German Hazelnut Nougat

1. Pre-heat the oven to 320F (160C). Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Place them in a towel (or just between your hands) and rub the brown skin off once they have cooled a bit. 
2. Place the cooled, skin-free nuts in a food processor with the powdered sugar and let it process for about 5 minutes or until it resembles very thick peanut butter.
3. Add in the melted butter and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides if needed.
4. Melt the chocolate (I do it in the microwave*). Add the melted chocolate to the food processor and process until you get a smooth mixture.
5. Pour into a parchment covered 8x8 inch baking pan or just a shallow bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, directly on to the nougat. Let it firm up in the refrigerator, about 2-3 hours. Let it come to room temperature before using, to make it more manageable to shape. The nougat will last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.
6. The traditional shape is a nougat log, but for the Nut heaven pralines below, the 8x8 inch pan is perfect as is. If you need to roll it out, place it inside plastic wrap before rolling.

Nut Heaven Praline

1. These nut heaven pralines use the entire batch of nougat, feel free to cut it in half if you want to spare some of the nougat to other things. It does make a lot of pralines!
2. If you want to top these with almond crunch** (which I recommend), make that when the nougat is chilling. All you need are butter, almonds and sugar.
3. Once nougat is done chilling and the almond crunch is done, you can start with the nut heaven praline assembly. Roll out marzipan and nougat until 1/3 inch (7 milimeters) thick). Place the marzipan on top of the nougat and gently press together so they stick together. Trim if necessary. If you need to roll out either the marzipan or the nougat, cover in plastic wrap first.
4. Cut the nougat and marzipan into a 2/3x1 inch (15x25 milimeter) rectangular shape - or make it into whatever shape or size you want.
5. Dip them into (tempered***) melted dark chocolate and place on parchment paper. Sprinkle almond crunch on top and place in a cool place until the chocolate has set.