Cherry Hazelnut Loaf

I brought home a huge vacuum packed bag of hazelnuts from Piedmont (Italy) a few weeks ago.   What to do with them?

I love the aroma of ground and toasted hazelnuts, just please, not in my coffee.

Cherries are peak right now, so this was a logical choice to pair the hazelnuts with the cherries in this cakey loaf.

Clotilde from Zucchini & Chocolate makes this with much less sugar, but then to me, it's more of a bread.  I'm a cake kind of a girl, so I increased the sugar and also sugared the top before baking.

She also uses "hazelnut flour" which is hard to find in the US, so she gives measurements for ground hazelnuts, which is how I made it.

This was delicious and moist (the word everyone hates, and I still have no idea why).

It freezes beautifully too.

You could definitely swap in almonds for the hazelnuts if nocciole are not your thing.

Cherry Hazelnut Loaf (adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini):

• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted 
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk 
• 1 2/3 cups flour 
• 1 cup finely ground hazelnuts 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• a pinch salt
• 12 ounces sweet cherries, pitted

Start by grinding about 3/4 cup of whole hazelnuts in a food processor or coffee grinder (this should equal about 1 cup of chopped nuts.....).  Don't grind them too much, or they will turn to butter and get too wet.  

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients, adding the ground nuts in with the cherries, flour, etc.

In another bowl, whisk your wet ingredients (eggs, yogurt, butter, vanilla).

Carefully add the flour/cherry mixture into your wet ingredients, and gently fold to make a batter (trying not to break up the cherries).

Pour the batter into a 9" loaf pan that has been greased or lined with parchment paper.

I sprinkled the loaf with chopped hazelnuts (because I have so many!!) and turbinado sugar on top for a beautiful crunch.

I baked mine at 375F for 45 minutes.  My oven runs hot, so you may need another 5 minutes on the timer.  (Clotilde has a higher baking temperature, but I don't like to bake cakes at 400F for any amount of time, they burn in my oven).

Let rest in the pan 15 minutes before unmolding.

The cake gets better the next day and the day after.

Enjoy!