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In recent weeks, I have become reobsessed with Nutella which prompted me purchase a bag of hazelnuts (aka filberts) which had their skins intact. One of the recipes that I was playing around with called for peeled hazelnuts, but I figured they would be a cinch to remove – however, I quickly realized that was not the case. Hazelnut skins are stubborn – mighty stubborn.
Since picking papery peels off of 1 cup of hazelnuts sounded less than awesome, I did a little research and decided to use the roast and rub method. Essentially you roast the hazelnuts at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the nuts have darkened a bit and you can smell the nutty goodness wafting through your kitchen. Next, you place the hot nuts into a slightly dampened kitchen towel and rub the skins off using the towel. Apparently the combination of moisture and heat helps to loosen the skins. Well, this worked – sort of.
After rubbing and rubbing and rubbing, many of the hazelnuts were still flecked with pieces of brown skin which pretty much annoyed the heck out of me. I knew there had to be a better way. Again, I turned to Google and happened to stumble upon a method from Alice Medrich.
Basically you boil the hazelnuts in baking soda and water for a few minutes then immerse them in cold water before you peel the skins away. This technique enabled my perfectionist self to easily remove every single piece of hazelnut skin with ease! Now don’t get me wrong, this is still a bit of process, so don’t expect the skins to magically disappear, but I will tell you it works like a charm and is actually kind of fun!
Alice Medrich demonstrated this method to Julia Child while making Hazelnut Biscotti – you catch the entire process and Julia’s reaction to this method by watching the YouTube video below.
How To Peel Hazelnuts
Ingredients:
- 2 cups boiling water
- 3 tablespoons baking soda
- 1 cup hazelnuts
Directions:
- In a medium saucepan with high sides, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add 3 tablespoons of baking soda to the water – the water will foam up.
- Add the nuts to the boiling water and boil for about 3 minutes. The water will turn black – don’t be alarmed. While the hazelnuts are boiling, prepare a medium bowl of ice cold water. After three minutes, use a slotted spoon to remove one test nut, placing the nut into the prepared bowl of ice water. Use your fingers to remove the skin, if the skin doesn’t come off easily, boil the nuts 1-2 minutes longer and try another test nut.
- When a test skin rubs right off, add the rest of the nuts to the ice water and peel them with ease.
- Place peeled nuts into a kitchen towel or paper towels and dry them thoroughly.
- If desired, toast the peeled and dried hazelnuts at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes - trust me it's so worth it!
- Method from Alice Medrich
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Thank you, thank you, thank you! The method worked beautifully! I always avoided using hazelnuts before because I could never get the skins off. But I do love hazelnuts! You have saved me! Alice Medrich is genius! I love her biscotti recipes. Some of my hazelnuts went to grace the top of Martha Stewart’s homemade brownies…can you guess where the remaining ones will be going?
Glad you found this helpful, thanks for stopping by.
-Jamie
Works perfectly. I peeled the filberts under a small stream of running water into a fine meshed sieve. Made clean-up easy and the running water removed any excess baking soda. Thank you.
Thanks so very very much! I had no idea what to do and with your insight and website it was simple!!!
Just did this n it was sooooo easy! Thanks soooo much.
I’m just about to make a tart with hazelnuts, and you’ve saved me! Thanks Jamie!
As I was planning to do a lot of baking in the weeks to come, I decided to double the amount of recipe ingredients so I would have the hazelnuts ready for my next recipe. However, by doing so, the hazelnuts that awaited the “disrobing” turned a darker colour than the ones that had their skins removed at the beginning. In future, I would only do one cup of hazelnuts at a time, in order to keep the colour light. FYI….
I just used this method for my hazelnuts and it worked so well! I’m baking them right now, hopefully the won’t taste like baking soda. I love those vintage videos!! Thanks for sharing.
Kathy,
You’re very welcome! Thank you so much for following MBA and have a fantastic day!
Jamie
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This worked great and I ended up with lovely, naked, little hazelnuts.
Tricia,
That’s awesome to hear! I’m so happy the tips worked for you. Have a wonderful day and thank you for following MBA!
Jamie
Well – on the other hand – I guess you destroy a lot of hazelnut’s nutritional value this way