Both the Smooth and the Crunchy varieties are made of 100% highest quality hazelnuts – and nothing else. The nuts are lightly toasted and stone-milled to a fine paste. They differ in texture only. While the Smooth contains just the paste of grounded hazelnuts, the Crunchy is mixed with bits of broken nuts, adding highly palatable “crunchiness” to the taste. Each jar contains 170g.

Culinary Use

In general, Hazelnut Butter can be used wherever and whenever one would otherwise use peanut butter. It does have, though, a very distinctive taste quite different from peanut butter (for more about the differences between the two from the nutritional point of view see below). It is fabulous on its own, spread on freshly toasted bread. As the product is made of 100% hazelnuts, without any additives whatsoever, you may wish to add a pinch of salt and/or some drops of honey, maple syrup or sugar to suit your taste.

Hazelnut Butter can be used as an ingredient in salad dressing or as an original dip (prepared like Tahini). Both varieties can be used to enhance stir fries and oriental dishes such as Thai chicken curry and chicken satay. For desserts and sweet treats, Hazelnut Butter has a respectable range of uses as a main ingredient in baking cookies, fudge, etc. It is amazingly tasty as a topping for ice cream too. The use is really only bound by your imagination! You can, of course, do some online researchtoo…

Health Benefits

Wikipedia states the following health benefits of Hazelnut Butter: Hazelnut Butter is high in monounsaturated fats, particularly oleic acid, shown to play a role in reducing the adverse effects of low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Hazelnut butter is also a good source of dietary protein and vitamin E.

Another online source claims the following benefits associated with eating hazelnuts:

1. Hazelnuts are very high in energy and loaded with numerous health-benefiting nutrients that are essential for optimum health. 100g of nuts provide 628 calories. The nuts are rich in mono-unsaturated fatty acids like oleic as well as essential fatty acid, linoleic acid that helps lower LDL or bad cholesterol and increase HDL or good cholesterol. Research studies suggest that Mediterranean diet that is plentiful in monounsaturated fatty acids help to prevent coronary artery disease and strokes by favouring healthy blood lipid profile.
2. These nuts are rich in dietary fibre, vitamins, and minerals and packed with numerous health promoting phyto-chemicals. Altogether, they help protect from diseases and cancers.
3. Hazels are exceptionally rich in folate, which is a unique feature for the nuts. 100g of fresh nuts contain 113µg; that is about 28% recommended daily intake of this vitamin. Folate is an important vitamin that helps prevent megaloblastic anemia and most importantly, neural tube defects in the newborn. Good news for expectant mothers!
4. Hazel nuts are an excellent source of vitamin E; containing about 15g per 100g (providing 100% of RDA). Vitamin E is a powerful lipid soluble antioxidant, required for maintaining the integrity of cell membrane of mucus membranes and skin by protecting it from harmful oxygen-free radicals.
5. The nuts, like almonds, are free from gluten and therefore, are a safe alternative food source that can be used in the preparation of gluten-free food formulas for gluten-sensitive, wheat allergy, and celiac disease patients.
6. The nuts are packed with many important B-complex groups of vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine (vitamin B-6), and folates.
7. They are a rich source of minerals like manganese, potassium, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc, and selenium. Copper and manganese are essential co-factors for anti-oxidant enzyme, superoxide dismutase. Iron helps prevent microcytic-anemia. Magnesium and phosphorus are important components of bone metabolism.
8. Hazelnut oil has nutty aroma and has excellent astringent properties. It helps to keep skin well protected from dryness.

Nutrition Facts

Most of the calories (522 out of 646) are derived from the fat content. The good news is that the vast majority of that fat is of the GOOD variety! The chart below shows the proportion of good fats (green) in cashew in relation to bad fats (in red). Read more about each type of fat and fatty acid below.

The chart below shows good fats in Nuts, hazelnuts or filberts, dry roasted, without salt added in relation to bad fats.

Polyunsaturated Fats: Polyunsaturated fat can be found mostly in nuts, seeds, fish, algae, leafy greens, and krill. Whole food sources are always best, as processing and heating may damage polyunsaturated fats.

Monounsaturated Fats: Foods containing monounsaturated fats reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol, while possibly increasing HDL (good) cholesterol. [“You Can Control Your Cholesterol: A Guide to Low-Cholesterol Living”. Merck & Co. Inc.].

Trans Fatty Acids: The National Academy of Sciences has concluded there is no safe level of trans fat consumption. This is because any incremental increase in trans fat intake increases the risk of coronary heart disease. [Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fibre, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (Macronutrients). National Academies Press. p. 504].

Saturated Fats: Consumption of saturated fat is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in the view of the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation, the American Heart Association, the British Heart Foundation, the National Heart Foundation of Australia, the National Heart Foundation of New Zealand and the World Heart Federation.

Vitamins and Minerals

As noted above, Hazelnut Butter contains high concentrations of vital vitamins and minerals. See details below, along with the percentage of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of each, provided by 100g of Hazelnut Butter:

Compared to peanut butter, Hazelnut Butter contains more than twice as much vitamin E as peanut butter and is higher in cholesterol-reducing monounsaturated fat.

Allergies

Nutural World Hazelnut Butter is made in a peanut-free environment, and thus is completely safe for those with a peanut allergy. However, Nutural World produces other seed and nut based products, and while every effort is made to separate the production lines it cannot guarantee that the product is free of traces of other seeds and nuts.

Vegans and the Manufacturing Process

Nutural World Hazelnut Butter is made of 100% highest quality hazelnuts, and thus is suitable for vegetarians and vegans. The nuts are lightly roasted to enhance their taste and bring out their delicate aroma. The milling process uses traditional stone-based mills and not high speed rotating blades to generate the most uniform paste and keep the temperature during the milling process to the lowest possible. Since no emulsifier is added, it is quite normal for the oil in our products to separate to the top of the jar. Simply stir it back in. Once opened, storing the product in the refrigerator will slow down the separation process and the product will keep for up to three months.

Dieting, Weight Loss and Hazelnut Butter

It may come as a surprise, but Hazelnut Butter is actually very ‘diet friendly’ for some types of diets. The table below shows how suitable is this food for each of the main dieting options: