Hazlenut-Amaretto Loaf

This is closer to a sweet breakfast bread than a sandwich loaf. The bread flour and milk base gets perfumed with toasted hazelnuts, a few teaspoons of amaretto liqueur, and a touch of butter and sugar. Amaretto and hazelnut is a classic Italian flavor pairing, the almond-cherry notes of the liqueur amplifying the warm, roasted character of the nuts.

The directions mention glazing the finished bread with a topping. A simple powdered-sugar-and-amaretto drizzle would be true to the recipe’s character, but plain melted butter dusted with confectioners’ sugar also works. Slice thick for a coffee-and-bread breakfast, toast for tea time, or split and griddle as French toast for a knockout brunch dish. Pairs beautifully with coffee, Italian roasts especially.

Kitchen Tips

• Toast the hazelnuts before adding to the dough. Raw nuts taste flat and lose their character against the amaretto.
• Use the sweet or basic white cycle, not whole wheat or fast bake.
• Add the hazelnuts at the fruit-and-nut beep if your machine has one. They stay visible in the loaf rather than mashed into the dough.
• Use real amaretto liqueur, not almond extract. The complexity of the liqueur is hard to match with extract alone.
• Cool the loaf fully before glazing. Warm bread melts the glaze into a sticky puddle instead of a clean drizzle.

Variations

• Substitute Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) for the amaretto for a more pronounced hazelnut character.
• Swap the hazelnuts for toasted almonds for a more straightforward amaretto-almond loaf.
• Add cocoa powder to the dough for a chocolate-hazelnut-amaretto loaf.