Homemade Nutella (Dairy Free)

We eat a fair share of Nutella in our house. My husband is a Dutch citizen. Our son is a Dutch citizen (as well as American). I'm not going to call it a health food, but Nutella is a mainstay in our home, and for the sake of our marriage, I'm not going to fight Dutch tradition! For the record, Dutchies also put chocolate sprinkles--called hagelslag--on their sandwiches, so you can see what I'm up against.

Our son's dairy allergy was the incentive I needed to find a safe Nutella alternative for our house. It took a few tries until I came up with this recipe, with which I'm quite satisfied. It tastes great, isn't overly sweet, and spreads easily. It does lack the glossy texture of the processed version. Then again, this version doesn't have more palm oil than hazelnuts, either!

Side note: Here is the ingredient list for Nutella, from the Nutella website:

If you've seen the peanut butter recipe I posted a little awhile ago, many of these steps will look familiar because it's basically a glammed up nut butter. 

To make this Nutella, you'll need:

• 2 cups hazelnuts
• 1-1/2 Tablespoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup Dutch cocoa (or cocoa powder)
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons coconut oil (optional)
• up to 1/4 cup almond milk

Step 1:

Roast two cups raw hazelnuts at 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll them around a bit until they are in a single layer on a baking sheet and  keep them cooking until they start to sweat and turn light brown,about 12 minutes. (If you buy roasted hazelnuts, you can skip this step).

Step 2: 

Let the hazelnuts cool for about ten minutes before adding them to the food processor. 

Step 3:

Blend. I find that hazelnuts need a little more time to turn to butter than peanuts, but the process is the same. You'll want to stop the processor every 30 seconds or so to scrape down the sides. Here we are at one minute. The hazelnuts went from whole, to chopped, to crumbly. It's important that you process the almonds by themselves first. This allows the oil in the hazelnuts to release and turn the powder into butter. 

Step 4:

Add 1-1/2 Tablespoon vanilla. (I made my own. Super easy. I'll have to post about that soon, too). 

Step 5:

Add 1/4 cup Dutch cocoa. I'm very spoiled in that our recent guests from the Netherlands just brought me some Droste Dutch processed cocoa and I prefer it to natural processed cocoa. (You can read about the difference between the two here). 

Step 6: 

Most recipe for homemade Nutella call for 1/2 cup (or more!) of powdered sugar. I prefer to use honey or maple syrup as sweetener. I chose maple syrup for this recipe because of its thinner consistency. 

Step 7: 

Add 1/4 teaspoon salt. You can also add the 2 teaspoons coconut oil at this point, but it's optional. Lately I've been skipping it.

Step 8: 

Blend for 10-30 seconds. At this point, the texture is a little too thick. 

Step 9:

I've learned from experience that oil will not smooth out the texture at this point, but almond milk will (or regular, if you don't need to avoid dairy). Nut butters can be temperamental, so each batch is different. I start with a couple Tablespoons and add slowly under it reaches the desired consistency.

Step 10: 

In my experience, it could take anywhere from 2 Tablespoons to 1/4 cup milk to reach the perfect texture. After that, it tends to get soupy and watered down.When your Nutella looks like chocolate frosting, you've added enough milk.  In fact, I often use it as frosting for my son's cupcakes when he needs a safe treat for school or parties. 

Eet smakelijk!

Other recipes you might like:

• Homemade Peanut Butter
• Crockpot Hutspot (Dutch comfort food)
• Make Your Own Grain Mixes
• Zucchini Chips
• Crockpot Jerk Chicken
• Homemade non-dairy ice cream--without an ice cream maker.

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