Lots of roasted hazelnuts...

[morebubbles]

If you had a large bag of hazelnuts, what would you make, or what would you recommend me to make/bake? They're unsalted. I bought a big bag of these on impulse and right now I'm looking for inspiration...
So far, I've got:
1. throw them into a granola mix
2. throw them on top of muffins before baking (chop first?)

What else?

[janniecooks]

Make Suzanne Goins' Hazelnut Brown Butter Cake (find it on smittenkitchen.com); make Gaida DiLaurentis' Hazelnut Cinnamon Rolls (find it on foodnetwork.com); make capuccino biscotti (see epicurious.com); make a green salad of butter lettuce, gorgonzola or maytag blue cheese, walnut or hazelnut oil, apple or pear chunks, fig-infused vinegar, and chopped hazelnuts; make hazelnut brown butter and pour over steamed or boiled green beans; include in homemade granola; make meusli.

In case you didn't know, hazelnuts go rancid fairly quickly, so you may want to freeze a good quantity before that happens.

Finally, you mentioned that your nuts are already roasted, so the following will not apply, but for raw nuts here is a foolproof way to remove skins (I know that some CHers don't object to hazelnut skins, but I do): for one-half cup nuts, bring one and a half cups of water to boil, add two tablespoons of baking soda (careful, it will spit and spatter a lot), add the nuts and boil for 3 minutes. The water will blacken from the skins. Test a nut by running it under cold water; the skin should slip off easily; if not boil a few minutes longer. Rinse the nuts well under cold running water, use your fingers to slip the skins off the nuts and then crisp or brown them in a 350 degree oven.

[anzu]

On a similar note, Mark Bittman (I think it was he) had a recipe for walnut cake a while back in the NYT food section. I think if you do a quick search it ought to come up. It was dense, but not overly so, and quite good. Could you substitute hazelnut for the walnut? From what I remember, the recipe used a lot of walnuts (or walnut meal), b/c it used very little flour.

[tjn]

skin them and chop them and put them in airtight bags in the freezer, then you can use them whenever you want to, they are good for a long time.

[morebubbles]

Thank you for these ideas, yeasted bread and 'nutella', sounds delicious.

[h2o]

A step beyond hazelnut butter...make nutella. I found this great, easy recipe (if you have a food processor). I made a double batch, put it in little jars and gave it as gifts.
http://www.sugoodsweets.com/blog/2005...

[jvozoff]

Beth Hensperger has a recipe for a hazelnut yeast bread in one of her (many) bread books. If I remember correctly, some of the hazelnuts are ground and added to the flour - makes for a lovely perfume. I've made it once and it was really nice.

[Egg]

Hazelnut shortbread. Really easy and really, really good.

[morebubbles]

hmm, do you have a recipe for that?

[morebubbles]

Hmm, such wonderfully decandent and delectable sounding ideas! Will certainly try a few of them. Thanks everyone!

[purple goddess]

dukkah.

whack some coriander sed, some cumin seeds, some sea salt and the nuts in a blender and whizz until it resembles breadcrums. Add some toasted sesame seeds and Bob's yer Uncle!

(for something REALLY spectacular, you can add rose petals!)

[Produce Addict]

Romesco sauce. You need hazelnuts and blanched almonds. Here's one recipe (which I am not vouching for) http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/re...

[lgss]

I make Jasmine rice with hazelnuts, sweet potatoes, and currants to serve with greens or broccoli on the side.

[abud]

I have made Jamie Oliver's Hazelnut Praline semifreddo and absolutely LOVED it. The best thing about it is that you get a lot of leftover praline crumbs that last a long time in the fridge and go just wonderfully on, um, pretty much anything you can think of.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9123866/

[chowser]

If you want something quick, I posted a Williams-Sonoma biscotti recipe is good and uses a lot of hazelnuts, in this thread:

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/348827

For something more time consuming, I love this chocolate hazelnut souffle cake:

CHOCOLATE-HAZELNUT SOUFFLE CAKE

MOUSSE
12 large egg yolks
½ c. sugar
6 Tab. Frangelico
½ butter, room temperature
4 oz. Bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
6 Tab. Nutella
1 c. chilled whipping cream

MERINGUE
¾ c. hazelnut, toasted, husked
6 Tab. Powdered sugar
1 Tab. All purpose flour
3 large egg whites
3 Tab. Sugar

CAKE
¾ c. hazelnuts, toasted, husked
½ c. all purpose flour
8 oz. Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 c. butter

6 eggs, separated
1 c. sugar
½ tsp salt

GANACHE
1 ½ whipping cream
12 oz. Bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

FOR MOUSSE:
Whisk egg yolks and sugar in medium saucepan to blend. Whisk in Frangelico. Add butter. Whisk gently over medium heat until mixture is thick, about 4 minutes (do not boil). Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until melted. Gently stir in Nutella. Transfer to large bowl; cool to room temperature. Beat cream in medium bowl until cream holds peaks; fold into chocolate mixture in 2 additions. Cover mousse and chill up to one day.

FOR MERINGUE:
Preheat oven to 300 deg. Remove sides from springform pan; cover bottom with parchment paper round (do not attach sides). Finely groun nuts w/ powdered sugar and flour in processor. Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in medium bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add 3 Tab. Sugar, beating until stiff, not dry. Fold in ground nut mixture. Spoon into bag fitted with 3/8 inch plain round tip. Starting in the center of parchment round, pipe continuous spiral of meringue to cover. Place pan with meringue on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes. Reduce heat until golden but slightly soft to touch, about 20 minutes longer. Cut around meringue to loosen. Transfer meringue on parchment rack to cool completely (will be crisp).

FOR CAKE:
Preheat oven to 300 deg.. Attach sides to bottom and line with parchment paper. Blend hazelnuts and flour in processor until nuts are finely ground. Stir chocolate and butter in saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth; cool to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat egg yolks, ¼ c. sugar, salt in large bowl until thick ribbon falls when beaters are lifted, about 4 minutes. Fold in chocolate mixture. Using dry, clean beaters, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining ½ c. sugar beating until stiff but not dry; fold into chocolate mixture. Fold in nut mixture in 3 additions.

Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until test inserted into center comes out with moist clumps still attached, about 40 mnutes. Cool completely (center will sink). Press edges to same level as center. Cut around cake, remove sides. Invert cake onto work surface and remove paper.

Return meringue to same pan bottom. Spread 1 c. mouse over meringue; place cake on top. Attach sides of pan. Spoon remaining mousse over cake in pan; smooth top. Cover and freeze overnight.

FOR GANACHE:
Bring cream to simmer in medium saucepan. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir until melted and smooth. Cool until thickens enough to coat spoon thoroughly, about 2 hours.

Place large sheet of foil on work surface; place cake rack in center. Remove sides from pan, place cake still on bottom pan on rack. Pour ganache over cake, smoothing sides and top with long spatula. Refrigerate until ganache is set, at least an hour, up to a day.

[farmersdaughter]

How about making hazelnut butter?

Also I love to chop them and toss them with green beans drizzled with hazelnut oil (works well with leeks, too).

[mnosyne]

The best use for hazelnuts I can think of is a batch of Bruti Ma Buoni, Italian cookies that are really hazelnut meringues. Here's a link:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bruti-Ma...