Hazelnut: the nut of a hazel tree; also known as a cob or filbert nut. Hazelnuts are rich in protein and unsaturated fat, which makes them a healthy food choice. More importantly, though, they are a great partner with chocolate. For instance, have you heard of Nutella? If not, go to the closest grocery store, buy a jar of the delicious chocolate-hazelnut spread, slather a scoop of it all over a piece of bread, and enjoy- you’ll be hooked. This perfect combination is also what made me decide to bake a chocolate-hazelnut tart for one of my family’s Christmas desserts. It was absolutely delicious (if I do say so myself), but I learned a very valuable lesson in the process: when a recipe calls for hazelnuts, buy a package of pre-shelled and skinless hazelnuts at the store! While I appreciate dishes made “from scratch,” I typically opt to use pre-made, ready-to-use ingredients available at the grocery store. However, due to my inexperience with hazelnuts and the fact that pre-shelled and pre-skinned hazelnuts are not always abundant in most local grocery stores (or at least the ones in my hometown), I had to do the process myself. And unfortunately, it was not the easiest process.

Starting with whole hazelnuts, I had to obviously first remove the shells. I would recommend using a nutcracker, but there were none to be found in my household so I enlisted the help of my mom and two meat mallets (or tenderizers); and we started to crack away those shells. Needless to say, it wasn’t the most practical or quiet way of removing hazelnut shells, but it sure was fun! Anyway, after the hazelnuts were released from their encasings, all that was left to do was remove the skins. Thankfully, a helpful recipe review on Food Network.com offered a great tip: add hazelnuts and a little bit of baking soda to a boiling pot of water, let them boil for about 3 minutes or until the water turns black (because of the hazelnuts), remove from heat and run under cold water, then rub the skins off with paper towels. It’s a little messy, but it works!


As you can tell, the moral of the story is to buy hazelnuts without the shells and skins when baking or cooking with them. If whacking away with a hammer sounds fun to you, however, (which I can’t lie-it was), then go for it. But I would suggest spending a little extra time searching around for a package of ready-to-use hazelnuts (it’ll save you around 20-25 minutes). Grocery stores such as Whole Foods or Trader Joes are more likely to have them. Whichever hazelnut option you choose, however, I always recommend pairing them with chocolate, such as in the super simple (minus the hazelnut part) chocolate-hazelnut tart recipe here- delicious and worth the hassle with the hazelnuts!