I adore hazelnut syrup in my coffee. It’s almost a weakness. It’s definitely a craving. I sometimes crave it. I’ll drive out of my way to pick up a hazelnut coffee at Starbucks. But the problem is, I don’t think they’re very good for you! In fact, whenever I haven’t had one in a while, and then I drink one, I can ‘feel’ the chemicals sticking at the back of my throat.
I’ve recently learned to make my own hazelnut syrup and since then, I’ve not looked back.
Ironically, since I have been drinking my homemade syrup, I’ve twice had occasion to try my old favourite and you know what? I don’t like it anymore! I find it overly sweet, and I find that chemical taste really prominent in the back of my throat now.
This recipe uses Rapadura in place of sugar, so while it’s still quite calorific, it doesn’t have the highs and lows of adding sugar to your coffee.
I made these in my Thermomix®, but the recipe below is very easy to adapt to even basic kitchen equipment, you may just take a little longer.
Also, with the leftover nuts you can make gorgeous crystallised hazelnuts.
Fun Fact: This recipe, based on RRP, for organic ingredients, cost me £5.49 for just under 1 litre. My Starbucks favourite used to cost me £3.75 for 375ml.
- 500g Rapadura
- 500g water
- 250g Hazelnuts
- Preheat the oven to 160C/320F
- Roast the hazelnuts until they are just starting to colour, and you can smell their warm aroma.
- Remove from oven and turn off.
- Place hazelnuts in the Thermomix® bowl on reverse speed 1 for about a minute. The skins should come off pretty easily. (If you don't have a Thermomix®, or you need to remove more skin, agitate the nuts between two dishclothes.
- Separate the skins
- Place the hazelnuts back in the bowl and whiz for 5 seconds on speed 4. You want them broken up, but NOT powdered or turned to flour. Without a Thermomix®, you can do this with a rolling pin.
- Place the Rapadura and water in the bowl/a large pot and bring to the boil. Add the hazelnuts and leave to boil until the mixture has reduced by about 25%
- You will need to stir it regularly to make sure it doesn't burn. If you're using a Thermomix®, just keep it on speed 1.
- Once it's reduced, strain to remove the nuts, and put them aside for crystallised hazelnuts. Strain again to remove smaller nuts, and pour into the container you'll be keeping it in. Leave to cool before refrigerating.
- If you taste it straight away you'll be disappointed by how mild it tastes. Leave for about 24 hours before having your first sip of real hazelnut syrup. You won't be disappointed.
I bought hazelnuts to make this yesterday but didn’t realise about the rapadura 🙁 Can I replace it with something?
Yes! Sugar will do fine! We just use rapadura so it’s not ’empty’ calories 🙂
How & how long can you store this syrup?
I keep mine in a glass bottle for 1-3 months depending on how much it opened!
thanks for sharing..
I used hazelnut powder as i only have that at home. it become paste instead of syrup.
I am Themomix user as well, may i know how long you cook the hazelnut to become syrup? with Veroma function? or just boil with 100 deg C?
Thanks.
hi Marsha, I actually remove the hazelnuts so you end up with just the liquid – I’d imagine with a powder it would be too thick and it wouldn’t dissolve in your coffee. Use large enough hazelnut pieces that it can be removed (see the recipe for crystallising the hazelnuts) so that you just have pure syrup at the end. I boil it for about 40 mins on 100C. Just keep an eye on it – it’s supposed to reduce by about a quarter.
Just wondering if all the skin has to be off the but. After roasting my hazelnuts, there were about a third of them that the skins had to be scrapped off. A real pain. Hence the question. Some of them don’t have all the skin removed. Wondering if it might impart some bitterness. Thanks for the recipe!
I don’t take all the skins off because… life is too short… but do take off as much as you can as yes, you don’t want it to be bitter.