Hazelnuts, full of nutrients and loaded with antioxidants, are a popular culinary ingredient that can be traced back to the ancient Mesolithic and Neolithic eras. In those cultures, raw hazelnuts were a key part of the diet of hunter-gatherers. In ancient China, hazelnuts were considered a sacred food, and in ancient Greece, the physician Dioscorides wrote that hazelnut paste could cure a long series common ailment.
Today, hazelnuts are grown around the world and are prized for their nutty, toasty flavor. They can be used in confections like pastries, pies, and biscotti, used as a flavoring for coffee creamers or hazelnut liqueur, and pressed to produce hazelnut oil, which is used as a cooking oil in place of canola or olive oil. It can also be ground into hazelnut flour, often used as a gluten-free alternative to wheat flour, which continues to grow in value in our health-conscious society.
Although hazelnuts have a variety of uses, one of its most well-known uses is in hazelnut spread. Did you know that 25 percent of the global supply of hazelnuts is used by the European company Ferrero to create their signature Nutella spread?
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