Brazil Nuts substitute

Best substitute

Macadamia Nuts

Use the same amount by volume, chopped coarsely as the brazil nuts you are replacing

Best for cookies and brownies

Different taste

The nearest thing on the shelf. Both nuts are unusually high in fat, both crumble rather than crack when you bite them, and both are pale and mild. Toast lightly at 160C and salt them.

Other brazil nuts substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Cashews
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, toasted and chopped
The practical answer, cheap and stocked everywhere.
What changes
Use raw cashews for anything blended and lightly toasted ones for baking and salads.
Best for
cookies and blondies, vegan cream sauces and cheeses, cakes, granola, curries and savoury sauces
Softer and sweeter with a milky mildness, and they blend to a genuinely smooth cream, which is where they beat every other option here. In baking they are slightly less rich than a Brazil nut and considerably less distinctive, so a cake made with cashews tastes gentler and less earthy. Toast them properly and add a good pinch of salt, which is what makes cashews register rather than fade.
3Blanched Almonds
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, toasted and chopped
The most likely nut to already be in the house.
What changes
Use blanched rather than skin-on so the colour stays pale, and chop them roughly to Brazil nut size.
Best for
cakes and tortes, granola, crumble and streusel toppings, nut crusts, cookies
Much firmer, drier and snappier, so where a Brazil nut yields and almost melts, an almond resists and cracks, and the flavour is cleaner and less rich. That is a fine trade in a granola or a streusel where you want crunch, and a poor one anywhere you wanted creaminess. Almonds also refuse to blend truly smooth without long soaking and straining, so they are the wrong choice for a nut cream.
4Unsweetened Coconut, Flaked or Desiccated
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, toasted
A better match than it sounds, and a natural one in Brazilian baking where coconut and Brazil nuts often appear together.
What changes
Toast the flakes in a dry pan until golden before using.
Best for
cakes and traybakes, Brazilian sweets and biscuits, granola, cookies, puddings
There is real overlap in flavour, because both taste creamy and faintly sweet with a tropical richness, and toasted coconut supplies a similar sort of fatty depth. But coconut is chewy and fibrous rather than crumbly, and its flavour is unmistakable, so the result reads as a coconut cake rather than a nut cake. Use unsweetened, since sweetened coconut will unbalance the recipe.
5Hazelnuts
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by volume, toasted with the skins rubbed off
Easy to find and reasonably priced.
What changes
Toast at 180C for ten to twelve minutes, then rub the skins off in a tea towel while warm to remove most of the bitterness.
Best for
brownies and chocolate cakes, biscotti, praline and brittle, coffee cake, granola
Firmer and crisper than a Brazil nut, and with a much stronger flavour that will lead the dish rather than support it. With chocolate that is a clear improvement. In something delicate, or in a recipe where the Brazil nut's mild creaminess was the point, hazelnut simply takes over. They also do not blend smooth, so avoid them in creams and sauces.
6Walnuts
Different taste
Use the same amount by volume, toasted
The classic mixed-nut-tin swap, and the one most people actually reach for.
What changes
Toast for eight minutes at 180C and rub off the papery skins while warm if you can.
Best for
brownies, banana bread, cakes and quick breads, granola, salads
Similar oiliness and a similarly soft bite, which makes them work well in any batter, but walnuts carry a bitter tannic note from their skins that a Brazil nut does not have, so the result tastes darker and sharper. In a chocolate or banana batter that difference disappears almost entirely. In a plain cake or a delicate biscuit it is noticeable. Skinning them after toasting removes most of the bitterness.
7Sunflower Seeds
Taste and texture differ
¾ the volume of Brazil nuts, toasted
The nut-free option.
What changes
Toast the kernels in a dry pan until golden and fragrant, and use slightly less than the nut quantity because seeds are denser and more insistent.
Best for
nut-free baking, school-safe cookies and bars, granola, crumble toppings, salads
This keeps the crunch and some of the oiliness and none of the creamy richness, so treat it as making a different version rather than a swap. Sunflower seeds taste grassy and mineral where Brazil nuts taste buttery and musky. They also turn baked goods faintly green when they meet baking soda, which is harmless but startling if you are not expecting it.

