Hazelnuts

Our recent trip to the west coast USA was great fun. We visited many of the old stomping ground, ate food that we craved and longed to have when not in the USA. We visited the familiar as well as completely brand new places.

One of the coolest places visited was Schmidt Farm in Oregon. The farm was en route of our Pacific Coast Highway adventure. Schmidt Farm, I later learned, is both a nursery and a lucrative hazelnut farm. We were after the hazelnuts, sold on the shell, and put through their very loud hazelnut peeling machine. The nuts were peeled, bagged for us and we arrived "home" to California with 5 pounds worth.

We roasted and then ate them to our hearts delight. But we needed to do more to put a dent on the huge bag. So I decided on a hazelnut pie (pictured.)

I followed a classic pecan pie recipe with butter, eggs, brown sugar, and instead of pecans, used the hazelnuts. It was a good day in California for a nice American pie. The pie was rich, nutty and went perfectly well with a tall glass of milk.