Hazelnut extract substitutes

A sweetened hazelnut liqueur, essentially the same flavour as extract with sugar, more water and a rounder, slightly vanilla-and-honey character.

Best for

tiramisu and trifle, chocolate cake and brownies, buttercream and ganache, biscotti, coffee drinks

The closest match in flavour and the easiest swap to get right. Remove the tablespoon of liquid you are adding, or a buttercream will slacken. The alcohol largely bakes off in a cake but stays in an unbaked frosting or mousse, so choose something else if that is a concern. Frangelico is noticeably sweeter and more perfumed than plain extract, with vanilla and toasted-sugar notes behind the hazelnut, which is usually an improvement in a chocolate dessert.

The real ingredient, and much more aromatic than most people expect once it has been properly toasted, since toasting is what creates the flavour extract is imitating.

Best for

cookies and biscotti, cakes and tortes, streusel and crumb toppings, frangipane and fillings, praline and toppings

Prep

Roast whole hazelnuts at 350F for 10 to 12 minutes until the skins crack, rub them in a tea towel to remove most of the skins, cool completely, then grind fine in a food processor, pulsing so you get flour rather than butter.

Toasting is the whole game: raw hazelnuts taste faintly green and papery, while toasted ones smell like the extract in the bottle. Leaving the skins on adds a slight bitterness that is fine in a chocolate bake and unwelcome in a pale one. Ground nuts add fat and fibre, so they will make a cookie a little denser and shorter, and they can turn a delicate batter greasy if you go far past 2 tablespoons. Replace an equal weight of the recipe's flour if you use more.

Concentrated hazelnut with the fat and sugar attached. Praline paste is the most intense, plain hazelnut butter the most neutral, and Nutella the sweetest and most chocolate-dominated.

Best for

brownies and chocolate cake, buttercream and ganache, cookies, fillings and swirls, hot chocolate

Prep

Warm it slightly so it is loose, then whisk it into the melted butter, eggs or milk before it meets the flour.

Excellent flavour, but you are adding real fat, so a batter that was carefully balanced will come out richer and a little softer, and in a cookie that means more spread. Cut the recipe's butter by about a tablespoon if you use 2 tablespoons or more. Nutella is roughly half sugar and contains cocoa, so reduce the recipe's sugar by a tablespoon and expect a chocolate note that will slightly muddy a pale hazelnut cake.

The nutty extract most kitchens actually have. It is not hazelnut and does not pretend to be, but it occupies the same slot in a recipe and stops the bake tasting like plain vanilla.

Best for

biscotti, cookies and cakes, frosting, coffee cake

Almond extract is far more assertive than hazelnut, with a distinctive marzipan and cherry-pit character, which is why you halve it. Used at full strength in a hazelnut recipe it takes over completely and the result tastes of amaretto. At half strength alongside a little extra vanilla it reads as a warm generic nuttiness that most people will not question. This is a substitution of convenience, not of accuracy, and it is a poor choice if hazelnut is named in the title of the dish.

The bottled syrup used in coffee shops, which is flavouring plus sugar syrup, so it delivers the right aroma in a much more dilute form.

Best for

coffee drinks and lattes, cake soaks and glazes, whipped cream, frosting, ice cream

Good and often overlooked, especially if you keep it for coffee anyway. It is mostly sugar and water, so make both adjustments or a frosting will be sweet and loose. The flavour is a little more candied and less roasted than extract, so it works best in drinks and glazes and less well in a batter where you wanted a deep toasted note.

The honest fallback. Extract adds only aroma, so the recipe bakes, sets and rises exactly the same without it.

Best for

brownies and chocolate cake, cookies, coffee cake, frosting

In a chocolate hazelnut recipe that already contains actual hazelnuts, dropping the extract costs you surprisingly little, since the toasted nuts are carrying most of the aroma anyway. In a hazelnut buttercream or a hazelnut latte, where extract is the only source of the flavour, the result is simply a vanilla version. Adding a tablespoon of ground toasted nuts, if you have any at all, does more than the extract did.