Flours & Starches
Hazelnut Paste (unsweetened) in gelato
Hazelnut Paste (unsweetened) is 100% roasted hazelnuts ground to a smooth paste, with no added sugar, oil, or emulsifiers. In gelato it is a flavor and fat carrier, contributing roughly 62% fat and a rich nutty body while adding almost no sweetness or anti-freezing power.
Balancing parameters
Per 100 g of product, verified against independent food-science sources (listed below).
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Solids | 98% |
| Water | 2% |
| Sugars | 4% |
| Fat | 62% |
| MSNF | 0% |
| Protein | 15% |
| POD (sweetening power) | 4 |
| PAC (anti-freezing power) | 4 |
Typical use: 6-12% of the mix (commonly 8-10%)
Balance hazelnut paste (unsweetened) in a real recipe
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Open the balancerHow to use it in gelato
Use unsweetened hazelnut paste purely for flavor and fat, not for sweetness or softness. Its ~4g/100g free sugars are almost all sucrose, so it barely moves PAC or POD (roughly 4 each) and cannot soften a mix the way a sugar or a sweetened praline paste would. The high fat (~62%) enriches body and coats the palate but can slow whipping and reduce overrun, so account for it in the total fat budget and consider a touch more stabilizer or a lower fat dairy base. Because it adds no sugar, you keep full control of the sugar blend and the serving temperature separately from the flavor dose.
Origin & background
Hazelnuts (Corylus avellana) have been cultivated around the Mediterranean and Black Sea for millennia, and Italy's Piedmont region, home to the prized Tonda Gentile variety, made hazelnut paste central to gianduja and Italian gelateria. Per USDA FoodData Central, raw hazelnuts carry about 60.8g fat and 14.9g protein per 100g, the profile a pure paste concentrates.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- USDA FoodData Central — Nuts, hazelnuts or filberts, raw (per 100g: fat 60.75g, protein 14.95g, total sugars 4.34g, fiber 9.7g, water 5.31g). https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/ (mirror: https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Nuts%2C_hazelnuts_or_filberts_nutritional_value.html)
- Aprifel (CIQUAL/French national food table) — Hazelnut nutritional sheet: fat ~61g, protein ~15g, sugars ~4.9g per 100g. https://www.aprifel.com/en/nutritional-sheet/hazelnut/
- Manufacturer technical datasheets, 100% pure roasted hazelnut paste (single-ingredient, no added sugar/oil): energy ~646-711 kcal, fat 62-69g, sugars 3-5g, protein 15-17g, salt <=0.09g per 100g. Callebaut PNP-663 (https://www.callebaut.com/en-US/chocolate-cocoa-nuts/PNP-663/pure-roasted-hazelnut-paste); Weiss Pure Hazelnut Paste 100% (https://panierdeschefs.eu/en/weiss-pralines-and-specialities/8371-weiss-pure-hazelnut-paste-3595180260483.html)
- Sugar profile: sucrose is the predominant free sugar in hazelnut kernels (~2.9g/100g sucrose vs minor glucose/fructose/maltose), justifying sucrose-equivalent POD/PAC. Corylus spp. kernel composition study, NCBI PMC8261296 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8261296/); 'Analysis of sugar composition in nut crops' (ResearchGate 288070265)