A crazy amount of hazelnuts are consumed in my house over Christmas. It’s the thing I use the most in baking over the festive period aside from chocolate. It goes really well with all sorts of flavours.
My family don’t like Christmas cake, so 50% of the time we have chocolate cake and 50% of the time we have profiteroles. I make a praline paste and put it in the fridge. Mixed with cream and mascarpone, it makes a lovely cake and profiterole filling.
For the praline paste, make the caramel and then add whole or roughly chopped hazelnuts when it’s just about ready. Mix it up, put it on a tray, break it up and blitz it to a paste.
I dip whole hazelnuts in caramel too, they are stunning to decorate cakes with. If you can find it, ground hazelnut flour is great in cakes. Remove a spoonful of normal flour and add a spoonful of hazelnut flour – it gives so much flavour to a basic victoria sponge. You can also add them to savoury things. If you are roasting some cauliflower or barbecuing vegetables, just sprinkle on some roasted hazelnuts to add flavour and crunch.
Chetna Makan is a cookery writer and author of Chetna’s Easy Baking (Hamlyn, £20)
