Another macaron recipe? Oops. But this one is GOOD. Before the raspberry macaron of winter 2019, this hazelnut macaron recipe adapted from Pierre Herme’s Pietra macaron was my biggest recommendation. It is also the most frustrating, requiring the melting of a sugar syrup on three separate occasions, and hence more time and patience than any other macaron recipe on this blog.

As you can probably tell from the blog name, I consider tree nuts a fundamental baking ingredient. Maybe it’s because of the ground walnuts thrown into just about every Serbian pastry, or the dreamy combo of hazelnuts and chocolate, or because you can’t make macarons without almonds. When my boyfriend recently discovered his alleged nut allergy was actually a legume allergy (not my fault I swear), I maaaay have had a little little say in which nuts he tried first for the first time ever. So here’s one for Jack, a celebration of what hazelnuts bring to baking and of all the super tasty recipe favorites I can now finally bake for him.

(As with most macaron recipes, best baked 24 hours in advance)

Hazelnut Shells

• 100g whole hazelnuts
• 50g ground hazelnuts
• 1 quantity ingredients for Italian Meringue Macaron Shells from this recipe

1. Roast the whole hazelnuts for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. This will cause the skin to start peeling off
2. Rub the toasted hazelnuts between your hands or in a tea towel to remove most of the skin
3. Set 80g aside for the filling and crush remaining 20g into small pieces
4. Make Italian Meringue Macaron Shells by this recipe, replacing half (50g) of the ground almonds with the ground hazelnuts and sprinkling the 20g crushed toasted hazelnuts onto the shells as soon as piped

Praline Filling

• 13g water + 13g water
• 50g sugar + 50g sugar
• Seeds scraped from 1/4 vanilla pod (or use vanilla extract)
• 1 egg white
• 85g softened butter

1. To make the praline, bring 13g water, 50g sugar, and the seeds from the vanilla pod to 118 degrees Celsius in a pan
2. Pour in the 80g toasted peeled whole hazelnuts from the shell section above. As you stir them in, the mixture will briefly resemble wet sand at this stage. If this is your first time don’t worry
3. Keep stirring the praline on the stove until the sugar remelts into an amber caramel
4. Pour the caramelized hazelnuts onto a sheet of baking paper to cool
5. Crush or blend praline into small powdery pieces

6. Bring remaining 13g water and 53g sugar to boil to 110 degrees Celsius
7. Beat one egg white to soft peaks
8. As the sugar syrup reaches 118 degrees Celsius, pour into the egg white, beating constantly
9. Continue beating the Italian meringue for 6 minutes until it is glossy and cool
10. Separately beat butter for 5 minutes until fluffy
11. Beat the praline powder into the butter for another few minutes
12. Carefully fold the the Italian meringue into the butter praline one third at a time
13. Generously pipe the praline filling between pairs of macaron shells
14. Refrigerate overnight before enjoying