Nutella

Nutella is the best thing since sliced bread. Nutella on sliced bread is indescribable.
Unfortunately, the store-bought kind is less than 13% nuts. I don't mean to bash Nutella, but really, Ferrero? It's supposed to be a hazelnut spread. The first two ingredients are sugar and palm oil.
But it's just. So. Good.
I resolved to find a recipe for homemade Nutella. The moment I got my hands on some hazelnuts and almonds, I began.

Nutella (from worldplates.wordpress.com)
Makes about 10 ounces, which isn't as much as you might think.

Ingredients:


3/4 cups whole raw hazelnuts
1/2 cup whole raw almonds
1/3 cup powdered sugar

How can something so delicious have so few ingredients?

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vegetable oil, chocolate milk, or Aunt Mona's Fudge Sauce

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread hazelnuts on one side of a baking pan and almonds on the other.

Toast for 12-15 minutes; until the hazelnut skins are almost black and you can smell the nuts. Stir nuts several times during toasting, keeping separate.

Allow nuts to cool on baking pan.

Sandwich hazelnuts in a clean dishtowel and rub off skins.

Remove as many remaining skins as you can with you fingers. Some skins will be embedded on the nut, and that's fine. Just be sure to get the majority.

Process nuts in a food processor until they turn into a nut butter. They go from a fine meal to the butter stage very quickly, so be sure to watch them.

The nuts can touch now.

Add sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla and whirl until combined.

If mixture forms a ball around the blade or seems otherwise too thick, add a little of your liquid of choice. (Use chocolate milk or fudge sauce for a more chocolately spread; use oil for a more nutty spread.) Don't thin it up too much, though.

Store in fridge for up to 2 months.


This spread is addicting. I've put it on graham crackers, bread, and I may have dipped a spoon in there once or twice. Don't judge me.

How can you resist something so delicious-looking?

It tastes like hazelnuts with a hint (well, more than a hint) of chocolate. I used oil, but it would be more chocolaty with chocolate milk or fudge sauce. I didn't think of using the chocolate milk/sauce until after I made it. My brain can be annoying like that.
By my calculations, this spread is 80% nuts. 60% of the spread is hazelnuts alone. Take THAT, Ferrero! The texture is a little grainy because the food processor couldn't quite break down the nuts completely, but I'm sure that if you run it for a bit it would be smoother. Despite that, everyone in my family loved my homemade Nutella. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before my brothers start putting it into their cereal instead of peanut butter...

P.S. My mom and I just got a new ice cream maker. And my brother is getting his wisdom teeth out soon... That means LOTS of ice cream! Yay!