Oregon Hazelnuts + Recipe : Praline Paste

Hazelnuts. Have you seen the groves of trees while in Oregon? . Drive toward Wilsonville, Oregon and you will see them. Interspersed between suburban sprawl and small businesses, the further you proceed --- slowly the vast quilt of these orchards starts to fully engulf the land. Hashed out in a herringbone pattern, these are stubby trees with intricate canopies. They spread their branches enveloping the crops of nuts in an umbrella of leaves


The Willamette Valley is responsible for %99 of U.S hazelnut production. A great site to find out more about Hazelnuts, including tasty formulas (recipes) and other links, is Oregon's Hazelnut Industry website.


Nuts are unfairly avoided due to misconceptions of being unhealthy and full of fat. This may be true for certain varieties of nuts, but Hazelnuts are a heart healthy choice. They contain %91 percent mono unsaturated fat and less than 4 percent saturated fat. Not to mention significant amounts of protein, fiber, iron, phosphorus, vitamin E, folate and many other essential nutrients.


Today I will share a great way to introduce hazelnuts to your palate. Learn how to make this paste from scratch. Praline paste is usually a baking item you rarely see in supermarkets. It is mostly found in specialty shops such as cake decorating suppliers. However, I couldn't find it at The Decorette Shop , Portland Oregon's own cake specialty supplier. To purchase praline paste you are most likely going to run into prices ranging from $15 -20 per 2 lb container. It can be very expensive to purchase retail.


Praline Paste Formula:

Lightly Toast whole hazelnuts on a baking sheet.

In a stainless steel sauce pan, combine equal parts sugar
and water. Do not stir . The mixture will reduce --- allow
to caramelize (you will see the sides start to color first).

Once the sugar reduction has caramelized, remove from heat.











The lightly toasted hazelnuts are
added to the sugar reduction.
They are then stirred briskly,this should
be done very quickly as the sugar reduction
will start to harden.

You want to coat the hazelnuts in the caramel.
The heat from the caramel will warm the nuts
and allow the hazelnuts essence to permeate
the caramel.

The nut caramel is then poured onto a greased
marble slab. The cooled caramel will be less reddish
brown in color.












Allow the caramel to cool. Once cool use a spatula to
spread and press the nut caramel in an even layer.

Flip the cooling layer
over. Allow to harden.







Once the nut caramel has hardened, use a rolling pin or some
other weighty tool to break up the hardened nut caramel.
The pieces should be small enough to fit in your food processor.

Put nut caramel pieces into the food processor and pulse unit the pieces begin to smooth until a paste. Continue to process until desired smoothness.






Store in an airtight container. This paste is great to jazz up your pastry cream -- just add a small amount of praline paste to the cooled pastry cream before adding to cream puffs.