How to Make Simple Syrup, Hazelnut Paste & A Decadent Hazelnut-Ganache Cake

In order to make Hazelnut Paste you'll first need Simple Syrup. Typically, Simple Syrup is just "sugar water". It's usually made by boiling two parts sugar to one part water and then letting it cool and using it as a flavoring in alcoholic or coffee drinks, soaking baked goods in it and it's even the basis for making rock candy. What I love about Simple Syrup is that it's not only insanely easy to make on its own but also because from this basic idea you can make your own flavored syrups for coffee or alcoholic drinks (Vanilla Extract = Vanilla Syrup, Mint Extract = Mint Syrup, Almond Extract = Almond Syrup, etc.) you just have to add a capful or two to the simple syrup and you're done. However, for the purpose of making Hazelnut Paste (and in many other baked items) the Simple Syrup I'll be making today has the addition of Corn Syrup in it to create increased thickness to the batch (it's a paste, remember?) Another example of adding thickness to Simple Syrup would be using it as a frosting-like coating on pastries (we cover danish with it at the bakery.) So, to start out with:

• 2 Cups Water
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Light Corn Syrup

 Basically, all you need to do is add all of your ingredients into a pot and bring it to a boil for a few seconds and then let it cool. It's that simple (no pun intended.)



Now, while that's cooling I'm going to prep the hazelnuts to be used in the paste. Unless you have pre-naked hazelnuts you'll need to skin them. To do this: preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and then toast an even layer of hazelnuts in the oven for about ten minutes. The recipe for Hazelnut Paste calls for 8 oz. hazelnuts but I recommend toasting a little more than that in case some come out burnt or you have trouble getting the skins off of some of them.

After you've taken them out of the oven let them cool and then you can either rub them between your hands or in between a towel to get the skins off. This method will not allow you to fully get the skins off, which is okay as long as you're okay with some skin in your paste. I wanted them as clean as possible so after skinning them as much as I could with my hands I took a paring knife and cleaned them up even more, but again, this is NOT something that has to be done.

Now we are ready to make Hazelnut Paste. You'll need:

• 8 Oz. Hazelnuts (this is best weighed out instead of using a measuring cup)
• 1/3 Cup Simple Syrup

Throw the hazelnuts and the simple syrup into a food processor and blend it together until it becomes a thick paste, periodically taking time to stop it and scrape the sides and the blades down so that the paste is as uniform as possible. No matter how long I blended, the paste kept a "nutty" consistency (akin to natural peanut butter) so I just went with it.

Now you have Hazelnut Paste! I wanted to try and make a cake with it so I decided to apply the same basic recipe for this as I used with the Frangipane in an earlier post, only this time I used more paste than I did previously.
To reiterate, you will need:

• 5 Oz. Hazelnut Paste
• 2 TBSP Sugar
• 2 TBSP & 3/4 TSP Flour
• 2 Oz. Room Temperature Salted Butter
• 2 Room Temperature Eggs
• 1 TBSP Vanilla Extract
• 1 TSP Maple Extract

*As a note, when I say "room temperature" I mean about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

 As with the Frangipane recipe, cream together your paste, sugar and flour. After this has come together nicely add your butter (while the mixer is still on) and cream together. In a separate bowl put your eggs and extracts together and add the eggs individually while the mixer is still running (waiting to add the second one until the batter has already begun to absorb the first.) As the batter begins to thicken crank up the whipping speed of the machine until it's has a nice light and fluffy texture.

Next, I decided to go ahead and bake off the batter into a 6" round cake pan. I initially had the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes but since ovens vary so wildly the edges were baking too fast so I turned it down to 335 degrees and baked until the center stopped "wiggling" like jell-o and had a springy consistency.

I let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes and then popped it out onto a plate to cool before cutting away the top and sides.

I had some Ganache left over from a previous batch so I used it to top the cake and then placed the whole plate into the fridge to cool and set for about half an hour to forty-five minutes.

 Once the Ganache was cool enough to set but still soft enough to mold I used a Pastry Comb to create a design (just make it up) and then sifted a mixture of cinnamon and cocoa powder over the entire thing. Now it's time to eat it.