Crema Trio – Piedmontese Hazelnut Creams

Crema Trio. Three hazelnut creams from Papa dei Boschi – light, classic, dark.

Crema di Nocciola La Reina, Crema Gianduia and Nussnougat Creme in 250-g jars. Three times Piedmontese hazelnuts PGI with 55 to 60 percent nut content, without palm oil, without soy lecithin. Not a sampler pack with miniatures – three full jars.

Anyone ordering the hazelnut creams from Papa dei Boschi for the first time faces the wrong question: which one? The three jars do not differ in the nut – it is always the Tonda Gentile from the farm in Alta Langa –, but in what happens around it. This set answers the question by making it superfluous.

La Reina: light, without cocoa

The Crema di Nocciola La Reina leaves out the cocoa. Hazelnuts, milk powder, cane sugar, vanilla – nothing else. It is the lightest and mildest of the three, less sweet, and tastes as close to the roasted nut as a cream can. For breakfast rolls, in yogurt, as a filling for crêpes.

Crema Gianduia: the Turin classic

The Crema Gianduia is the recipe that Turin invented two hundred years ago: 60 percent hazelnuts, milk powder, five percent cocoa, cane sugar. Round, creamy, with the balance of nut and chocolate that you expect from a gianduja. The all-rounder of the three – and the one that disappears off the bread the fastest.

Nussnougat Creme: dark and lactose-free

The Nussnougat Creme replaces the milk powder with ten percent cocoa powder. Darker, stronger, with a distinct chocolate note and 55 percent hazelnuts – the only one of the three without milk, therefore lactose-free and vegan. For desserts, ice cream and everyone for whom the classic version is too sweet.

What the three have in common

The hazelnuts come from the Noè family farm near Lequio Berria and bear the Nocciola Piemonte PGI seal. None of the creams contain palm oil, foreign fats or soy lecithin; the sweetness comes from cane sugar, the aroma from Bourbon vanilla. If some oil separates after standing for a long time, this is the result of the missing emulsifier – stir it back in, done. Why gianduja comes from Turin and what makes the difference to nougat is explained in our guide Gianduja: What is it?

What the set is not

It is not a value pack for one variety – anyone who only wants the gianduja is better off taking the 500-g jar. And anyone looking for a cream without sugar will not find it here, but in the hazelnut paste made from 100 percent nuts. The trio is worth it if all three characters are to be on the table – or given as a gift.

Three jars, one nut, three answers to the question "which one?".