Nutella is one of my favourite foods. I love pairing it with peanut butter and apple slices as a pudding or a snack, which is basically what I would have most afternoons when I came home from school (when I was still in school). But then, I found out that ferrero who make nutella didn’t use sustainable palm oil, so I stopped eating it. Ferrero now lead the way for buyers of palm oil in sustainability, so I started eating it again. When I was looking for more foods to make plant based, I looked at the ingredients list for the first time and realised that it contained milk. This didn’t particularly bother me, but I couldn’t really understand why when there was already milk chocolate in it. So, after thinking about how many jars I was buying, the fact it contained dairy and seeing really simple recipes for it, I decided to give making it myself a go. The result? It’s delicious.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of raw hazelnuts (you can use roasted hazelnuts, but I think that the raw ones have more flavour)
- 1/2 cup dark or milk chocolate (if you want this to be vegan, make sure your chocolate is vegan)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
Method:
- If your hazelnuts are raw, you need to roast them. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees c and roast them on a tray for about 10-15 minutes. If you smell burning, check on them! If you have roasted hazelnuts, just heat them up for about 5 minutes instead.
- Next you need to remove the skins. This is the same method as with the peanuts from my peanut butter recipe – just put them in a tea towel and shake them around.
- Next, put your hazelnuts in a food processor or blender and blend them until they form a paste. This should be relatively liquid, if it’s not you need to keep blending. Once it’s blended, add the salt and vanilla extract.
- Next, melt your chocolate, either in the microwave or using a bain marie (if you’re feeling fancy)
- Then, add your chocolate a little at a time to your hazelnut mixture, stirring as you go.
- Give it a taste! If it isn’t sweet enough, you can add some powdered sugar, sweetener or maple syrup to taste. Be careful not to add too much liquid sweetener though, as this will make the mixture rock hard.
- Store in a jar and keep at room temperature for a few weeks.
That’s it! This goes really well with the peanut butter recipe I shared the other week – why not try the two together? Soon I’ll try baking with them and let you know how that goes. I hope you give this recipe a try – enjoy!
Waste Makes Waste 