Hazelnuts

Hazelnuts are small, round nuts with a firm, dense crunch and a sweet, faintly earthy flavour that turns deeply aromatic once roasted. It is the taste most people recognise instantly from chocolate hazelnut spread. The thin brown skins carry a slight bitterness that toasting loosens and lifts away.

Among tree nuts, the hazelnut is the one built for chocolate and coffee. Its flavour is stronger and sweeter than an almond and it keeps its crunch through baking instead of softening, which is why it anchors praline, gianduja and biscotti rather than simply decorating them.

How to use them

Grind them into praline or a chocolate hazelnut spread, bake them into cakes, biscotti and pastries, or chop them over halwa, sheer payra and baklava in place of some of the walnut. They are good in granola, in a salad with pear and blue cheese, and roasted whole in a snack bowl. Technique tip: toast them first, then rub the warm nuts inside a clean tea towel, and most of the skins will slip off before you grind them.

Details

Also known as

Filbert, cobnut, hazel nut, aveline, noisette, avellana, Haselnüsse, Haselnuss