GF
SF
SF
GF
Hazelnut-chocolate spread
Difficulty level: easy
Preparation time
Baking time
When is it ready?
10 minutes
-
10 minutes
What I felt is the most important in making this spread at home was two-fold - that I'll be free to have dairy-free hazelnut chocolate spread anytime I want! (what's with the dairy in every single hazelnut-chocolate spread out there??) and I'll be making a clean-labeled spread for my kids and us, free of chemicals, palm oil and preservatives. The chocolate chips are somewhat processed, true, but this is nothing compared to the list of ingredients you would find in similar store-available products.
So for this recipe you would need to use roasted skinless hazelnuts. It's so much easier to just buy them ready to use, but if you can't seem to find roasted skinless hazelnuts, no worries.
You can roast them at 400F/200C for 10 minutes, and then place them in a clean kitchen towel, cover them with another kitchen towel and rub them until the skin is off. Most importantly, use fresh and tasty hazelnuts... I had my share with making this spread with moldy hazelnuts.. yikes!
Blending the hazelnuts
Add the melted chocolate
Ingredients
340g (12oz) roasted hazelnuts, without the skin
100g (3.3oz) dairy-free chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)
Let's get blending!
Once you got your skinless roasted hazelnuts, place them in a food processor with a steel blade, and process them for about 2 minutes or until a creamy paste is received. Preferably, use a high-quality blender or food processor, so that the end-texture will be smooth.
In a microwave, cook the chocolate chips for 30 seconds, stir and cook for 30 more seconds. Stir again and repeat until you get a smooth liquid chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the hazelnut bowl and mix well. You don't need anything else! Just chocolate and hazelnuts, and you got yourself a clean-labeled homemade vegan hazelnut-chocolate spread!
Alternatively, you can use Baker's cocoa powder, which is unsweetened but also comprises cocoa only! This is not the case for other powders I checked, as most of them comprise multiple reagents, which I in general try my best to avoid. If you do end up using Baker's cocoa powder, make sure to add sugar to get a sweet spread (amount of sugar will be determined according to your taste, as well as the amount of cocoa. I like the hazelnut flavor more dominant, and a lighter color for the spread, so I wouldn't add so much cocoa, but it's per each person's taste, so I'll leave it up to you to decide!).