Listen… Yeah, crazy mom, slathering Nutella on “healthy foods” like multigrain toast will get your kids to eat them. You can also mix Skittles into a bowl of peas!
I don’t think anyone really believes Nutella’s exactly healthy, but it sure is delicious. Sadly, it’s not vegan. It has milk whey, plus some other not too good for you ingredients. Thankfully, its chocolaty, hazelnutty goodness is pretty easy to duplicate in your own kitchen where you control what exactly goes in and what gets left out.
This recipe won’t yield an exact match as it’s almost impossible to get this homemade version as smooth as the store bought. But the flavors are definitely there and it will satisfy your strict-vegan cravings.
It’s important to find skinned hazelnuts because the skin has a bitter quality. If you can’t, after roasting them you’ll have to peel off the skins, which is a total pain and can burn your tender little fingertips. And, hey, if you can find toasted, skinned hazelnuts you get to skip the first step completely!
Ingredients
Makes about 1 ½ cups
2 cups skinned hazelnuts
1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons hazelnut liquor
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons
4 tablespoons peanut oil
Method
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit/gas mark 3. Roast hazelnuts for 10 minutes, spread out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. If you need to remove the skins, rub hazelnuts in a kitchen towel until skinned. Be extra careful not to burn yourself!
Plop hazelnuts into your food processor and blitz until a big oily ball of hazelnut meal forms around the blade. Scrape down the sides every so often if need be.
Add sugar, cocoa, liquor and vanilla to the processor and blend until combined.
Turn the processor back on and drizzle in peanut oil one tablespoon at a time until you get a creamy peanut butter consistency.
Store refrigerated, in a jar, for up to a month.
Image © Yvonne Penzakov for BitchBuzz