I don’t really like nuts.

It’s something that makes people who like nuts go:

“Have you even tried them? When was the last time you tried some? You can’t dislike all nuts”

Well, I like the taste of Almond, and like ground almonds in stuff, but if I were to eat an Almond, I would go “bleurgh!”

Peanuts are my absolute most hated nut. Peanut butter is like evil condensed into food form.

I like Nutella, but not a big fan of Praline, and have even had Hazelnut Macarons, and kinda liked them, although I prefer Almond ones.

Perhaps it all has something to do with the nut:tasty things ratio, perhaps I just need more tasty other things to drown out the nuts.

Anyhow, with that in mind, I saw some Hazelnut flour at the supermarket the other day, and decided to give it a whirl and see, so this is my little experiment.

Chocolate and Hazelnut Shortbread Recipe  – adapted from Rose Elliot’s New Complete Vegetarian

Ingredients

125g/4 oz unsalted butter, softened

50g/2 oz light soft brown sugar

75g/3 oz Hazelnut flour NB. if you can’t find any Hazelnut flour, you can blitz up your own, either by roasting the nuts slightly to turn them a golden brown beforehand, or using as is.

60g/2 oz cocoa

55g/ 2 oz wholewheat flour

90g/3 oz plain flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F. Grease and line a swiss roll tin (18x28cm, 7×11″).

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add in the rest of the ingredients and combine until the dough comes together.

Press into the prepared tin, and prick lightly with a fork (or you can add in some extra fancy around the edges!)

Bake for 1 hour, remove from the oven, and mark into slices while still warm.

Allow to firm up in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to complete cooling.

P.S. this recipe freezes well, so perhaps make an extra big batch, then you can have some on standby for if fancy guests come round!

I tried, but I didn’t quite like it. Before casting it out as a bad job though, I gave some to Mr M to try = an enthusiastic thumbs up!

I guess it’s a keeper then!