What Are Filberts and How Can I Use Them?

If filberts have turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use them with confidence and how to choose them, cook them, store them, what to substitute, and 8 recipes to try them in.

Key Points

Filberts and hazelnuts are the same nut; "filbert" is the older North American trade name.
Toast at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 12 minutes, then rub off the bitter skins in a towel.
High oil content scorches fast, so pull them the moment they smell nutty.
Classic in chocolate confections, praline, and baking like German Filbert Cookies.
Store shelled in the fridge up to 6 months or freeze up to a year.

What are filberts?

Filberts are hazelnuts. The two names point to the same round tree nut, and which one you see depends mostly on where you shop and when the recipe was written.

"Filbert" is the older trade name in North America, while "hazelnut" has won out almost everywhere else.

The naming muddle has a tidy explanation. The harvest peaks in late summer near the feast of St. Philibert, and the nut likely took its name from the saint. Growers in Oregon, which produces nearly all the U.S. crop, used "filbert" for decades.

The industry later rebranded around "hazelnut" to match global markets. You will still see "filberts" on older recipe cards and on bags of in-shell nuts.

The flavor is what makes them worth seeking out: warm and faintly sweet, with a buttery edge that turns deeply toasty once you heat them.

Working With Filberts

Toasting is the single step that turns a bland filbert into a great one. Spread the shelled nuts on a dry sheet pan and roast at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 12 minutes, until the skins crack and the centers smell deeply nutty.

Raw filberts taste flat by comparison.

Toasting also loosens the bitter brown skin so you can remove it. Tip the hot nuts into a clean kitchen towel and rub hard for 30 seconds or so. The papery skins flake off against the cloth. You will never get every last bit, and that is fine.

Ground toasted filberts are the backbone of classic baking. They carry German Filbert Cookies and the Ukrainian Medivnyk (Traditional Honey Bread), and chopped they stud confections like the old-fashioned Cream Filberts.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Filberts and chocolate are the famous match, the basis of gianduja and the spread that became Nutella. They also lean into coffee and brown butter, and they hold their own next to bright lemon, as in Lemon Filbert Logs.

The mistake that ruins them is heat. Their high oil content scorches fast, sliding from golden to acrid in a minute or two, so pull them the moment they smell toasty rather than trusting the clock.

The second mistake is skipping the skin. Leave it on in a delicate dessert and you get a faint bitterness and a gritty fleck through an otherwise smooth praline or buttercream.

What to Use Instead

Hazelnuts are not a substitute. They are the same nut under a different label, so buy whichever the store stocks.

For a genuine swap, almonds are the closest in size and sweetness, though milder and less buttery. Toast them and they carry a recipe well. Macadamias bring a similar richness with more fat and a softer crunch.

In ground form, almond meal stands in for ground filberts at a 1:1 ratio in most cakes and cookies, with a cleaner, less toasty result.

Buying and Storing

Filberts come whole in the shell, shelled, blanched, chopped, or ground into meal. For everyday cooking, buy shelled raw nuts and toast them yourself, since pre-toasted ones are often stale.

In the shell, look for nuts that feel heavy and don't rattle, a sign the kernel hasn't shriveled.

Their oils turn rancid faster than most nuts, so smell before you buy from a bulk bin. A sharp, paint-like note means they are past it. Store shelled filberts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 6 months, or freeze them for up to a year.

In-shell nuts keep longest, several months in a cool, dry spot. Ground meal goes off fastest of all, so buy it in small amounts or grind your own as you need it.