Hey friends! We’re talking about homemade nutella today, and I’m pretty excited about it. Growing up, I never like nutella….gasp!! I know, I know, that makes me crazy. I don’t know why exactly, but I was just never a fan. As I grew older, I decided that the only rational explanation for this was that I did not like hazelnuts. I avoided them like the plague, all the way up to this winter. Then I made linzer cookies with ground hazelnuts…and loved them. Hmm…I thought, maybe I don’t hate hazelnuts?

So, here we are today. I decided to give hazelnuts another chance, and blended a bunch up with some high quality dark chocolate….and voila! A chocolate hazelnut spread that I do like.

The ingredients for this spread are simple. Hazelnuts, roasted. Then chocolate (the best you can afford/whatever tastes good to you!). The sweetener of your choice. A dash of vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

I blended everything up in my food processor, but a high powdered blender would work well too! Since we’re blending the hazelnuts into a nut butter…whatever you use needs to be able to do that. Anyway, let’s get into it!

chocolate hazelnut spread (aka homemade nutella)

recipe: Kelsey Siemens
yield: about 1 cup

ingredients

2 cups (240 g) raw, shelled hazelnuts

⅔ cup (100 g) chopped dark chocolate

1-3 tablespoons (13-38 g) granulated sugar (or the sweetener of your choice)

½ teaspoon vanilla

⅛ teaspoon salt

to make the spread

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone mat can help keep the nuts from burning, but isn’t a requirement. I often roast mine on an unlined pan too. Set a clean dish towel out on the counter beside the oven.

First we’ll roast the hazelnuts, and then we’ll wrap them in a clean dish towel while they’re still hot so that they can steam a bit, and then the skins will rub off a little easier. If your hazelnuts happen to be pre-roasted, you’ll still roast them to warm them up, but reduce the cook time by a few minutes.

Spread the hazelnuts onto a rimmed baking sheet, and bake for 10-12 minutes. Check every few minutes, and give the pan a shake to roll the hazelnuts around so the bottoms don’t get too toasty. Nuts can burn easily, so don’t walk away from these while they’re baking!

Once the hazelnuts are done, transfer them immediately to the clean dish towel, and wrap them up. Let the warm towel of nuts sit for 2-3 minutes, and then begin massaging the towel to help the skins come off of the nuts. The more skins you can remove, the smoother the spread will be. Open the towel to check your progress, and then simply use your fingers to rub any remaining skins off the nuts. Be careful as the nuts may be quite hot still. This doesn’t have to be perfect!

Transfer the hazelnuts to a food processor or a high powered blender. Start blending the hazelnuts, and stop every 30-60 seconds to give the nuts a stir with a spatula. They may stick to the sides or around the blades of whichever implement you’re using. Unplug your processor or blender when working around the blades with your hands! Continue blending for 5-7 minutes. The mixture will get smoother, and then all of a sudden it will turn into a liquid as the oils of the nuts finally release. Now we have a creamy, smooth hazelnut butter! (Note: you can always skip the chocolate and sweetener, and simply add a bit of salt to this for a great spread as well.)

Melt the chocolate (use a double boiler or simply a microwave), and add to the smooth nut mixture. Add in 1 tablespoon of sugar (or any sweetener you’d like), until the spread is sweet enough for your taste. Add the vanilla extract and salt and blend until smooth.

Place into an airtight container, and store at room temperature. The mixture will stay quite soft and spreadable, similar to natural peanut butter. You may store it in the fridge if you’d like a firmer texture, but it may become hard to spread. Let it sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes to soften up!

This spread will last about 2-3 weeks at room temperature.

Happy hazelnut spread making!