If you love Frangelico but think it’s a bit too sweet, like I do, this is the drink for you! Hazelnut Vodka is perfect for sipping straight or over ice.
I’ve mentioned before about the amazing cherry tree in our back garden in Paris years ago but I don’t think I’ve written about the prolific hazelnut tree out front. It was actually in our neighbor’s yard, Madame Coucou we named her because that is what she called out over our party wall to get my attention. Coucou, coucou! Always with a big smile.
The tree grew right up near that wall so a goodly portion of it hung over our side. It took me a while to figure out what they were because I had never seen a fresh nut in its little fuzzy green outer coat. As they ripen, that turns brown and the nuts are ready for harvest, often falling to the ground on their own. During the season, hazelnuts were literally everywhere.
Unlike the cherries that we turned into jam and pie and cherry bounce, we just shelled and ate the hazelnuts. I wish I had had this recipe back then!
Hazelnut Vodka
If you have hazelnuts with the shells still on, it will take about 8 ¾ oz or 248g to get the required amount shelled for this recipe. This recipe is adapted from one in Abundance: Eating and living with the seasons by Mark Diacono.
Ingredients
3 ½ oz or 100g shelled hazelnuts
¾ cup or caster sugar
4 cups or 946ml vodka
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C. Spread the hazelnuts out on a baking pan and roast them for about 15 minutes or so, checking after 10. The skins should darken but you don’t want them to burn!
Remove the pan from the oven and pour the hazelnuts into a towel.
Wrap them up and leave them to steam for a couple of minutes.
Rub them through the towel, squeezing and rolling to remove most of the skins.
Pick the hazelnuts out of the skins and put them into a food processor. Use a few short pulses to grind them into a coarse rubble. You want some small bits and some medium bits. Nothing too fine.
In a large, wide-mouthed jar, stir the sugar into 1 cup or 240ml of the vodka until it dissolves.
Add the chopped hazelnuts, allspice and the rest of the vodka and stir together.
Stir well!
Screw the lid on and set it someplace out of direct sunlight, where you’ll see it.
Shake the jar once a day.
I left mine for about a week before tasting it. Divine! Very hazelnutty! Leave it another week or two if you’d like – I did - but it’s very drinkable after one week.
Strain through a fine sieve and/or muslin and funnel into a sterilized bottle or jar.
Enjoy!
I made this last Christmastime and after we sipped a bit, I stashed it behind the bar and forgot about it. I pulled it back out when I was writing this post to discover that sediment had settled to the bottom. I decanted it, leaving that sediment behind and it's much less opaque now. Still delicious though!
Welcome to the 8th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter H. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the H recipes below:
- 3 Ingredient Hot Fudge Sauce from Blogghetti
- Creamy Cilantro Herb Caribbean Potato Salad from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
- Haluski from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Harissa and Brie No Knead Focaccia from A Messy Kitchen
- Hazelnut Vodka from Food Lust People Love
- Homemade Chilli Oil from Sneha’s Recipe
- Honeynut Squash Soup with Apple and Bacon from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Hot Chocolate Rolls from Magical Ingredients
- Vegetable Hariyali from Mayuri’s Jikoni
- Whipped Honey from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
H. Hazelnut Vodka - this post!
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