This is a simple posting for roasted hazelnuts (then candied). Hazelnuts are also known as filburt nuts.  In period the nut was produced in Turkey, Italy and Greece. (Wikipedia)  This is a very period Middle Eastern type of nut (much like the almond) and used either whole, raw, roasted, chopped or ground.  Experiment and have fun!

I first tried a hazelnut raw.  Don’t!!  They taste terrible un-roasted in my opinion.  Hazelnuts are like olives in that they need a little help to be edible.  The nut can be eaten raw, but blech!!  no really blech!!

Take a cup or three of hazelnuts and lay them on a baking sheet.  Set the oven at 350 and allow to roast till the skins start peeling back (and are black) while the nut is golden brown.  I did not add any oil to the nuts as they are naturally oiled and require not assistance in this department.

Here the nuts are fresh from the oven and the papery skin has not been rubbed off.  Simply take a handful and rub your hands together like you are washing your hands.  This will peel off the blackened skin while leaving the nuts whole.  The roasted skin is a little to gritty and burnt to add a good flavor so try to remove as much as possible before cooking with the nuts.

Here is a bowl of hand rubbed nuts.  The roasted skins and overly cooked hazelnuts are left on the baking sheet.  These take a little bit of time but are very much worth the effort!

Here I’ve candied the nuts with figs (like the almonds and figs from another candied nuts posting).  They are even better then almonds after being roasted.  I almost gobbled up the batch except this was the last round of hazelnuts on hand and I needed more nuts for a display!  You can never have to many nuts you know.  (Don’t answer that!!!)