stupid hazelnuts

[chefpeon]

So I did a bit o'Googlin' and discovered that certain varieties of hazelnuts do not blanch well because of their low oil content. Of course, one of the varieties that I use a lot (Hazelnuts from Oregon) are one of those low-oil types. Never found the solid reason for baking soda (I love the science, man!), but the theory that viva mentioned about the alkalinity sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Then I found a recipe for making Hazelnut Kisses, and their process goes like this:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring large pot of water to the boil and add 2 tsp. baking soda. Drop in the hazelnuts, bring back to a boil, and blanch 10 seconds. Drain hazelnuts in a colander, then spread out on a baking sheet in a single layer. Place in oven and roast 8 to 10 minutes until light brown. Remove from oven, place a kitchen towel over the pan, and allow to cool completely.

Rub cooled hazelnuts between your palms; the skins should slip right off. Set aside 50 whole hazelnuts. Grind the rest very fine in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and set aside.

Note that you blanch then roast immediately, THEN skin.....you don't blanch, skin, and roast.

I'm going to try that next time!

Or maybe you're up for it, Turtlemeng!

Whomever gets to it first must report back!

Edited February 22, 2005 by chefpeon (log)

[TurtleMeng]

Whomever gets to it first must report back!

←

Oh Anne, it will probably be you. I am still spending a lot of time putting 3 different eye drops in every 4 hrs. I would love to hear the result. Yes, the science intrigues me. My biochem degree is completely useless apparently.

[chezcherie]

as soon as you can drive, get thee to sunland produce (sunland and glenoaks). or i will get some next time i'm there and bring them to you! they are probably less expensive there, skinned, than you are paying for skin-on..

[eatrustic]

Well.... as I'm doing some baking this weekend with hazelnuts I just had to try the blanch method(s). So for the fun of it I did a controlled experiment. Plain roasting, blanching for 15 seconds in boiling water and the same except with baking soda.

I used (and here is the problem) Golden Boy Hazelnuts (Costco) from Oregon. I blanched 1/2 cup of the hazels in 4 cups of boiling water and 2 teaspoons of baking soda for 15 seconds (10 didn't seem long enough). I did the same in plain boiling water and after draining roasted them for about 9 min. at 350F. My control group of plain roasted was in for the same time.

After removing them I placed them in small stainless bowls and covered with a tea towel for about 5 minutes. After which I rubbed them in the tea towel to remove the skins.

The result: almost no difference! I had no better than 50% of the skins come off. The hazelnuts blanched in the soda water had noticeably blackened skin but the nut itself was no darker.

The taste of all three was fine, what you would expect for roasted hazelnuts, but the blanched were softer than the plain roasted. They may crisp up once they have rested for awhile.

So I guess it's up to someone to continue the experiment using non Oregon hazelnuts to see if there is any difference.

As I said towards the beginning of this thread I'll just grind them up skins and all as the flavor will work fine with chocolate.

[SuzySushi]

Interesting experiment!