36 minutes ago, heidih said:
Yes! I adore hazels. We usually do/did with walnuts as the cheapest available shelled nut. The American company Smuckers used to make a red currant jelly and that was our go to. Now I add lemon juice and zest to sour cherry or raspberry. You may have seen people wax poetic about the market chain Trader Joes here - affordable quality hazelnuts. Though I do like to keep some unshelled in a bowl because they are so beautiful.
We buy hazels (with skin) at 6.5$/lb. Walnuts are 5.4$. Peeled hazels are 7.6$.
I love baking with all nuts, and I don't think any is inherently better - it depends on the use case. But I do think that pecans and hazelnuts are those that manage to come through best.
Strawberry jam is most commonly used in Israel, and I enjoy it on the rare occasion it's a really good jam (ie home made - I never found a decent store bought strawberry jam). My mother used to use apricot jam, or less often plum, always home made. I'm pretty sure she never used nuts in her dough, though. And surely not hazels. I'll have to ask her.
