nutella

Whats better than Nutella?
Homemade Nutella.

What’s better than Homemade Nutella?
Nutella make with additions of dark chocolate, Valrhona cocoa powder and roasted cacao nibs. Oh, yes.

I remember eating Nutella from the jar in college when I needed to study late into the night, hoping that the sugar will work its magic. While I still adore Nutella (clearly, because I have even categorised recipes on this blog based on that), I find them a tad too sweet to eat off the spoon. Not willing to give up that pleasure, I resorted to make Nutella at home with dark chocolate to balance the milk chocolate that goes into the jarred Nutella and did not add any additional sugar. This, my friends, must be heaven on a spoon.

When I was reading up recipes for homemade Nutella on the internet, I came across a bunch of them that has way too much icing sugar or used honey (and I’m pretty sure would taste nothing like Nutella!) so I just sat down and put together recipes starting with the ingredients I’d like to use. It tasted absolutely fantastic, but if I’m going to be calling it Nutella, I need to work a little more to attain that smooth texture.

Also, these make such wonderful gifts for the season in little jars!

Homemade Nutella

½ cup / 100g (approx.) hazelnuts, skinned and toasted
50g / 2oz. dark chocolate
50g / 2oz. milk chocolate
1 tbsp cocoa powder
½  a vanilla bean, split and scraped
1 tbsp cacao nibs
1 tbsp hazelnut oil (you could use any flavourless oil if you don’t have this at hand)

1. Grind the toasted hazelnuts in a food processor until thoroughly pulverised.
2. In a bowl set over simmering water, melt the dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla bean innards. Mix until evenly incorporated.
3. Stir in the ground hazelnuts and cacao nibs.
4. Add a tablespoon of hazelnut oil to bring it all together.
5. Transfer to a sterilised jar and lick off the rest of the bowl when no one’s watching.

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