How to Roast Hazelnuts

How to roast hazelnuts in the oven, air fryer or on the stovetop is here! Enjoy toasted nuts as a healthy snack or crush and use in cookies or other dishes.

Roasted Hazelnuts

I’ve been sharing a lot of cooking basics recently because I never really started from the beginning when I began blogging. Now that I am in year 10, it was time to roll it back and talk about how to do all the things. I don’t know about you but at the end of the year we do a lot of baking.

Whether we want to add a little bit of crunchy topping to our pumpkin streusel muffins or make a batch of chocolate hazelnut cookies, it is nice to be able to do it all homemade. Seriously, I thought this would be way more complicated or we would have to stoke the grill for this but no, you can toast them a few different ways.

Roasting Hazelnuts in Oven

Most bagged varieties are already shelled and roasted, they are much more expensive than if you do that yourself. I remember vividly at my Grandparents house having a huge bowl of nuts with a cracker right beside it at Christmas time. This is the way to go if you want to go all out, and involve your kids too!!

• You can find raw hazelnuts online here
• You’ll need a nut cracker like this one here too
• A rimmed baking sheet if using your oven
  • I like a cast iron pan for the stove
  • Or an air fryer if you’re going that direction

How do I crush my own nuts? If you want them crushed when done you can go old school with a mortar and pestle. Better is a bowl with a pastry cutter to push down and break them into smaller bits. Easier than anything is a small food processor.

There isn’t a huge explanation to this one other than making sure your oven is preheated and keeping an eye on them in the last minutes. You don’t want them to brown too much or it will alter the taste overall. Lightly browned as you see below is perfect.

• Carefully crack the shells open (if shelled) and pull out the nuts.
• Some shells have two nuts! If the nut cracks in half, it’s ok, they can still be roasted.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Spread nuts on a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roast for about 12 minutes – nuts should be lightly browned and you should smell a slight nutty aroma.

Store in a ziploc bag or airtight container when cooled. I will speak more about storing freshly roasted nuts below.

How to Roast Nuts in an Air Fryer

Ok so you know we use our Ninja Foodi often to make all the things. Our AirWave and Cosori works well for this too, the brand doesn’t matter. Biggest difference is how large your basket is and you don’t want them to overlap. You can use this method to toast pine nuts or other varieties too.

1. Preheat your machine to 325 degrees F.
2. Crack nuts over a clean kitchen towel or dish towel, leave as is or use towel to remove hazelnut skins from outside. Removing the skin will result in a less bitter taste and better for baking later.
3. Fill basket so they aren’t overlapping
4. Roast nuts in air fryer cook times will depend on the variety used, timing is;
   1. almonds take about 6 minutes stirring halfway thru timing for each
   2. peanuts are 10 minutes
   3. air fryer hazelnuts will be at 6
   4. pine nuts are about 3 min

Roasting Hazelnuts on Stove

Ok so if I am toasting anything this way I like to use a cast iron pan. You can use another type. You will want your skillet over medium heat and lay unshelled hazelnuts in a single layer. Heat, moving them around a bit every few minutes for about 6 – 8 minutes or until toasted.

If you are going to put into a food processor allow them to cool completely which will take about 15 minutes or so. In that you can add a bit of salt, brown sugar is a great addition for sweetness or go all out to make it into a crumb topping for muffins.

Toasting Hazelnuts

Just picture it. You are hosting a Christmas cookie exchange and you want to have something baking when guests arrive. Not only will it be a fun snack but it will make the house smell amazing. Have these pulled out right when they come, then bake hazelnut cookies together as a group!!

How do you store nuts after roasting

Ok so you’ll likely have leftovers when you do this. You can use them for so many recipes so you will want them to stay fresh and not go rancid. This can happen quickly if left at room temperature. If you are going to use within 2 days, once cooled store in a freezer bag with all the air sucked out. Put into the fridge.

If you are not going to use that quickly, use the same method but put them into your freezer. It will stay fresh a lot longer than that, up to 3 months.

For something wet like our Crockpot cajun boiled peanuts you need to cool and store in the fridge just for the week, then they will go bad no matter what.