Nutella, hazelnut-chocolate spread, could easily be the one of the most favourite chocolate spreads commercially available across the globe. It has many fans in kids and adults alike, who love it in many forms be it in desserts, milk shakes or spoon-full from the jar straight.
In equal parts are the many images and articles floating on social media about how unhealthy its ingredients are. The veritas of these maybe questionable, but the presence of preservatives and chemicals is undeniable nonetheless.
My teenage son loves Nutella and frankly as many parents of teenagers would agree, we have to pick our battles with this species. :) Me being DIY obsessed decided to give it a shot at home. I thought what can go wrong, at the most I'll have to junk it, but if it works I would have hit gold.. Chocolate gold..
And Gold is what I hit.. in no time at that. It took precisely 20 minutes from the scratch. And then I guilt tripped for 40 minutes for not having done this eons ago. Anyhoo.. with out much ado.. sharing the step-by-step, 6 ingredient recipe with you. I can assure you, you will not need to buy another jar again.
Homemade- Vegan, almost sugar free Nutella
Ingredients
- 200 gms Hazelnut- without skin
- 150 gms your choice of Chocolate
- 2 tbsp Cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp Powdered sugar
- 1 tsp Corn flour
- 1 tsp Vanilla essense
- 1 tbsp Extra virgin Coconut oil (pref cold pressed)
Method
- Roast Hazelnuts at 200 degree C, in the oven for 5-7 minutes, till golden brown. Make sure you dont leave it unassisted, it may burn. Shake it a couple of times so it is roasted evenly. I bought hazelnuts on Amazon. They came without the skin. Incase you use with skin, remove while warm by rubbing them vigorously with a cloth towel to remove as much of the skin as possible.
- Blend the hazelnuts in a high powder food processor, till the smooth peanut buttery texture. I used the small chutney jar, since this is a small batch recipe.
at first it will be grainy in texture
- Subsequently it will become smooth paste when the hazelnuts release its butter.
much smoother in consistency
- Melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, 30 seconds at a time and give it a good whip when its still looking unmelted. If you don't have a microwave, use a double boiler.
- Now add all the ingredients to the same blender and give it a good whip.
add all the ingredients, together.
- In no time it should look like the store bought spread.
it should look like this in about 30-45 seconds
Your Vegan Nutella is ready
& voila.. its home made, vegan, almost sugar free, preservative free
- Use this as a spread on toast with bananas, strawberries or just as is.
- Add on top of crepes ( also super easy to make)
- Make a quick Nutella milk shake
- Or use in cake as icing
- Many eat it as is from the jar, I hear
Few tips
- Next time I may omit the the sugar completely. Personally I am happy with the sweetness from the dark chocolate, but since this was for my son, I was more indulgent.
- I added the corn flour, because I read in many recipes they use icing sugar, which is nothing but powdered sugar with cornflour. I thought it may have a role to play in the texture, but I highly doubt it. I wil definitely omit this next time too.
- I used cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil, but normal cooking oil is ok too, its just 1 tbsp after all. Next time I may just omit it especially if I want to make a fat free avatar.
- I used Sprungli 70% dark swiss chocolate I had lying at home, but I think even normal milk chocolate will do. Cooking chocolate should be ideal though.
- I used Rostaa Pouch, Hazelnuts, 200g, from Amazon. I am normally skeptical about buying hazelnuts in India, since they may be rancid. So I tasted it before I used it. If you dont want to use the oven, can also pan roast the nuts till they release their aroma and turn a rich golden.
It's my belief that home made and hand made is the best, just like old times. And the quality of ingredients play a very large part in any dish. Which is why I am inclining to making most sauces etc myself as far as possible, which is what lead to me the Nutella quest. Next up will definately be my own Almond and Cashew Butter.