I may have a deep and abiding love for Nutella. Ironically, as I right this I’m sitting here with a jar and eating it by the spoonful. People are always sending me pins for Nutella recipes. I love it. But I’m also in love with making things from scratch, with love. I like real food, and Nutella is processed and manufactured. When I got my Blendtec I knew it was time I start making my own. I had no more excuses. I sought out to replicate the creamy spread using the best ingredients I could.
So I went to buy hazelnuts from the bulk section of my grocery store and I found what I could have sworn were hazelnuts, but were labeled filberts. I’d never heard of filberts so I went home empty handed, still swearing they looked exactly like hazelnuts. I looked it up and discovered that filberts were another name for hazelnuts. When I went back to the store I saw that the label included hazelnuts in small print and parenthesis. Boy did I feel dumb.
The original ingredients listed on a jar of Nutella are sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa, skim milk, reduced minerals whey (milk), lecithin as emulsifier (soy), vanillin: an artificial flavor. I’m not going to mass produce and sell it so I nixed the emulsifier. Since I’m making it from scratch and fresh I also decided to up the game and use heavy cream instead of milk, and real milk chocolate instead of cocoa. Guys, this stuff is good. It is quality, luxurious, and decadent. Is it the same? No, the texture it is a bit different as it doesn’t have that really smooth and oily feel. You can add palm oil, but I kind of like it without. Nevertheless, I know my Nutella and the taste is spot on.
Time to Make It: 10 minutes
Yield: about 2 cups
Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 pound (8 oz) milk chocolate, roughly chopped
2 cups hazelnuts
2 TB palm oil (optional)
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread hazelnuts out on a baking sheet. Roast for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and put in a plastic bag. Shake to remove skins. Pick out the skinned hazelnuts and discard the skins.
3. Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan, heat heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once it reaches a simmer, remove from heat pour over the chocolate in a medium-size mixing bowl.
2. In a high powdered blender (like Blendtec) or a heavy duty food processor, process hazelnuts with palm oil (optional) until it reaches a smooth consistency.
3. Combine the chocolate mixture with the hazelnut butter in the blender or processor. Blend until smooth.
4. Store in an airtight container (like a canning jar) in the refrigerator.
Oh, I like this, I always prefer to make my own compared to opening a jar.