Hooray for Hazelnuts!

by Ellen Bartholomew

Ellen Bartholomew is a biointensive gardening maven who makes her home with the Church of the Golden Rule at Ridgewood Ranch near Willits. She planted three hazelnut trees back in 2003, and they now produce enough hazelnuts to fill a fifty-gallon drum on a good year. Ellen loves this recipe for Hazelnut Ice Cream. She says that hulling the nuts is a perfect cold weather activity, a time to sit around a warm fire while catching up with friends.

Hazelnut Ice Cream & More

After gathering hazelnuts from the ground, give them a day or two for the little leaves on the top of the shell to dry and rub off. If you can’t get to them right away, they should be fine on a dry shelf for a month or more. Put the raw nuts in the shell on a cookie sheet in a 275 degree oven and roast for 15-25 minutes. When you pull them out and crack one open, the nut should be a golden color and taste roasted. Many recipes suggest peeling the skins that might be left on the hazelnut, but we never have (we love that extra fiber!). So delicious.

To make hazelnut ice cream:

Take your roasted hazelnuts and simmer them in milk (or water, for vegans) at a 1:2 ratio for about half an hour. Put the mixture in a Vitamix or sturdy blender and process until the nuts are mostly liquified. Strain the mixture for a delicious hazelnut milk. Put the milk mixture in a tabletop Cuisinart ice cream maker (or similar) and add rum liquor, cherries, and chopped up candied hazelnuts (recipe below), along with some half and half. Turn on the machine as directed. The resulting ice cream is KILLER!

To make candied hazelnuts:

Take the shelled, roasted nuts and soak them for an hour or so in sorghum syrup (I make this on the ranch, but you could use simple syrup). Strain off the liquid and put the coated nuts on a cookie sheet in a 275 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. They store well, taste so good, and make a thoughtful gift.

More places to use hazelnuts:

Hazelnuts and bananas are a perfect pairing, especially if the hazelnuts are roasted, and the nuts are better in banana bread than walnuts. I love the hazelnuts with mashed up bananas in cream as well. Hazelnut Biscotti is crazy good and also makes a great gift.