We made this as a birthday cake for Italy, which celebrated the 150th anniversary of its unification in 2011. Gianduia is a speciality of the Piedmont region and it’s a mixture of ground hazelnuts and chocolate.

More hazelnut recipes

Hazelnuts are globe-shaped or oval nuts up to 2cm/1in long with a hard brown shell. They grow in most parts of Britain, but cobnuts (a type of wild hazelnut) are particular to Kent. Most of the world's commercially grown hazelnuts come from Turkey. You may be able to buy fresh hazelnuts - particularly native cobnuts - still in their husks, but most are sold already dried and processed, whole, chopped, or ground, either in or out of their skins.

Use hazelnuts whole, grated or ground to flavour savoury and sweet dishes. Finely ground, they can be used in place of flour to make a ‘torte’; roughly chopped, they add crunch to biscuits or meringues. Use them as the basis for a stuffing or chop them up with some dried fruits and scatter the mixture onto your cereal. In Turkey, a sauce made from garlic and hazelnuts is served as an accompaniment to shellfish. Some recipes might call for ‘skinned hazelnuts’: if you don't have any ready-skinned, just roast some hazelnuts in the oven for a few minutes; when they’ve cooled slightly, rub the skins off with your fingers.

More hazelnut recipes

Goats' cheese spring tart with roasted fig and chicory salad

Overnight oats

Frozen chocolate parfait

Baharat chicken with orzo salad and tabbouleh

Blackberry fool with hazelnut biscuits

Chocolate-covered strawberries

Banana cocoa crunch overnight oats

Primavera spring green soup

Coq au vin blanc

Figgy nut and date oats

Baked Winslade cheese custard with smoked potatoes

Cured sea bass with purple sprouting broccoli, hazelnut pesto and bagna cauda

Wild garlic pesto

Wild mushroom soup

Baked hake with roasted red peppers and potatoes

Warm tomato and goats' cheese salad with hazelnuts

Easy trifle

Dukkah lamb cutlets with quinoa salad

Pear and plum chocolate butter crumble

Coffee and hazelnut cake

Loukoumathes (tiny syrup doughnuts)

Whole roasted celeriac with hazelnuts, sourdough croutons and greens

Spiced ginger yule log

Winter crumble tart

Buyer's guide

Preparation

Parts of hazelnut

Hazelnut oil

Typically made with hazelnut

Chocolate hazelnut spread

Other nut

Almond

Brazil nut

Cashew

Chestnut

Cobnut

Coconut

Macadamia

Mixed nuts

Peanuts

Pecan

Pistachio

Walnut

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