How to Skin Hazelnuts
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 1:01AM 
By Sandy Hu
Hazelnuts have a delightful sweet, nutty taste but their skins are bitter and they refuse to yield them without some coaxing.
Still, their flavor contribution to baked goods, salads, savory crusts and chocolate desserts (who isn’t crazy for Nutella?) makes skinning them well worth the effort.
To skin hazelnuts, put them on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer and pop into a preheated 375° F oven for about 10 minutes, until the nuts become fragrant, take on a light golden color and the skins start to crack. You don’t want to overbake or the nuts may get bitter.
Remove them from the oven and wrap in a clean dishtowel. The skins will stain the dishtowel so be sure to use one you can sacrifice. Let the nuts sit 5 to 10 minutes until they cool off and rub them vigorously in the towel to buff off the skins.
It’s not possible to remove all the skins but if you get half of them off, you’re good to go!
For skinning almonds, check out this video.
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Reader Comments (1)
I never knew how to skin a hazelnut. Thanks to your wonderful video, I learned that it is fairly simple to do. Thank you, Sandy, for another informative cooking lesson. :-)