Any good/unique ideas???

I should mention that the reason I'm posting this is because they're plentiful at the moment - nice activity for days like today!

How about making your own Hazelnut Liqueur aka Liqueur de Noisettes Maison

(Learn a new recipe and maybe brush up on French at the same time? )

Also, peeking around with Google for a few, this one caught my eye:
Rapunzel's Squash & Hazelnut Soup

Soup looks tasty! Thanks!

Try walnut tagliatelle:

http://tuscanrecipes.blogspot.com/20...lle-with.htmlc

Baklava, savory snacks (fry until golden in a little olive oil, place on a paper towel to absorb excess oil, add a seasoning/spice mix of your choice eg: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, oregano, salt), do the whole gebrannte thing: http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/holi...annte-mandeln/

Hmmm...I put walnuts on apple or plum pies, with cinnamon and maple syrup. I also put walnuts into apple strudel, it's fantastic. Otherwise, good ol' banana bread with walnuts will also work. Roasted toasts with blue cheese, thyme and walnuts are nice, too.

Where do I even start? Hehe.

I do a few versions of chocolate truffles that involve hazelnuts as well as a chocolate hazelnut torte. I also have an absolutely lush recipe for carrot cake that has walnuts sprinkled on the cream cheese frosting.

A regular fave, however, is a salad I do with walnuts. Take some mixed greens. Add walnut halves. Add cubes of Gruyère cheese. Add slices of very ripe, fresh pear. Drizzle on a dressing made of one part balsamic vinegar to one part olive oil and a bit of honey to sweeten.

On a related side note, we found a chestnut tree that looked like this?



Are these also edible??

In Romandie the favourite recipe for hazelnut is 'tarte aux noisettes' - many recipes on the Internet. Of course hazelnut can be used in carrot cake - but usually made with packs of dried and grounds hazelnuts- very different to the fresh ones. I'd say just enjoy them just as they are - you can also keep them until Christmas time, when they will have dried in the shell and taste very different. Or use them is salads.

That's what I wanted to ask. Today I just went and started grabbing walnuts from a tree - anything to be careful of? Some were already on the ground, some of the green exo-layers were open, bearing the walnut and others were still closed. Should I just let them all dry inside the shell and then use them in a month or so?

yes, those chestnuts are edible - excellent - make a small slit in the skin and roast them over embers in a bbq tray. To get them out of the spiky shell, just step on them gently with your shoe and they will pop out.
Best to wait till walnuts are on the ground- then peel the black outer skin - WEAR PLASTIC gloves, they stain terribly. You can crack and eat fresh- but they will taste even better after a couple of months. No chestnuts or walnuts up here- we are just too high - they don't grow above about 500m. Loads of hazelnuts though.

Thanks Odile. What about the ones that I took directly from the trees? OK to eat if I wait a while?

is the skin still on - green or black? I'd leave them for a while then try - but they might be not quite ready. the taste will tell you. Some people pick immature walnuts, totally green and still soft inside, around July, then pickle them- but I've never tried. Once the shell has hardened inside the outer skin, it is too late to pickle.

lebekuchen? My mother used to make those when I was a kid and, to this day, I only make them once a year as I have been known to snarf the entire batch (kid can't take them in a lunch yah know, nut allergies... ). I have a recipe if you want it.

My mother, being a raging german, in addition to hunting for morels and berries also had us go out into the forest to collect green walnuts for this very purpose (some were left to ripen for holiday cookies, too). Let them dry and WEAR LATEX GLOVES. Trust me on the capitals as you will not wash the purple off your hands for a good week if you don't.

And pickled walnuts are...absolutely wonderful. As much as I wondered what my mom was on about with all the pickling and picking and canning, etc. I find I still do it myself and only nowadays it seems rather popular to do. I'm glad to see the practice coming back as nothing tastes better than stuff you pick and preserve yourself.

Send it along!! Thanks

Well today, I went tree-climbing and basically tossed down loads of walnuts, some were still in their green cover, some were exposed and others had already fallen to the ground. I plan on using all of them for munching by themselves and baking some sweet goodies.

I just want to make sure that I can use them all. I will wait and see. Can they go bad inside their shell?

(P.S. poptart - I've got the "raging German" as a gf so I can empathize!)

have you cracked any of the hazelnuts yet? Fresh ones taste so different - wonderful. But they are too fresh to grind for baking.

Not yet. Will play with them a bit more tomorrow methinks