Hazelnut Flour

One US cup of hazelnut flour weighs between 75 and 112 grams (2.6 to 4 ounces), depending on how the cup is filled and which source measured it. Use 112 grams (4 ounces) for fine store-bought hazelnut flour; meal ground at home is lighter. Every figure behind it is below, with the method each source used.

Also called hazelnut meal, ground hazelnuts, filbert flour, hazelnut meal flour, finely ground hazelnuts.

A cup of hazelnut flour weighs 75 to 112 g (2.6 to 4 oz). USDA weighs a cup of ground hazelnuts at 75 g, King Arthur gives 89 g, and Bob's Red Mill gives 112 g for its finely ground flour. The gap is far over the 10% tolerance, so this entry publishes the range. For store-bought fine hazelnut flour, spooned and levelled, 112 g is the figure to use; for hazelnuts ground at home, use about 75 to 90 g.

In the US, hazelnut flour and hazelnut meal are the same product: whole hazelnuts ground fine. Bob's Red Mill grinds whole hazelnuts and some brands use blanched ones; none removes the oil. Hazelnuts are about 61% fat, so the flour is closer to a nut butter in waiting than to a grain flour. It is used in gluten-free and low-carbohydrate baking, in tortes, Linzer dough and macarons, and as a richer stand-in for almond flour.

USDA SR Legacy "Nuts, hazelnuts or filberts" (FDC 170581) gives 1 cup ground at 75 g, 1 cup chopped at 115 g and 1 cup whole at 135 g. King Arthur gives hazelnut flour at 3 1/8 oz, 89 g. Bob's Red Mill's flour weight chart gives 28 g per quarter cup, 112 g per cup, by spooning and levelling, and its current bag labels 2 tablespoons as 14 g, the same figure. Thrive Market's label, as transcribed on a nutrition site, gives 2 tablespoons as 13 g, about 104 g per cup.

Why it varies: fineness. Nuts ground in a food processor or nut grinder give a coarse, fluffy meal of uneven crumbs that stand apart and hold air, which is USDA's 75 g. Commercial hazelnut flour is ground much finer, and fine, oily particles pack closely and cling together, so the cup holds more nut. King Arthur's 89 g sits between the two. It is inside the range and cannot be shown wrong, so it is accepted.

The physical check: hazelnut kernels, with their fat, are about as dense as water, a little more. Whole hazelnuts weigh 135 g per cup in USDA's measurement, the nuts filling about half the cup. Coarse meal at 75 g fills under a third, and fine flour at 112 g about 45%, more than coarse meal but still less than whole nuts, which is the expected order.

One caution on Bob's Red Mill: its chart gives the same 28 g quarter cup for hazelnut, almond and quinoa flour, and 28 g is one ounce, a common rounded label serving. Its newer label's 14 g per 2 tablespoons and Thrive Market's 13 g point to the same density, so the figure stands for fine flour, but it is a label-sized number. Almond flour on this site is withheld for the same reason: King Arthur gives 96 g and Bob's Red Mill 112 g.

Practical guidance: use 112 g per cup for fine store-bought hazelnut flour, 28 g per quarter cup and about 7 g per tablespoon; use 75 to 90 g per cup for meal ground at home. Spoon it in and level without pressing, because the oil lets it compact. When substituting hazelnut flour for almond flour, swap by weight, not by cup, and keep the bag in the freezer, since the fat turns rancid at room temperature.