I used to have a love-hate relationship with hazelnuts. I love the way they taste, but when I couldn't buy blanched ones (which was usually the case), I hated having to prep them for baking projects. Every time I would toast them in the oven and then try to rub off the skins, I ended up ruining a dishtowel (the skins stain!) and some of the stubborn skin would remain despite my best efforts.
But I recently saw a rerun of a Baking with Julia episode where Alice Medrich showed Julia Child an easier way to deal with this problem. Medrich boiled hazelnuts in water with baking soda (two cups of water to three tablespoons baking soda) for three minutes, and then the skins slipped right off after she ran the nuts under cold water. The process looks alarming -- the water turns black and foams furiously -- but I tried it and was able to remove every single last bit of skin without a problem. Of course, then the nuts are wet and you still have to toast them anyway (both to dry them out and bring our their flavor), but I'm definitely using this method to skin hazelnuts from now on, because it's both more effective and considerably less aggravating.
With my first batch of beautifully skinned hazelnuts, I made the Sono Bakery Hazelnut Cake with Praline and Milk Chocolate Buttercream. But I had some hazelnuts left over, and I decided to make a Hazelnut-Orange Chiffon Cake. This recipe has been on my to-bake list for quite a while. It was one of three chiffon cake recipes that ran alongside a Los Angeles Times article on chiffon cake in May of 2011 (this Chocolate Chiffon Cake is another one). I was a late comer to chiffon cakes (making my first one ever less than a year ago), but I quickly fell in love with their featherweight texture.
To make this cake, you sift together the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking soda, salt), mix in the wet ingredients (egg yolks, vegetable oil, hazelnut oil, orange juice, vanilla, orange zest), add chopped hazelnuts, and then fold in egg whites that have been beaten with sugar to stiff peaks. You pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan and bake. There was a lot of batter and it came up close to the top of the pan; during baking the cake rose above the edge of the pan. I cooled the cake completely while upside down (by hanging the pan on top of an empty wine bottle) before unmolding and slicing it.
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The first thing I noticed after I cut the cake was that the chopped hazelnuts were nicely distributed throughout the cake; the airy batter had held them in place and prevented them from simply sinking to the bottom of the pan. The cake had a nicely browned crust and the distinctive light and moist texture that is characteristic of chiffon cake, punctuated with the nice crunch of the hazelnuts. It was a perfectly good and tasty cake, but it didn't blow me away. I was surprised -- and disappointed, to be honest -- that the cake did not have more hazelnut flavor, especially because it contains both chopped nuts and hazelnut oil. Instead, the predominant flavor was orange. And there's nothing wrong with that, but as far as orange chiffon cakes go, I think I prefer the Lady Praline Chiffon Cake.
Recipe: "Hazelnut-Orange Chiffon Cake" from the May 5, 2011 Los Angeles Times.
Previous Posts:
But I recently saw a rerun of a Baking with Julia episode where Alice Medrich showed Julia Child an easier way to deal with this problem. Medrich boiled hazelnuts in water with baking soda (two cups of water to three tablespoons baking soda) for three minutes, and then the skins slipped right off after she ran the nuts under cold water. The process looks alarming -- the water turns black and foams furiously -- but I tried it and was able to remove every single last bit of skin without a problem. Of course, then the nuts are wet and you still have to toast them anyway (both to dry them out and bring our their flavor), but I'm definitely using this method to skin hazelnuts from now on, because it's both more effective and considerably less aggravating.
With my first batch of beautifully skinned hazelnuts, I made the Sono Bakery Hazelnut Cake with Praline and Milk Chocolate Buttercream. But I had some hazelnuts left over, and I decided to make a Hazelnut-Orange Chiffon Cake. This recipe has been on my to-bake list for quite a while. It was one of three chiffon cake recipes that ran alongside a Los Angeles Times article on chiffon cake in May of 2011 (this Chocolate Chiffon Cake is another one). I was a late comer to chiffon cakes (making my first one ever less than a year ago), but I quickly fell in love with their featherweight texture.
To make this cake, you sift together the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking soda, salt), mix in the wet ingredients (egg yolks, vegetable oil, hazelnut oil, orange juice, vanilla, orange zest), add chopped hazelnuts, and then fold in egg whites that have been beaten with sugar to stiff peaks. You pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan and bake. There was a lot of batter and it came up close to the top of the pan; during baking the cake rose above the edge of the pan. I cooled the cake completely while upside down (by hanging the pan on top of an empty wine bottle) before unmolding and slicing it.
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Recipe: "Hazelnut-Orange Chiffon Cake" from the May 5, 2011 Los Angeles Times.
Previous Posts:
- "The Seedy Side of Chiffon: Pumpkin Seed Chiffon Cake," July 11, 2013.
- "Ready for the Fiesta!: Margarita Chiffon Cake," May 21, 2013
- "Sky High Expectations: Chocolate Chiffon Cake," September 28, 2012.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Lady Praline Chiffon Cake," September 9, 2012.
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