Nut Flours & Meals

Nut flours and nut meals are slightly different from one another.  A nut flour is made by pressing the oil out of nuts, and then grinding the nuts.  By removing as much oil as possible from the nuts, nut flour has a finer and lighter texture than a nut meal.  Nut flour therefore more closely resembles the texture of a regular flour.  However, nut flours will add at least a little bit of extra moisture to the final product.

Nut meal, on the other hand, can be more easily made at home.  To make it, you can use either a food processor or a coffee grinder that has been dedicated to grinding spices.  Before grinding the nuts, it can help to freeze the nuts; this will help to prevent the mixture from turning into a nut butter.  There can be a very thin line between a making a nut meal and making a nut butter, as you will soon discover if you grind your own! 

Many people find that it is easier to control the texture of the nut meal by processing only small amounts of nuts at a time.  It is also a good idea to pulse the mixture, rather than just turning the food processor on and letting it run.  Nut meals will add significantly more moisture to the final product, but will give a slightly more coarse texture than nut flour.  Both nut meals and nut flours should be stored in the refrigorator or freezer and used as soon as possible.

Perhaps surprisingly, nut flours are fairly interchangeable with flour, gluten-free or otherwise.  The most commonly used nut flour is almond flour because of it's more neutral flavour.  Other popular nut meals are hazelnut and pecan.  It is best to blanch the nuts before grinding them for either nut flour or nut meal.

Nut meals are especially popular for people who are on the SCD.  It is a great alternative for people who almost literally can have nothing else, as there are absolutely no grains allowed on the SCD. 

In baking, nut flours help to add some "lift" to the finished product.  They also add fat, protein, moisture, and flavour.  It is possible to use only nut flour in a baked good, yet the final result tends to turn out a bit better when it is combined with another flour.  However, nut flours in particular seem to need an increased amount of "binding", so a bit more xanthan gum or eggs might be necessary when they are used solo.

If replacing another flour with a nut meal, it is adviseable to increase the amount of nut meal by about 1/4 - 1/2 cup.  The same ratio goes if you are replacing nut flour in a recipe with a non-nut flour - decrease the amount of flour used by 1/4 - 1/2 cup.  It is also adviseable to adjust the cooking time by 5 or 10 minutes.  Products using nut flours will typically take a little bit longer to bake, because of the added moisture.