This past week, a friend of mine posted a picture of Haselnuss-Kranz on her Facebook page and it looked delicious. It’s a German dessert made of a sweet shortcrust rolled around a sweetened hazelnut filling and rolled into a ring. Living as close to Oregon as we do, we’re huge hazelnut fans, so I sought to find the recipe. What I found is that it is so German, English language recipes are difficult to find. Finally, I found a recipe by Nigella Lawson, which I began to fiddle with. Nigella’s recipe is written in grams – easy with a kitchen scale but a little more difficult if you you don’t have one. I used my kitchen scale for exact measurements, but I’ve converted here for your ease (and Americanized the recipe slightly).

German Hazelnut Ring

Crust

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. milk
• 1 stick butter, very cold and cut into cubes

Filling

• 1-1/2 cups hazelnuts, finely ground
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 4 tbsp. evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg white

Glaze

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp. evaporated milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift flour, sugar, and baking powder into the bowl of a food processor.
3. Add butter and liquids, sprinkling evenly over the top of the ingredients.
4. Pulse the food processor for 10 one-second pulses until mixture resembles wet sand
5. Pour mixture onto a clean surface (I use a Silpat) and pull it together in a ball, kneading a few times to make sure mixture is smooth.
6. Refrigerate the dough wrapped in plastic for 20 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, grind hazelnuts finely in the food processor with ten one second pulses.
8. Pour hazelnuts in a bowl with remaining filling ingredients and mix well.
9. Roll short crust into a rectangular shape that is about 11″ x 15″.
10. Spread filling over pastry and roll the pastry length-wise.
11. Shape pastry into a ring and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
12. Mix together glaze and spread over top of ring.
13. Using a knife, score the pastry with X or star shapes in several spots.
14. Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown.