Jul 20

Jul 20 Toasting Nuts

Toasting Nuts

Nuts should almost always be toasted first to bring out their flavour, however, there is a danger of over-toasting.

Inattention can cause one to scorch a tray of expensive ground nuts, and there is no disguising their burnt taste, no matter how many charred spoonfuls you carefully try to scoop out (I speak from experience).

To prevent this, trust your nose. Once you can smell them, stay nearby and stir frequently with a wooden spoon.

Here we have 300 g ground hazelnuts, before and after toasting. They were baked for ten minutes in a convection oven at 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4, and stirred frequently.

Cool the nuts before adding them to the batter.
Another ingredient that benefits from toasting is oats. Let them brown a little in the oven before adding them to cookies or porridge.

Some recipes featuring toasted nuts:

Featured

Mandelgipfel

Classic nutty crescents, made with sweet yeasted dough.

Meitschibei

Delicious horseshoes, stuffed with nuts and honey.

Nussgipfel

These plump croissants are a Swiss bakery staple, stuffed with a sweet nut filling.

Hauscake

The recipe comes from the classic Swiss Home Ec textbook, Tip Topf, and is incredibly adaptable—whatever you have in your cupboard can be added to the cake.

Linzer Beasts

Here's where to find most of these Linzer beasts—in my belly.

It was a mistake to think I could make these in advance and save them for Sam, my Valentine.

Sorry, Sam.

Wickelkuchen

With a newborn at home, I've got 'wickel'-ing on the mind. So, when I saw this recipe in Tip Topf I thought it was a sign for me to make this Wickelkuchen.

St. Galler Klostertorte

St Galler Klostertorte

It's hard to imagine anything better than the Linzer Torte, so imagine my surprise at discovering the St Galler Klostertorte, its cousin from over the alps, made Swiss by adding, of course, chocolate.