What is Brazil Nuts?

Brazil Nuts is Brazil nuts, known in Portuguese as castanha-do-para, are large curved nuts from an Amazonian rainforest tree, with a very high fat content that gives them a soft crumbly bite and a rich creamy flavour with a faint musky edge.

Cooking tips

Chop them with a heavy knife on a board, never in a food processor. Brazil nuts are so soft and oily that a processor reduces half of them to greasy paste while the rest stay whole, and that paste makes cake batter and cookie dough heavy. Two or three passes with a knife gives you the coarse rubble you want.
Toast them briefly and at a lower temperature than other nuts, around 160C for six to eight minutes. Their very high fat content means they brown from the inside and go from fragrant to acrid quickly, and burnt Brazil nuts are unpleasantly bitter in a way that spreads through a whole batch.
They go rancid faster than almost any nut on the shelf, and this is the single most common reason people think they dislike them. A rancid Brazil nut tastes sharply bitter and faintly of paint. Buy them somewhere with quick turnover, store them in the freezer where they keep for a year, and taste one before committing a cupful to a cake.
Rub the thin brown skin off if the recipe wants a mild, pale result. Blanch shelled Brazil nuts in boiling water for a minute, drain, and the papery layer comes away between your fingers. The skin carries most of the bitterness, so skinning them makes a noticeable difference in a delicate cake or a blended cream.
Grate them rather than chopping them for finishing a dish. A Brazil nut is large and firm enough to hold and grate on a microplane, which gives a fine cream-coloured snow that is lovely over a chocolate tart, a bowl of berries or a plate of pasta, and it is how to get the most flavour from a small quantity.

Frequently asked questions

What is the closest substitute for Brazil nuts?

Macadamias, because they match on the two things that matter most, a very high fat content and a soft crumbly bite, so they behave the same in a batter and taste similarly rich. The difference is that macadamias are sweeter and milder, with none of the faint muskiness that makes a Brazil nut distinctive. Cashews are the next best and considerably cheaper, and they are the better option for anything blended into a cream or sauce because they go completely smooth.

Can I substitute for the selenium in Brazil nuts?

Not with another nut, and this is the one case where the substitution genuinely fails. Brazil nuts contain far more selenium than any other common food, which is why they turn up in health-focused recipes and why some people eat one or two deliberately. No other nut comes close. It is also worth knowing that the amount is high enough that a couple of nuts a day is plenty, and eating large handfuls regularly is not advisable, so if a recipe calls for a cup of them the selenium is probably not the point.

Can I just leave the Brazil nuts out?

In most recipes yes, with no other adjustment, since nuts in a cake, cookie or granola are an addition rather than structure. You lose crunch and richness, which you can partly replace with toasted coconut, oats or another nut. The exception is a recipe built around them, such as a Brazil nut torte or a blended Brazil nut cream, where the nut supplies the fat and the body of the dish and removing it leaves you with nothing to build on.

Are Brazil nuts and macadamias interchangeable in baking?

Very nearly. Both are high-fat, soft-textured, pale nuts that crumble rather than snap, so a cookie or cake made with either has the same texture and the same richness. The flavour shifts slightly: macadamia is sweeter and cleaner, Brazil nut is earthier with a musky edge. Both scorch easily, so toast either at a lower oven temperature than you would use for almonds and check them a couple of minutes early.

Why do my Brazil nuts taste bitter?

Either they are rancid or you have not removed the skins. Rancidity is the more common cause, since their high oil content means they spoil quickly and often sit in shops for a long time, and it tastes sharp and paint-like rather than merely bitter. If the nuts smell clean and taste fresh but still have a bitter edge, that is the thin brown pellicle, which comes off easily after a minute in boiling water. Storing them in the freezer prevents the first problem entirely.

Related substitutes

More nuts & seeds substitutes

Brazil Nuts substitute

Other brazil nuts substitutes

2Cashews

3Blanched Almonds

4Unsweetened Coconut, Flaked or Desiccated

5Hazelnuts

6Walnuts

7Sunflower Seeds