Think of any ingredient you like, and you will surely find a multitude of recipes using that ingredient, some stellar, some so-so. How to choose the ones worth making and keeping? I find that the very best recipes are those that come from friends. Is it because they’ve been handed down from mothers and grandmothers and have stood the test of time? Is it because when I make that recipe I think with fondness of the person who gave it to me? Is it because they are often charmingly handwritten or arrive with a scrumptious sample? Or they pass along a meaningful cultural or ancestral memory?

Perhaps it’s for all these reasons - the giver imbues the recipe with special warmth, and well, trustworthiness.

Hazelnut recipes abound as well. Here are two exceptional hazelnut recipes given to me by dear friends. One is a traditional German cake, the other an Italian treat, hazelnuts being a key ingredient in many traditional European recipes.

The first is a light, gluten-free German nut cake. This recipe was shared with me by friend and neighbor Norma, of German heritage. It comes from Mimi Sheraton’s The German Cookbook (Random House has reissued it in a 50th anniversary edition). This shows Norma’s mother’s copy of the original 1965 edition.

Nut Torte (Nusstorte)

8 eggs, separated
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract or 1 tsp. rum
1 ½ cups shelled hazelnuts (you can use other nuts), coarsely grated *
1 tbsp. sugar
Butter
Flour
Preheat oven to 350º

Beat yolks with 1 ½ cups sugar and vanilla or rum until mixture is pale yellow and thick enough to ‘ribbon.’ Do not grate nuts too finely. [* You could coarsely chop them in a food processor but keep an eye on the process, so the nuts don’t turn into butter.]

If you prefer, they can be crushed by being placed in a paper bag and then rolled with a rolling pin. Turn bag over several times so nuts are evenly crushed. Walnuts and hazelnuts need not be blanched but almonds should. Beat egg whites and as they begin to thicken, add 1 tablespoon sugar; beat until whites stand in stiff but glossy peaks. Turn into a large wide bowl unless they are already in one. Stir two or three tablespoons of the beaten whites into the yolk mixture. Pour yolk mixture over the whites and sprinkle with grated nuts. Using a rubber spatula, fold mixtures together, gently but thoroughly. There should be no traces of whites showing.

Butter two 9” cake pans or an 8” or 9” spring form and sprinkle lightly with flour, tapping out excess. Bake in 350º oven about an hour, or until cake springs back to shape when you press it down with your finger. Cool in pan until cake shrinks away from sides. Invert on rack to cool completely. If you have made cake in a spring form cut into layers. Fill and top with rum- or vanilla-flavored whipped cream.

My friend Ann from high school days shared with me her mother-in-law’s recipe for hazelnut biscotti. Both are delicious to share with friends and family during the holidays.

Ruth’s Hazelnut Biscotti

4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
6 eggs
4 Tbsp hazelnut liqueur (Frangelico) or Cointreau/Triple Sec in a pinch
2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unskinned hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
Preheat oven to 350º

Grease and flour two cookie sheets (or line with parchment paper or use silicone baking mats).

Mix dry ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a flat beater.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, extracts, and liqueurs.

Add to dry ingredients and mix well until a dough is formed.

Add hazelnuts and stir to combine.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and, with floured hands, knead the dough a bit and halve it.

Form each half into two flattish logs, each about 10” long and 2” wide (four logs in total).

Place two logs on each prepared cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

Let cool about 10 minutes and then slice each log into ¾ - 1” biscotti, cutting on the diagonal.

Arrange on cookie sheets with cut side up and bake for 5-7 minutes.

Flip biscotti and bake an additional 5-7 minutes so that both sides are toasted.

Sources: Sheraton, M. (1965). The German Cookbook: a complete guide to mastering authentic German cooking. Random House.

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Two hazelnut recipes for the holidays

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