It was
World Nutella Day on February 5th. So in honor of one of the most popular chocolately spreads, I decided to make my own version. Even better than buying it from the store! Easy easy easy and delicious. :)
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| End product. Chocolately and yummy. |
No doubt,
Nutella is pretty addictive. According to their website, it is a "combination of roasted hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa." However, looking at the
ingredients list, the first couple of ingredients listed are
sugar and
palm oil. Ehhh... no bueno. I went on a lengthy recipe search for homemade nutella and finally settled on
David Lebovitz's version as a basis. I like his version because it uses real chocolate, has no added sugar (except for some honey), and it was the least complicated out of all the recipes I searched. I did make a lot of my own changes to make it even more simple.
Notes: I used a mixture of Ghiradelli's bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao) and Hershey's special dark chocolate chips (45% cacao). A higher percentage of cacao generally means less sugar and a more intense chocolate flavor. My end product was a little
too sweet, so next time I will try using chocolate that has at least 60% cacao.
A lot of recipes had instructions to remove the hazelnut skins, but I left them on for texture and to save time.
Also, I used skim milk because that was what I had on hand. I originally used 1 cup of skim milk--it turned out too liquidy, so I had to heat it in a pot to condense the mixture further. (With whole milk, you may need a little more since it is less watery than skim.)
Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
Ingredients:
1 cup hazelnuts
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 cup powdered milk
1.5 Tbsp honey
6 oz bittersweet chocolate (you can use different ratios of semi-sweet, dark, milk chocolate etc. depending on how sweet you want the spread to be)
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| Ingredients |
Directions:
1. Spread the hazelnuts evenly on a baking sheet. Toast them for about 8-10 minutes in a 300
°F oven, stirring them every 2 minutes until lightly brown. (I first toasted them at 350°F, but they burned too easily! Had to throw out the first batch)
2. Over medium heat, warm the milk, powdered milk, and honey in a small pot. When it begins to boil, remove from heat. Strain the milk mixture to remove any lumps.
3. In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the chocolate a minute at a time on 50% power, stirring after each minute until smooth.
4. Time to blend! In a food processor (I used a Vitamix), blend the hazelnuts until it's at a very fine, almost paste-like consistency. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all the hazelnuts get blended.
5. Add in the melted chocolate and continue to blend. Finally, add in the warm milk mixture and blend until smooth and creamy. You can strain the mixture if you want it to be extra smooth, but I like how the hazelnuts add texture.
6. Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate!
Additional note: Don't worry if the spread seems
liquidy; it will firm up once it's chilled. :) IF it remains liquidy
even after refrigeration, you can reheat it in a pot like I did to evaporate some
of the moisture.
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| Pre-toasted hazelnuts |
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| I broke up the Ghiradelli bar into little pieces so they would melt evenly with the chocolate chips |
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| Melted chocolate, strained milk mixture, toasted hazelnuts. Ready for blending! |
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| Hazelnuts in the Vitamix |
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| Adding in the chocolate--you can see how well the hazelnuts are blended |
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| Reheating the mixture until thick and creamy (again, I had originally added 1 cup of skim milk, which was too much) |
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| Enjoying it on some toasted bread with granola on top =] |
