Workshop
Perfect mixes of ingredients are transformed, as if by magic, into sublime and refined tastes
In our workshop, built in an old house that was also a partisan shelter, we make with care and passion for our products, following each step carefully, and trying in all those steps to repeat the same slow and skillful gestures of the housewives of old, adding a pinch of technology and alchemical inspiration.
The workshop is where a perfect ingredient like the Piedmont hazelnut evolves and translates into multiple forms, showing the many faces of its complexity
The transformation
The hazelnut route
It is born under the sun’s rays, in our Murazzano soil, and here it acquires the taste and ripeness that make our products unique.
Shelling and roasting
The hazelnuts we produce are shelled in a separate workshop.They then arrive ready for roasting, the first stage of processing.
The Roaster-30 roaster we use processes 15 kg of hazelnuts at a time uniformly, at a stable temperature, without any exploitation of the raw material.
The machine is complemented by a “peeler” that combines rotation with a strong jet of air to peel and cool the hazelnuts.
After further sorting you thus have aperfectly roasted hazelnut, ready for sale or the next stage of processing.
Hazelnut flour is the predominant ingredient in “Le Divine” spreads.
Granulator and screeners
While a portion of the hazelnuts remain intact for the production of dragée and pralines, the majority are processed into grains or flour, depending on the required use.
The CRICK-CROCK grading machine consists of several adjustable cutting modules and thus allows different grain sizes to be obtained, from grains used in pastry for decoration to flour, the predominant ingredient in “Le Divine” spreadable creams.
Using an integrated belt, the machine divides product rations and processes them according to the given directions, with uniform results and high ease of cleaning, which prevents residue rancidity.
To cover different production ranges and meet buyers’ demands, we use a selection of vibrating mesh screens that filter and separate different gauges of grain or pulp.
Cold pressing press
This is the cold pressing of hazelnuts and any other variety of nuts to produce aromatic oil.
Our oil press has a capacity of 1 kg of hazelnuts, which are precisely pressed by a piston causing the separation between the oily substance, ejected through special holes, and the fibrous part (expeller). In addition to oil, the latter is also used in confectionery.
Even and balanced coverage, a spell of taste.
Dragée and pralines, the “Spells of Langa”
Whole hazelnuts follow two distinct routes for creating pralines and dragées.
For the former, the workshop includes a praline machine, which through electric heating turns sugar into crunchy caramel for covering hazelnuts, which then become fragrant palines.
Dragées are made in the bassina: here white, milk or dark chocolate previously melted in a bain-marie is automatically poured over the hazelnuts in rotation in the basin.
In this way, the slow rotation of the hazelnuts combined with the input of cold air allows the chocolate to form a homogeneous coating on the hazelnuts, making them perfectly spherical and shiny.
Pastry and cream mill
Great pride among Nocciole d’Autore products is definitely the “Le Divine” series of hazelnut creams, born of a perfect proportion between quality and taste.
In practice we use a ball mill, the MILL25 Refiner, a safe machine with unparalleled efficiency.
Starting with hazelnut flour, through constant recycling, the material is processed until the perfect paste consistency is achieved.
Only at this point do we add the selected ingredients to bring the creams to life: the cocoa, sugar, and milk. Nothing superfluous, everything calculated down to the smallest detail to allow the hazelnut queen to express herself at her best.
The processing time and temperature vary depending on the product we want to obtain, as do the ingredients and their percentages.
Starting with hazelnut flour, the material is processed until the perfect paste consistency is obtained.