Nutella is another one of those foreign things that was forbidden from the house when we were younger. Our cruel parents refused to let us bring chocolate sandwiches to school every day. My sugar obsessed sister longed for it desperately, and was lucky to receive a jar of it in her stocking each year at Christmas (I would get a jar of cheez whiz, much better). We would then proceed to ration our jars all year. If only the most recent nutella commercials had aired back in the day- the ones which revealed it as a “healthy alternative”. After all, its just “hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa”, right? They got sued for that commercial.
As a loving and caring older sister, I thought I would make a homemade jar of it for her this year for Christmas. Except I found that most recipes I found involved melting copious amounts of chocolate into the mix, which I thought was cheating. I wanted to try and prove that nutella could be somewhat healthy, and maybe even make Ferrero (owners of nutella) feel better about themselves. This is what I ended up with…
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups hazelnuts (or ‘filberts’…I think/hope they are the same thing)
- 4 tsp powdered sugar
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- 2-3 tsp coconut oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
Roast the hazelnuts in the oven at about 350′ for 10-15 minutes. The whole point of this is to try and loosen the skins a bit, and make them easier to rub off (which I do in a tea towel). Not all of the skins will come off, unless you’ve got really sharp nails or too much time on your hands, and that’s ok. Once most of the skins are off, blend them in a food processor until it gets to a butter-like consistency. Then add all the rest of the ingredients, and blend it all again until its nice and smooth.
[...] addition to my edible gift box I gave away for Christmas, in addition to homemade almond butter, nutella, peaches and cream granola and dry soup mix (recipes to come). It was an easy, slightly sweet and [...]