Ingredients
- Hazelnuts
- Baking Soda
Preparation
Step 1
Bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Only fill the pot about 1/2 way, or else it may overflow once you add the baking soda and nuts. Once boiling, add in 3 TBSP of baking soda (the pot will bubble up rapidly!) then the hazelnuts. You can use as many hazelnuts as you want (or as your recipe requires), but if you’re doing a really large amount you may need to work in batches, depending on the size of your pot.
Let the nuts boil for 3-4 minutes. The water will turn inky black, and a red-ish foam will start to appear on the surface. To check if their done, use a slotted spoon to remove one and plop it into a bowl of cold water. Give the nut a gentle pinch or rub between your fingers — if the skin comes off easily, their done. If not, let them boil for another 30 seconds and check again.
Once the nuts are done, dump them through a colander in the sink (holy cow, do you see that water?! No wonder hazelnut skins taste so disgusting), and rinse well with cold water.
Now all you have to do is pinch / rub the skins off with your fingers! If you’re doing a large batch, this can take a while — okay, a long while — but it couldn’t be easier to do. To make things go a little faster, I like to use both hands: one to collect the skins, and the other to pinch the cleaned nuts into. Once I have a handful of both, I dump the peeled nuts onto a clean dish towel, and the skins into the sink. (When I’m done, I scoop up all the skins and toss them in the compost.
Roasting is still the best way to bring out the rich, nutty flavor that makes hazelnuts worth all this effort in the first place. Once they’re peeled, roll them around on a clean dish towel to blot off any extra moisture, then dump them onto a rimmed baking sheet and throw them in a 350F. oven until golden brown and fragrant.
Blanched hazelnuts will take a little longer to roast than dry ones, because they have to dry out before they will start to toast. I find it takes anywhere from 15-25 minutes, depending on how waterlogged the nuts are, so keep a close eye on them and give the pan a stir or a shake every 5 minutes to keep them roasting evenly. You’ll know the nuts are done when they are golden brown and smell nutty and delicious. Once cool, they should be crunchy and flavorful. If, once you’ve taken them out and let them cool completely, the nuts aren’t as crunchy or toasty as you’d like, throw them back in for another 5 minutes.