Monday, August 24, 2009

Easy Homemade Nutella

Nutella is one of Italy's crown culinary jewels. Well, it's not really a jewel. In fact, it's more like crack than anything. Once you have nutella, you want more, more, more. Unfortunately, the American industrial version is akin to crack-lite: passable, but nothing you would sell your mother for. Because of this, I set out to make a good, easy homemade nutella. The following is what I came up with. It's not perfect, but it certainly satisfies me and the fam for now. Enjoy, and comments are welcome.

The thing you have to keep in mind with this recipe is it’s going to taste different than Nutella from Italy. For example, the first ingredient in Italian Nutellas is zucchero (sugar), and the second is olio vegetale (vegetable oil). Hazelnuts don’t come in until number 3, and cacao is number 4, right above lowfat powdered milk. By contrast, this recipe has equal parts hazelnuts and powdered sugar, and milk is used as a thinning agent more so than vegetable oil. The result: a much more hazelnutty tasty. Keep in mind, however, you’ll never quite get that smooth absolutely consistency you get with industrial machines. But that’s okay, a little mouth feel is good.

Ingredients

1 cup of raw hazelnuts
5 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil (or some other neutral oil)
5 tablespoons whole milk, more as needed
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Toast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet for about 10 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Let the hazelnuts cool down for about five minutes, and then place the hazelnuts between two kitchen towels and rub until the skins come off (you may have to do this with your hands if they don’t cooperate). (Note: if you don't want to roast and peel the hazelnuts, just buy a bag of chopped hazelnuts at the store and blend those. They have some skin on them, but that's okay.)

Place nuts in a food processor and blend in 45 second intervals, stopping to wipe down the bowl after every interval. You should get a pretty smooth mixture after about 5 cycles, but keep in mind it won’t be as smooth as peanut butter or the Nutella you buy in the supermarket. Add the cocoa, sugar, oil, and milk, and salt and mix for another 45 seconds. If the mixture is too firm (you want it to spread easily), add another tablespoon or two of either vegetable oil or milk — your choice.

Now, enjoy. I would try to use your nutella within a week, which shouldn’t be difficult ;)

5 comments:

Lindsey said...

I'm definitely going to try this! I just don't know where to buy raw hazelnuts.

Denis said...

Does my salt have to be kosher?

Twinlinebackers said...

I'm with Lindsey. If I ever have hazelnuts I will come find your post and try it.
Never wondered this before but why hazelnuts? Why is nutella not made with almonds or cashews or ???? (Obviously I don't know hazelnuts very well).

Marco Brown said...

Lindsey, I found raw, chopped hazelnuts at Smith's. I'm sure you can buy whole ones at any whole food or organic store.

Denis, I'm not sure if you're joking, but since you don't have much of a sense of humor, I will assume you're not ;) No, it doesn't need to be kosher, but my salt was and I used 1/4 teaspoon. Since table salt has smaller granules than kosher, you'll want to use slightly less than 1/4 teaspoon.

J and M said...

If family desires for weight reduction (meaning marni desires it for herself) weren't in effect, I would eat the entire thing in one sitting. Well, not really but it sounds so so good!