Do you know candied hazelnuts easy and quick recipe.

Once when I was little, my father would take us downtown during the carnival days. There were many of us, six children in total, and these outings were a real privilege for us. We would all walk together to the main square, full of rides and stalls. It was an event we eagerly awaited every year. But my father, concerned about not straining the family budget too much, was very careful about how much he spent. So, besides the ride attractions, he would treat us to a handful of candied hazelnuts.

They were sweet, as white as snow, and flavorful. We became like greedy squirrels, with our hands sticky from sugar, filling our mouths with those little delights.

Their unique taste made us forget everything else, giving us moments of pure sweetness.

Today my father is no longer with us, but I have learned to make candied hazelnuts on my own. Every time I taste them, memories of those happy days resurface.

And perhaps it’s true that besides their flavor, they also hide a little bit of magic, connected to the memories they know how to awaken, and in the yellowed photographs taken from a very long time ago, tiny gnats; us, among the trees, in the park adjacent to the fairground square.

Now hazelnuts cost much more, but we find this delicacy even on the stalls of those who do not produce nougat but grow hazelnuts.

I have been producing hazelnuts for family use for several years, so I have learned to prepare them candied and to go back in time with my mind.

At the end of August, we harvested our hazelnuts; they are trees without various treatments in their natural state, in fact, a good percentage is eaten by dormice and squirrels, not to mention the damage done by wild boars that love this dry fruit.

After harvesting, they stay in the sun for a few days to dry, then we break the shells to extract the fruit and select them to eliminate what is not good; these are moments of words in music, and one could say with heads among the hazelnuts. The next step is roasting, which I do with the air fryer, multifunctional…Excellent!