Nuts About Hazelnut Brownies

While eating and drinking my way through Northern Italy last fall, I stopped in Alba, in the heart of Piedmont, to pick up some victuals.

As this was the time of the nut harvest, every shop was selling vacuum-sealed pouches of fresh hazelnuts, as well as pouches, or packages, of hazelnut-encrusted everything. Even the locally made nougat is studded with fresh-crop, lightly toasted hazelnuts, or nocciola, as they are known there.

One food store in Alba had such a long queue snaking out the front that my curiosity was piqued; I ventured in to see what all the excitement was about. Not surprisingly, it was about hazelnuts; the selection was particularly beautiful and my instincts told me what local residents seemed to already know -- this was THE place to get hazelnuts.

When I got home, I opened one of the pouches of nuts, put them on a baking sheet and lightly toasted them in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes to intensify the flavor. Wow! As these are without question the most flavorful hazelnuts I’ve ever eaten, I was inspired to start adding them to a number of dishes I’ve been testing.

One of my favorite, and most successful, new recipes is for Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies, which I made this week. The good news is that you don’t have to import hazelnuts from Italy to get started. Oregon produces more than 50 million pounds of these fabulous nuts each year, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding the current harvest at your neighborhood gourmet grocer. In northern California, where I live, I can find a fresh supply in the bulk bins at Whole Foods or at independent food stores that carry an assortment of nuts. If you’re having a hard time finding them locally, a number of suppliers sell them online.

Of course, along with flavor-rich nuts, you also need an excellent-quality dark chocolate, such as Valrhona, Guittard or Scharffen Berger. Although I prefer bittersweet chocolate in this recipe, you can substitute semi-sweet, if that’s more to your liking.

Chocolate Hazelnut Brownies Recipe