I cannot deny the power of roasted hazelnuts! If you could hear the picture of these perfectly roasted little nuggets it would be sizzling with tiny pops of aroma wafting through the air. I could eat these roasted hazelnuts by the handfuls. Sadly, I am usually roasting the hazelnuts for a garnish or making praline powder. A small handful is probably all I should eat anyway, sigh.
Roasting the hazelnuts not only enhances the flavor and texture but it also enables the removal of the skins. The process is not hard, but it can be messy if you try to do too many all at once. Believe me, I have made the mess of century many times over because it obviously takes me more than once to learn from my mistakes.
Preheat the oven to 350 and place the hazelnuts on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes. Immediately place the roasted hazelnuts in a kitchen towel lined bowl, fold up to keep the heat in for about 1 minute. Keeping the towel folded around the nuts, vigorously roll the hazelnuts in the towel on the counter top. This will remove most of the skins.
The roasting batch I did was a little too large, so I quickly picked out the skinned hazelnuts, shook out the skins, and immediately repeated the process.
You now have perfectly roasted super tasty hazelnuts ready for praline candy powder, garnish for Chocolate Hazelnut Silk Pie, snacking, etc.
Roasted Hazelnuts
Ingredients
- 1 to 1-1/2 cups raw hazelnuts
- 1 parchment lined baking sheet
- Kitchen towel (to roll off skins)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.Place hazelnuts on parchment lined baking sheet.Place the hazelnuts in the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes (they will be sizzling with tiny pop sounds when they first come out).
- Immediately pour hot hazelnuts in a kitchen towel lined bowl and fold over. Let steam for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Keeping the nuts folded inside towel, place on counter top and vigorously roll the hazelnuts back and forth with your hands to remove the skins. The larger amount of hazelnuts roasted, the longer this will take.
- I suggest after the first round, pull out all of the hazelnuts that are skinless, dump out the skins into the sink, place remaining nuts back into the towel and repeat the process. I did about 2 cups of hazelnuts and it took me three times to get them all skinned.
- Let them cool completely and store in an airtight container.
