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I see so many recipes that I'd love to try that have almond flour as an ingredient. Unfortunately, I'm allergic to almonds, but not other nuts. I did see a posting on coconut flour here, but it wasn't too encouraging. Does anyone have an experience with other nut flours that could be a good substitute?

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6 Answers

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I really enjoy the taste of pecans- I like to toast/grind them to make flours for chicken, etc. If you're looking for a sub. for almond butter, hazelnut butter is my favorite.

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I love using pecan meal! – Nemesis Aug 18 2011 at 0:51
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Coconut flour can be wonderful, Tropical Traditions brand has been the best we've tried.

You can also use tapioca flour (bob's red mill), but we use it more as a lightener when we're making foods with coconut and almond flour because they're so dense. It's not adding any nutrition other than starch by itself.

Nuttyguys.com has hazelnut flour and a few others, I think too.

Good luck!

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I think this just about answers it! – FED at LiveCaveman.com Aug 18 2011 at 0:20
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I like to buy walnuts and grind them up in my food processor. Almond and Coconut flour can sometimes be a strain on the budget, especially when you bake often. I love using my "walnut flour" to make brownies. Granted, they're not finely grated or powdered like a flour would be, but they taste just as good. :)

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Folks cooking with nut flours is really not ideal. If you bake with almond flour or pecan flour at 350 for 20 minutes, you are baking tiny little broken pieces of almonds or pecans at 350 for 20 minutes. Get it?

That nut flour is not impervious to high heat because of the polys. Walnuts are especially high in O6 and is a terrible choice for baking. (sorry Jess). The only nut flour that might be a decent idea is macadamia nut flour. If you can get ahold of some, knock yourself out.

I would recommend a starchy flour or coconut flour as others have mentioned, but coconut flour is extraordinarily fibery so you don't want to overdo it on that either.

White Rice, Tapioca (Manioc), Potato - these are starches that don't become damaged by heat. White rice flour is ridiculously inexpensive (like $3 for a 1lb bag) and makes very good bready products. It's basically pure carbohydrate, but that could either be a good thing or not based on what you are doing with your diet.

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No problem, Jack. You learn something new every day, which is why I love this community. I had no idea that walnuts were a bad choice for baking. I just upped my O3 intake on days I would make/eat those brownies. :) – Jessica Aug 19 2011 at 4:34
Thanks for the response Jack. In recipes that call for a "breading" what do you use? I'm wondering about a combination of coconut flour and hazelnut meal (which seems to be on the lower end of the O6s) – primalmom Aug 19 2011 at 16:29
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coconut flour or you might try potato starch. hazelnut is ok. it's got a similar profile to almonds. we bought 5 lbs of hazelnuts a while back and soaked/dehydrated all of them. they are good but it seems like an acquired taste. they kinda taste like dirt, literally. you gotta wait for a few seconds to get the aftertaste and then you taste the hazelnuty yummyness. so now they are just sitting in big bags in our freezer cause we don't really know what to do with them. lol. – Jack Kronk Aug 19 2011 at 17:04
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i make my own macadamia nut flour with a blender. works well. despite the omega 6 volatility under heat, i still use almond meal. what can i tell ya?

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Here's my (German) video showing the differences between coconut flour, almond flour, ground almonds and wheat flour (from left to right).

Among all my blabla in the video, so to summarise: I just add water, mix and then bake it. As you can see, coconut flour works like a sponge and as a result does not stick together very well. There is a huge difference between almond flour and ground almonds. And wheat flour is awesome as a material.

I prefer almond flour for baking, it sticks together quite well due to its protein content (see this thread for details: http://paleohacks.com/questions/48073/coconut-vs-almond-flour/48075#48075)

Unfortunately, almonds lead to digestive issues for me so I avoid nuts most of the time.

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