Nutella (photo courtesy of Nutella.com)The week after Christmas, I was gifted some leftover hazelnuts that a friend of mine was going to throw away. I have to admit, the concept of cooking with hazelnuts is pretty new to me, but when she said she had them, the first thing that came to my mind was Nutella.

Ahh, Nutella – your creamy, chocolatey, nutty goodness is unlike any other. I wasn’t sure if a homemade version could even do justice to the kind in the jar, since I already had such a love for it. But it most definitely did. Here is the recipe I followed.

Homemade Nutella (Adapted from Instructables):

Ingredients

  • 7 ounces of hazelnuts
  • 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
  • 9 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup fat free milk (heated)

Directions

1. Toast hazelnuts in a saute pan over low to medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Nuts should smell roasted, not burnt.Toasting Hazelnuts for Nutella

2. Let hazelnuts cool, and then remove the skins. This is a fairly tedious process, but worthwhile to avoid the bitter taste they would add to your Nutella.

3. Place hazelnuts in a food processor, and process until they become the consistency of peanut butter, scraping the edge of the bowl frequently. I forgot to take a picture at this point in the process, so this photo is courtesy of Instructables.Hazelnut Butter (photo courtesy of Instructibles)

4. Melt chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl on a low power setting for 2 minutes at a time, stirring after each 2 minutes, until melted. Stir sweetened condensed milk into melted chocolate.

5. Combine chocolate mixture with hazelnut spread until fully combined. Texture will be thick.

6. Stir in warm milk a little at a time until spread reaches your desired consistency.

And voila! Nutella! Homemade Nutella

Stay tuned for my post next week (celebrating World Nutella Day!) with a delicious recipe I plan to bake up using this tasty treat. Assuming I don’t eat it all with a spoon before I make it to next week :)

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Filed under: Chocolate • Leftovers

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