference between them sometimes since they really are just ground-up nuts!
I had no idea that blanched almonds are what made the difference between almond meal and almond flour. I’m trying not to eat sweets right now (losing the marathon weight) but I want those hazelnut chocolate chip scones… WHAT!?
oh staaaaap you’re a babe! Run to me and I’ll serve you 1000 hazelnut scones. k cool.
This is fantastic! Thanks so much for testing all of these out. I need to start saving money by making my own, especially when it is super simple!
so so sooooo simple! In the meantime, come take some of mine off my hands! So many nut flours!
Haha! Oh I’m sure you have a plethora now!
Thank you Davida! Can I do the same to get peanut flour? Ever since I read Lee’s high praise of peanut flour and how much she likes to bake with it I’ve been lamenting that I cannot buy it where I live, so I would live to make it at home. I was just afraid it would turn into peanut butter. Or should I do something differently than just pulse the peanuts? Thank you!
Hi lovely! I wouldn’t suggest trying it with peanut flour. Typically peanut flour is defatted which is why it’s more of a powdery consistency. You could certainly try it and it very well may work in place of almond meal but it won’t be the same as the peanut flour you buy in stores!
Oh, I was afraid of something like that. *sighs* 🙁
I’ve never had peanut flour but it sounds so exciting, I wanted to have some homemade version. Well, we’ll see, maybe I’ll try. Thanks Davida!
Try ordering off amazon! I think that’s where Lee gets hers 🙂
Been waiting on this post since you shared it on snapchat lol
I’ve never used nut flours or meals in my baking but it’s one of my goals for the summer. I almost bought some almond meals at Bulk Barn this weekend but decided to get almonds to make my own at the last minute. So thanks for the tutorial 😀
love love love this! I’m all about nut flours (cashew meal has a special place in my heart), especially in baked goods.