Two tasty recipes using Happy Wombat Hazelnuts

Sweet or savoury, hazelnuts are as versatile to use, as they are delicious.

Here are two easy ways to upgrade your cooking using Happy Wombat Hazelnuts, and other products found at Knights.

SAVOURY: Hazelnut Pesto Pasta

Ingredients:

  • 350g of Zecca Tagliatelle
  • 80g pack flat-leaf parsley
  • 100g of Happy Wombat Hazelnuts
  • 50g parmesan (or vegetarian alternative), grated
  • zest and juice 1 lemon
  • 100ml of Wollundry Grove Olive Oil
        Instructions
        1. Cook the pasta in salted, boiling water according to pack instructions.
        2. Put the parsley, hazelnuts, Parmesan and lemon zest and juice into a food processor and whizz to a paste. With the motor still running, gradually drizzle in the olive oil. Season, if you like, with salt and pepper.
        3. Drain pasta, return to pan and stir in pesto. Divide pasta between serving bowls and serve.

          SWEET: Hazelnut Latte Cake

          Ingredients

          • 100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
          • 100g of chopped Happy Wombat Hazelnuts
          • 300g light brown soft sugar
          • 6 tbsp of Riverina Fresh milk
          • 1 tsp fine instant coffee powder
          • 6 large Holbrook Paddock eggs, at room temperature
          • 2 tbsp cornflour
          • 175g Whispering Pines Organic Plain flour

          Coffee Syrup

          • 50g light brown soft sugar
          • 1 tsp fine instant coffee powder
          • 1 tbsp Frangelico (hazelnut) liqueur, or use Kahlua or Tia Maria

            Frosting

            • 400g mascarpone
            • 300g hazelnut chocolate spread (Nutella has the best texture for this)
            • 1 tbsp fine instant coffee powder
            • 50g chopped Happy Wombat Hazelnuts

              Latte Topping

              • 150ml pot double cream
              • 4 tsp icing sugar
              • 3 tbsp Riverina Fresh milk
              • 1 tbsp fine instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 tsp boiling water

              Instructions

              1. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Generously butter two 20cm sandwich tins (ideally about 4.5cm deep or deeper) and line the bases with baking parchment. Put the hazelnuts into a food processor with 2 tbsp of the sugar, then pulse until finely chopped.
              2. Put the butter, milk and coffee powder into a small pan and heat gently until the butter has melted. Set aside.
              3. Now start the sponge. Crack the eggs into the bowl of a tabletop mixer, add the rest of the sugar and beat for 5-10 mins until thick and billowy, and the mixture leaves a trail that holds for a couple of seconds. It is really important that the mixture has thickened, almost doubling in size, in order to achieve a light sponge.
              4. Mix the cornflour, plain flour and 1/2 tsp salt, and sift onto the whisked mixture. Using a large metal spoon, fold in very carefully. Sprinkle in the ground nuts, then fold these in too. Pour the warm milk mix around the edge of the bowl, and fold this in. Don’t rush the folding, and continue with a light lifting and cutting motion until ribbons of liquid stop appearing. Divide the batter between the tins, then bake for 25 mins until risen to the middle and burnished gold
              5. Loosen the sides of the cakes with a palette knife, then cool in the tins on a rack for 20 mins (the cakes will level off, and possibly go a bit wrinkly, but that’s normal). Carefully remove from the tins and cool, paper-side down.
              6. Make the syrup and the frosting while you wait. Put the sugar and 4 tbsp water into a small pan. Bring to the boil and leave for 1 min then take off the heat. Stir in the coffee and alcohol. Beat the mascarpone, hazelnut chocolate spread and coffee together with a wooden spoon, until silky and even.
              7. To assemble, cut the cold cakes horizontally across the middle, using a long serrated knife. With a pastry brush, dampen the cut surfaces all over with the syrup. Put one cake layer onto a plate or stand, cut-side up. Spoon on 3 generous dollops of the frosting, then spread to the edges with a palette knife. The frosting should be about 5mm deep. Repeat with the next two layers. When you come to the final layer, place it cut-side down, so that the top of the cake is smooth. Paddle the rest of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. The layer on the top can be thin. Press a neat ring of nuts into the frosting on the side of the cake with your cleaned knife. Brush any excess away.
              8. For the topping, put 3 tbsp of the cream, 1 tsp icing sugar and 1 tbsp milk into a small bowl. Put the rest of the cream, milk and sugar, plus most of the dissolved coffee into a larger bowl. Whip the white cream, then the coffee cream, until they look like soft cappuccino froth, thick but still able to flow from a spoon. Pour most of the coffee cream onto the cake and push it out to cover the top. Whisk a little more coffee into what is left, so that it turns a few shades darker.
              9. Decorate!
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