Can I substitute powdered walnuts for all-purpose flour in a cake?

Can I substitute powdered walnuts for all-purpose flour in a cake? - Cinnamon Sticks, Walnuts and Eggs Ingredients

I saw a recipe where ground-up walnuts were a substitute for flour but this was for a cake that you do not cook (it was a recipe for chocolate cake made out of zucchini.

Can powdered walnuts (grounded by a food processor) ever be used as a substitute for flour in more normal cakes, particularly ones that contain flour and are baked?

Here is the recipe http://cookingalamel.com/2013/03/raw-chocolate-cheesecake.html



Best Answer

Sort of. Nut flours are the base of many "flourless" cakes and torts. This one from Joy of Baking is typical, and uses almond flour, which is more common than walnut. Here's one that specifically uses walnut. Note that these are not examples of using nut flours as a substitution for flour, they are recipes developed for nut flours. Both of those recipes start with whole nuts that are ground in a food processor or spice grinder.

Wheat flour behaves very differently, if you want to bake a cake using nut flour in combination with or instead of wheat flour, search for recipes that call for nut flour. Trying to work out an actual substitution would be fraught with peril. Nuts are full of fat and non-gluten protein, wheat flour has starch and gluten forming protein (although a high gluten level is not usually desirable in cakes, that's why cake flour is lower in protein than AP, so that it creates less gluten).

Now I see from the edit to the question that the zucchini/chocolate cake that led to the qustion is actually a kind of cheesecake. Cheesecakes generally don't contain flour, in the case of your recipe the nuts are actually replacing a portion of the cream cheese. In other cheesecakes you might see nuts in the crust or garnish, but I've never seen flour in the filling.




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Quick Answer about "Can I substitute powdered walnuts for all-purpose flour in a cake?"

The key is to know how much you can substitute. Replace up to half of the flour the recipe calls for with finely ground nuts

Can you substitute ground walnuts for flour?

Ground nutsAll of which can all be used as flour substitutes. To keep the conversation streamlined when I refer to nut flours below I'm pretty much heaping nut meals and ground nuts into the same category.

Can you substitute ground nuts for flour?

Ground almonds are the most popular flour used in gluten-free baking, and have enjoyed a long tradition as an alternative to wheat flour.

Are nut flours interchangeable?

Nut Flours (Almond, Peanut, Hazelnut, Cashew, etc.) In recipes, they're usually interchangeable.

How can I substitute all-purpose flour?

Four All-Purpose Flour Alternatives
  • Chickpea Flour. Relatively new to American households, chickpea flour (also called garbanzo bean flour or besan in Indian kitchens) is arguably one of my favorite ingredients. ...
  • Rice Flour. ...
  • Almond Flour. ...
  • Buckwheat Flour.




  • Cake Flour vs. All Purpose Flour | Cooking Tips | Made To Order | Chef Zee Cooks




    More answers regarding can I substitute powdered walnuts for all-purpose flour in a cake?

    Answer 2

    A direct substitution would not work. The cake needs gluten to rise properly. You could replace up to 1/4 the weight of the wheat flour with proper nut flour, though without much fuss.

    You can't make nut flour by grinding nuts in a blender/food processor. Nut flour is made from the solid material left over after the oil has been pressed from the nuts. You'll wind up with ground nuts or nut butter, neither of which will work well in a cake.

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