Roasted hazelnut chocolate spread (vegan/dairy-free)
Who doesn’t like a good hazelnut-chocolate spread on a fresh slice of French bread or on pancakes and waffles? For breakfast, as a snack, whatever the reason, it is always irresistible! However, between the varieties with palm oil, those with way too much sugar or the ones with crazy unhealthy and scary ingredients, it is hard to find the perfect spread! Also, if you know me well, you probably know that I always prefer to make something myself rather than getting the store-bought version. For this hazelnut chocolate spread, which contains three ingredients only, I started with a spread recipe that my Mom used to make for us when we were little, and I substituted the butter and condensed milk for hazelnut butter and hazelnut “milk”, which makes it lactose-free and packed with healthy nuts. You can buy already-made hazelnut butter in some organic stores, but it can get really pricey, plus I wanted to make sure that the hazelnuts would be roasted to enhance their taste. For this step I followed the instructions from this cool French blog, and was surprised to realized how easy it is to make your own nut butter! Made me think about starting to make my own peanut or almond butter (you just need a good food processor). Once the hazelnut chocolate spread is all done, you can store it at room temperature for about at least one week, or in the refrigerator for a lot longer. Just remember to bring it to room temperature right before using so it isn’t too hard to spread easily.
Makes 5 small jars (or 3 medium size jars) -I made a bunch and shared with the whole family:
- 14 ounces (400gr) hazelnut kernels
- 3 ½ cups (600gr) dark or semi sweet chocolate chips (vegan if needed)
- 1 ¼ to 1 ½ (300 to 350ml) unsweetened hazelnut “milk” (I used rice/hazelnut milk but there are other kinds that could work as well like almond/hazelnut for example)
Start by roasting the hazelnuts: preheat oven to 160°C/320°F, place hazelnuts kernels on a flat baking sheet in a single layer, and roast for about 10′. Allow hazelnuts to cool, then rub nuts in a towel or with your fingers to remove loose skins. Most skins should come off really easily after being roasted. Don’t worry if some don’t come off, there can be a little remaining. Then, make the hazelnut butter: scoop hazelnuts into the bowl of a food processor (I did it with only 1/3 of the hazelnuts at a time), and pulse until it turns first into a powder, then into a ‘butter’ (texture of peanut butter -see picture), scraping down sides from time to time. The time it takes will depend on your food processor, but with my average one it went really quickly -about 1′ (although from what I read in other recipes it may take a lot longer than that so don’t give up if it takes a few more minutes). And that’s it for the hazelnut butter!
Next step, melt chocolate chips with hazelnut milk in a double boiler. Once it is melted and smooth, take mixture out off double boiler and blend in the hazelnut butter, mixing well. Aaaand you’re all done! Transfer the spread into clean jars and allow to cool.
I’d like to try some variations using different types of nuts (like peanuts or almonds) or other sorts of chocolate (white or milk)… I’ll keep you posted about how it turns out! Let me know if you try this recipe or experiment with other ingredients, I’d love to hear all about it!
