Grinding or Chopping Nuts: How to Get Them All Cracked
Nuts can be a tough nut to crack! Whether you want to use these little powerhouses for baking, cooking, or snacking, there are many ways to get to the delicious kernel. We'll show you the best ways to grind or chop nuts.
How to Chop Nuts With and Without Power – Here's How
Whether for a crunchy cake topping, a flour alternative, homemade pesto, or countless other kitchen ideas: nuts are incredibly versatile. They taste best when you buy them whole and chop them yourself. While it takes a little more effort, it saves a lot of money, helps prevent food waste, and offers you plenty of variety.
Preparing Nuts
Want to grind or chop nuts? You don't need any fancy special tools. Versatile kitchen gadgets, knives, or even tools from your toolbox will do the trick. But before you start chopping, you first need to prep the whole nuts:
If you don't have a nutcracker handy, use a pair of pliers to crack the shell. The kernel of many types of nuts, like almonds or hazelnuts, is covered by a thin skin. While this skin is edible, it often has a bitter taste. You can easily remove it with a few simple tricks:
Briefly place the almonds in boiling water, then rinse with cold water and rub the skins off with a cloth.
Place the hazelnuts in the oven for about 10 minutes. Their skins will then split open on their own. Bonus: The nuts will develop a delicious roasted flavor.
You can easily peel the skin off pistachios after cracking them.
Chopping Nuts with an Electric Chopper
Multi-choppers are a practical solution, especially for harder nuts like macadamia nuts or hazelnuts. Softer nuts like pistachios, pecans, or almonds will quickly turn into butter in a powerful food processor. However, this can also happen with harder nuts. That's why you should always use the pulse setting on your chopper. This allows you to better control how finely the nuts are chopped.
Electric grain mills are also excellent for nuts. Alternatively, you can use coffee grinders with blade mechanisms—but not those with conical or disc burrs. While these grinders have a small capacity, they process nuts lightning-fast, especially for making fine nut flour or nut butter.
While the stand mixer isn't the first choice for chopping nuts, it works as well. Choose a model with plenty of power and leave enough space in the blender jar for the nuts to be tossed around. Also, only use the mixer in pulses to control the texture.
Chop the nuts by hand
You don’t need electricity to grind or chop nuts—in fact, doing it by hand is often easier and faster. Manual methods are usually the best choice for soft nuts or kernels, such as cashews or peanuts. This prevents your ingredients from turning into mush too quickly. Culinary experts recommend three methods:
AIYou can quickly chop soft nuts with a knife or a mezzaluna. When using a large chef's knife, keep the tip on the cutting board and use a rocking motion so the nuts don't fly everywhere—or simply use a mezzaluna.
For a finer grind, choose a heavy mortar with a large pestle. A twisting motion from your wrist while pressing down from above will get the job done faster.
AIPro-Tip: Place the nuts in a freezer bag, lay it flat on the countertop, and crush them with a hammer or rolling pin. For a finer texture, simply roll over them again with the rolling pin.
