How To Roast Hazelnuts and Remove Hazelnut Skin

Few nuts are as notably improved by roasting as the hazelnut.

Most raw hazelnuts you find at the store are, in truth, a little chewy and a little bland, like a draft version of themselves. But a healthy roasting fixes that, boosting the flavor and allowing the excess water to evaporate, thereby leaving you with wonderfully crisp nuggets of pure nuttiness.

The bonus advantage when you roast hazelnuts is that it gives you the opportunity to skin them while you’re at it, rubbing them in a kitchen towel as the bitter husk easily detaches into a million little flakes you do not want to accidentally spill on your kitchen floor, trust me.

How to roast hazelnuts, and what to do with them?

I confess that most of the hazelnuts I roast and skin in this fashion, I end up snacking on with dried fruit such as prunes, figs, pears, or dates, as mentioned in this post about food gifts. But I also love to eat them on Roasted Cauliflower à la Mary Celeste, use them for a Hazelnut and Nectarine Gratin, or grind them to make Dukkah, this fantastic spice mix from Egypt. (More hazelnut recipes?)

Join the conversation!

Do you usually roast and skin the nuts you cook and bake with? And what’s your favorite way to enjoy hazelnuts?

Have you tried this? Share your pics on Instagram!

Please tag your pictures with #cnzrecipes. I'll share my favorites!

How To Roast Hazelnuts and Remove Hazelnut Skin

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Makes 4 cups.

How To Roast Hazelnuts and Remove Hazelnut Skin

Ingredients

  • 500 grams (about 4 cups, a little over 1 pound) raw hazelnuts with skin

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F).
  2. Arrange the hazelnuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, leaving the nuts a little -- but not too much -- wiggle room.
  3. Raw hazelnuts with skin
  4. Insert the baking sheet in the oven and leave the nuts in for 15 minutes, stirring them every 5 minutes or so. They are done when they are fragrant, their skin cracked and glistening. Because the husk is pretty dark, it can be hard to tell if it's starting to turn black and burn, so if you're unsure, it's best to err on the side of under-roasted.
  5. Note: To make optimal use of the now heated oven, I may roast a batch of almonds or pumpkin seeds to follow, or schedule the roasting when I have another dish to bake.
  6. Drape a clean kitchen towel over a large bowl, and pour in the nuts (they may over-roast if left on the baking sheet). Let cool.
  7. Roasted hazelnut in towel
  8. Close the towel up into a bundle.
  9. Roasted hazelnuts in bundled towel
  10. Give it an energetic massage so the hazelnuts will rub against one another and the skin will come off in little flakes.
  11. Roasted and skinned hazelnuts
  12. Transfer the hazelnuts to a big jar, collecting them delicately from the towel with cupped hands and making sure you leave the skin flakes behind.
  13. Hazelnut skins

Notes

How long the roasted hazelnuts will keep before going rancid depends on how fresh they were to begin with -- in most cases, you should be good for a couple of months.

https://cnz.to/recipes/basics/how-to-roast-and-skin-hazelnuts/
Tagged:

Get the newsletter

Receive FREE email updates with all the latest recipes, plus exclusive inspiration and Paris tips. You can also choose to be notified when a new post is published.

View the latest edition of the newsletter.