Recipe: Here's some recipes to get you started

Easy Cookies

4 tablespoons butter -- softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts -- finely chopped
1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F. Put butter in a bowl, add sugar, and mix together with a spoon. Pour vanilla into mixture. Add flour, 2 tablespoons at a time, stirring well. Add almonds; this makes a firm dough. Drop from a teaspoon onto an oven sheet, forming batter into a ball with your fingers on the sheet.

Bake in preheated oven 6-7 minutes; cookies will be a light tan color. Put powdered sugar in a sieve and sprinkle over cookies when baked.

Yields: 2 dozen

Hazelnut Pilaf
3/4 cup uncooked rice
1/2 cup roasted and coarsely chopped Oregon
hazelnuts
3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 onion -- diced
1 8-ounce can sliced mushrooms (6-8 ounces) -- drained (save liquid)
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup soy sauce

Combine rice, hazelnuts, cheese, onion and mushrooms; place in a greased 1-quart casserole. Mix mushroom liquid, chicken broth and soy sauce, heat to boiling and pour over rice mixture. Cover and bake for 30 to 40 minutes at 350 . Fluff with fork before serving.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Source:
"Dundee Hazelnuts & The Oregon Hazelnut Industry"
S(Internet address):
"http://www.teleport.com/~nuts/index.html;
http://www.oregonhazelnuts.org

Honey Spiced Oregon Hazelnuts

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 cup honey
4 cups roasted Oregon hazelnuts

In a saut pan over medium heat, warm olive oil. Add garlic, cumin, Tabasco and honey. Stir the mixture, reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Do not burn. Add the nuts and stir to coat well. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper or foil. Spread the coated nuts in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake at 400 F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely. Serve as a snack or as a garnish for soups or salads.

Yield:
"4 cups"

Chocolate Hazelnut Butter 2 cups Oregon hazelnuts (9 ounces) -- roasted
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons cocoa

GENERAL DIRECTIONS - FOOD PROCESSOR: Place roasted hazelnuts in food processor container with all-purpose blade. Process to coarse butter texture, about 3 minutes. Gradually add sugar, salt or other ingredients through feed tube. Scrape down sides; continue to process until desired texture is achieved, 4 to 7 minutes.
BLENDER: Place roasted hazelnuts and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in blender container and grind to meal on low speed. Continue to blend on low for several minutes, scraping down sides of container as required and adding another tablespoon of oil, if necessary. When butter is fairly fluid, blend on high for 2 to 3 minutes or until desired texture is achieved. Gradually add other ingredients and blend on low until thoroughly mixed.
FOR CRUNCHY BUTTER: Stir in 1/4 cup roasted, chopped hazelnuts or raw sunflower seeds to finished butter.

Makes 1-3/4 cups butter. NOTES : These butter recipes are for "old-fashioned" butters with no stabilizers; if they are kept refrigerated, very little oil separation will occur. Shelf life is about 3 months in the refrigerator.

Hazelnut Tart 1 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
6 tablespoons sugar
11 tablespoons cold unsalted butter -- cut into small pieces
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate -- melted
7 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon honey
1 3/4 cups Oregon hazelnuts -- roasted and coarsely chopped


In food processor, pulse flour, salt and 1 tablespoon sugar to combine. Add 7 tablespoons butter; pulse 8 times. Add 3 tablespoons cold water and pulse until dough looks moist and holds together but hasn't formed a ball. Do not overprocess. Wrap dough and chill 1 hour. Roll out dough and fit into 9 1/2" tart pan with removable bottom. Freeze 20 minutes. Line tart shell with foil, fill with dried beans or pie weights; prick shell thoroughly with fork. Bake in 350 oven for 15 minutes or until dried and golden. Cool completely. With pastry brush, paint bottom of tart pan with thin layer of melted chocolate. Allow to set. Set remaining chocolate aside. In saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Add remaining sugar, cream and honey. Bring to boil; stir to dissolve sugar. Boil 2 minutes. Stir in hazelnuts. Pour nut mixture into tart shell. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on rack. Remelt reserved chocolate. Dip fork or tip of teaspoon into chocolate and drip free-form design on top of cooled tart.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Crunchy Hazelnut Meringue Cookies 3 egg whites
Dash salt
1 2/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar -- sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup roasted and chopped Oregon hazelnuts
(about 4 ounces)
2 cups corn flakes

Beat egg whites and salt together until soft peaks form. Gradually add brown sugar, about 3 tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in vanilla, hazelnuts and corn flakes. Drop by heaping teaspoonful onto greased baking sheets. Bake in a 325 oven for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.