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I just love making nut butters! They taste great, are free from the palm oil often included in commercial nut butters, and are rich in magnesium, calcium, unsaturated fats and vitamins B and E. Plus, they are delicious and really easy to make!

The same recipe works just as well using peanuts.

When to pick hazelnuts

Hazel (Corylus avellana) is abundant in the UK in hedgerows and woodlands. The female flowers are the ones that develop into delicious hazelnuts, which ripen in late summer, and are much coveted by squirrels, mice and people.

Hazelnuts and hazelnut shells. © Petr Gross/Getty

Hazelnuts are safe to eat once the papery outer covering starts to peel back. Ripe nuts can be found in September and October.

However, they can be picked when still green and left to ripen in a warm, dark and dry location.

Ingredients

  • 400g Hazelnuts
  • 3tbsp Cacao powder
  • 2tbsp Maple syrup
  • ½tsp Sea salt

Method

  • STEP 1

    Roast your hazelnuts on a baking tray at 180C for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

    They burn easily, so keep watch! Allow to cool.

  • STEP 2

    Tip the nuts into a food processor, add the cacao powder, maple syrup and salt.

    This is possible with a pestle and mortar but will be very hard work!

  • STEP 3

    Grind for about 5 minutes, stopping to push the mixture down occasionally.

    At first it will just look like sand, but be patient ... And, as if by magic, it will suddenly turn into a creamy, velvety butter. Keep whizzing until it is completely smooth.

    If you feel it is too thick, add a drizzle of hazelnut oil and grind again. Spoon into a clean, dry jar.

Christine Iverson is the author of The Hedgerow Apothecary and The Garden Apothecary (both published by Summersdale Publishers). She discovered a love of cottage gardens and all things hedgerow after moving to a Sussex downland village in 2001. This fascination led to volunteering as an apothecarist at the Weald and Downland Living Museum where she taught schoolchildren about medieval and Tudor medicine. She runs regular folklore and foraging workshops and gives talks to local women’s institutes and horticultural societies.

This is a recipe from The Hedgerow Apothecary: Recipes, Remedies and Rituals by Christine Iverson, published by Summersdale, £14.99.

The Hedgerow Apothecary

Main image: © Getty

Authors

Christine IversonAuthor

Christine Iverson is the author of The Hedgerow Apothecary and The Garden Apothecary (both published by Summersdale Publishers).

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