homemade nutella-healthy hazelnut chocolate spread

This is going to be the only homemade Nutella recipe you’ll need. It is super tasty, chocolaty, perfectly sweetened, spreadable, dairy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar free, and vegan. No guilt involved!

My kids were obsessed with Nutella!

We used to have it for breakfast all the time. But I also felt guilty every time.

As many of you may know, Nutella is full of sugar (57%) and palm oil (more explained below) and does not contain much of hazelnut or chocolate (see source 0).

I’ve tried many recipes of homemade Nutella, they are either too coarse, or too hard to spread, or taste like a nut butter, the result is my kids won’t eat any.

I’ve been working on this homemade Nutella recipe FOREVER! And it has been improved a bunch over time. My kids now ask only for HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE for their toasts, and never ever want the industrial version anymore.

If it was up to me, I would continue to improve the recipe. But my dear friend Vivian convinced me to share it right now! She is totally not into sweet food, but after trying my homemade Nutella, she was wowed. She said I need to set up a little stand and sell them at the farmer’s market.

It is super tasty, chocolaty, perfectly sweetened, spreadable, dairy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar free, and vegan.

And the best part, you can bring it to camping (if it’s your thing :-). Have you ever tried to scoop some Nutella out of a jar on a chilly morning? Nutella will be rocking solid and unspreadable under 3Fº. I know it may not be a problem for everyone, but it’s a big bonus for us since we do camp a lot.

Now let me explain a little bit about my selection of ingredients and how to make it properly to achieve a smooth and spreadable consistency.

1. You need raw hazelnut kernels with minimum processing ($14.99/lb). I added some raw whole almonds ($6.55/lb) and like this combination, it also keeps the cost down. But you can use exclusively hazelnuts if you prefer (1 1/2cup (230g)). Since we may not use the same source of hazelnuts and almonds, they can vary a lot in sizes, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients. Another advantage of using kitchen scale is that you’ll dirty fewer measuring cups and spoons, so less mess to clean up.

Here are the hazelnuts I use regularly, which are on the smaller side:

How to tell hazelnuts are properly toasted?

The skin of the hazelnut will be cracked and you can smell fragrance coming from the oven :-). The inside of the hazelnuts should stay cream/white color. If it’s dark brown or black you’ve over toasted them and they will be bitter. So watch it closely while toasting hazelnuts for the first time.

IMPORTANT: You DO NOT need to remove the peel away from hazelnuts after toasting! Hazelnut peel is rich in polyphenol antioxidants. Let’s keep all the goodies in, shall we?

TIP: The best way to conserve nuts is keeping them in airtight containers or Ziploc in the freezer.

2. I also added some flaxseed meal which is rich in Omega-3 essential fatty acids. I’ve been incorporating flaxseed in a lot of my recipes. Sometimes it is not easy, my kids can taste it from smoothies (yes, they are that picky considering I put only 1 tbsp in every 2 cups). But in this hazelnut chocolate spread, you won’t taste any of the finished product. 🙂

3. When you use a food processor to make the recipe, remember first process the hazelnuts and almonds into a nut butter consistency before adding liquid ingredients. That’s the key to a smooth consistency. (I’ll update and add a version made by blender soon).

4. For chocolate I added both unsweetened chocolate and cocoa powder, the difference is the former contains cacao butter but not the latter. A lot of recipes use only cocoa powder, which can result in a coarser and drier texture.

The 2 brands I use and love are Ghirardelli 100% Cacao unsweetened chocolate ($28.98$/6 4-oz bars) and Hershey’s unsweetened baking bar($13.9/6 4-oz bars). Both of them are vegan.

Since the chocolate and cocoa butter are unsweetened, we added quite a bit maple syrup as a sweetener. I normally use the full 3/4 cup since that’s the sweetness that suits my kids’ taste, but you can use less. The importance is to taste it before you adding more.

TIP: If you are using a microwave to melt the chocolate alone, the best way is to grate the chocolate since microwave heats unevenly. But in this recipe, we are adding the chocolate into a large amount of liquid (almond milk), you can get away just by roughly chopping the chocolate or even breaking the chocolate into pieces by hands. Just remember to stop the microwave periodically and whisk the mixture to ensure the chocolate evenly melting.

5. Cold pressed avocado oil is probably a strange ingredient you might think. But the reason commercial Nutella is so smooth is the oil inside. But palm oil is not a good oil choice because of carcinogenic contaminants created during high heat refining process (see source 1), and its negative impact on the environment (rainforest destruction, orangutan extinction, see source 2,3).

BTW, I don’t promote a low-fat diet. I believe in consuming good sources of fat is essential for a human.

I encourage you to avoid vegetable oil, palm oil, soy oil, canola oil and replace them with extra virgin olive oil, grape seeds oil, coconut oil, MCT oil, avocado oil. The avocado oil is now readily available and affordable, it tastes great and can be used as a high heat (up to 500Fº) cooking oil. You can even make it at home. It requires minimal processing (See source 4,5).

Without further ado, let jump into making this truly tasty and healthy chocolate hazelnut spread that is: chocolaty, perfectly sweetened, spreadable, dairy-free, refined sugar free, and vegan.

Enjoy!

xo, Qi

homemade nutella-healthy hazelnut chocolate spread

homemade Nutella-healthy chocolate hazelnut spread

Prep 20 mins

Inactive 10 mins

Total 30 mins

Author Qi

Yield 4 cups

Ingredients

1 heaping cup (160g) of hazelnuts*
1/2 cup (70g) almonds
2 tbsp (15g) Flaxseed meal
1 tablet (110g) unsweetened chocolate (100% cacao), chopped into small pieces or grated
1 1/4 cup (300g) almond milk
3 tbsps (20g) unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
3 tbsps (30g) avocado oil**
1/2-3/4 cup (150-225g) maple syrup

Instructions

Put hazelnuts and almond on a baking tray, toast them in the oven at 375Fº for 8-10 minutes, until the hazelnuts’ skin is browned and cracked but the inside stayed white.
While the nuts are toasting, chop or grate the chocolate into small pieces.
In a microwave-safe bowl or measuring cup, mix the almond milk with the chocolate pieces. Heat the bowl them in the microwave and heat at 50% power for 1 minutes, mix the liquid halfway, add 10 seconds increment if the chocolate is not completely melted. (Handle carefully it can be very hot.)
Add cocoa powder and pinch of salt in the chocolate/almond milk mixer while it’s still hot, and blend well.
In the bowl of a food processor, add the hazelnuts and almonds, process until the mixer turns into nut butter texture. Then add flaxseed meal and pulse a few times to blend it in.
Turn the food processor on, while it’s running, add chocolate mixer gradually through the feeding tube, then add avocado oil and 1/2 cup of maple syrup. Process about 30 seconds.
Stop the machine, taste the mixer, add more maple syrup if needed.
Pour the mixture into four 8 oz jars and let them cool slightly on the kitchen counter, after which they can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Notes

For a non-vegan version, you can use cow milk instead of almond milk, or milk chocolate/semi-sweet chocolate instead of 100% cocoa pure chocolate (adjust sweetener quantity accordingly).

*Since we may have a different size of hazelnuts, I recommend you use a kitchen scale for the best result.

**You can use any kind oil that doesn’t have a strong flavor such as MCT oil, grapeseed oil. I don’t recommend using canola oil, vegetable oil, peanut oil.