They start from the same roasted hazelnut and end up in two different places in the recipe. Choosing between them isn’t a question of fineness: it’s a question of what the hazelnut has to do in the finished product.
In one line
Chopped hazelnuts are seen and felt under the tooth. Flour is the same chop taken below one millimetre: it disappears into the dough and leaves the aroma.
The grades
This isn’t a scale of quality: it’s a scale of fineness, and each grade has its trade.
- Chopped, 2–4 mm — the grade that works inside. Doughs, fillings, crunchy bases, layers. Felt at the bite without dominating. It’s the one in the bag sold on the site.
- Chopped, 4–8 mm — the grade that works on top. Cake edges, finishes, decoration, gelato garnish. Seen, recognised, telling the customer what they’re eating.
- Flour, below 1 mm — very fine grinding. It no longer stands apart in a dough: what remains is the scent.
Hazelnut flour is not a wheat flour
It’s the most common misunderstanding, and worth clearing up before you start mixing.
It’s called flour out of habit, but it contains no gluten: it doesn’t build structure, it doesn’t hold air, it doesn’t rise. It’s a very finely chopped hazelnut, exactly like almond flour — and it’s with almond flour that it swaps, not with a cereal.
- With other nut flours it substitutes one to one. Almond, pistachio, hazelnut: the aroma changes, the role in the recipe doesn’t.
- With wheat flour it doesn’t substitute: it sits alongside. In a shortcrust or a cake the wheat still builds the structure, while the hazelnut brings aroma, crumbliness and softness.
- It isn’t defatted. It keeps all its fat, over 60%. Nut flours exist from which part of the fat has been removed: they absorb more liquid and behave more like a cereal. Ours doesn’t — and the fat is exactly where the aroma lives.
- It shouldn’t be worked long in a mixer that heats up. The fat comes out and the flour becomes paste. Which is how hazelnut paste is made, only there it’s on purpose.
Where the flour really works
The preparations where a nut flour is the point, not a fallback:
- Dacquoise and egg-white meringue bases, in place of almond flour
- Frangipane, a one-to-one swap with almond
- Hazelnut shortcrust: a share alongside the wheat flour, not instead of it
- Streusel and crumble
- Biscuits, tarts, cakes that want a roasted-nut aroma
- Creams, fillings, pralines and gianduja bases
- Gluten-free recipes, together with something that builds structure: on its own it isn’t enough
What each one does
| Chopped hazelnuts | Flour | |
|---|---|---|
| Grade | 2–4 mm and 4–8 mm | Below 1 mm |
| In the mouth | Crunchy, felt | Not felt: the scent is |
| In the oven | Stays crunchy on the surface; softens inside a moist dough | Blends in, gives softness and crumbliness |
| Where it goes | Decoration, edges, crunchy bases, fillings, gelato | Dacquoise, frangipane, shortcrust, biscuits, streusel, creams |
| What it swaps with | The other chopped grade, if you accept a different bite | Almond or pistachio flour, one to one |
| Does it build structure? | No: it adds | No. No gluten: the structure comes from something else |
| Ingredients | 100% roasted Irpinian hazelnuts | 100% roasted Irpinian hazelnuts |
When they can swap for each other, and when they can’t
- Yes, if you want the aroma and don’t need the bite. In a dough, flour spreads the hazelnut everywhere; chopped leaves it in islands.
- No, if you want the crunch. No flour gives back the bite, however much you use.
- No, if you’re thinking of making flour by grinding the chopped at home. Technically you can; in practice the mixer heats and in half a minute you have a cream.
Three mistakes we see often
- Treating hazelnut flour like a cereal flour. Without gluten the dough won’t hold: it goes into a recipe designed to receive it, not in place of the wheat.
- Putting chopped hazelnuts into a very moist dough and expecting them to stay crunchy. Moisture softens them: if crunch is the point, they go on the surface or into a layer protected by fat.
- Storing them the way you store wheat flour. They’re fats, and fats oxidise: cool, dry, away from light, bag well resealed. The fridge isn’t needed.
Why ours are roasted
There’s no raw version here, and that’s a choice: roasting is where the aroma is born. Raw chopped hazelnuts decorate but don’t scent; a raw flour brings the fat into the dough without bringing the flavour.
The hazelnut that becomes chopped and flour is the same one that goes into the pastes: calibre 11/13 and 13/15 mm, never below 11, never broken — and every calibre with its own roasting curve. The reasoning is set out in Our method.
Quick questions
Can I use hazelnut flour instead of almond flour? Yes, one to one. It’s the most natural substitution there is: the aroma changes, the behaviour in the dough stays the same. The same holds for pistachio.
Can I use it instead of wheat flour? No. It contains no gluten, so it builds no structure: a dough built on wheat won’t hold without the wheat. It sits alongside, in a recipe designed for it — a hazelnut shortcrust, for instance, has both.
Is hazelnut flour gluten-free? Yes: one ingredient only, hazelnuts. But a gluten-free dessert is made by the whole recipe: everything else has to be gluten-free too, and something has to give structure.
Do chopped hazelnuts and flour go in the fridge? No. Cool, dry, away from light. Cold isn’t needed and the fridge brings moisture.
Can I use chopped hazelnuts in gelato? Yes, and it’s one of the best uses: the 4–8 mm grade on top of the tub, the 2–4 mm inside. For the flavour itself you need the paste: chopped hazelnuts decorate, they don’t flavour.
The formats
The online shop has 200 g, 500 g and 1 kg — the chopped is the 2–4 mm grade: Chopped hazelnuts · Hazelnut flour.
For the laboratory it’s ordered by the case, 8 × 1 kg or 3 × 3 kg, through the price list: ask here and we’ll send prices, packaging and availability of both chopped grades.