Crunchy Chocolate & Hazelnut Butter (a.k.a Nutella)

Believe me when I say this is better than Nutella.

Crunchy Hazelnut & Chocolate Butter sounds a lot more tempting than Nutella. No?

I had the idea of re-creating this most-loved spread by many, when I had a conversation with my mum. My mum manages a franchise of organic bulk foods stores, and one of the products they're known for is their nut butters. They are made in-house and with absolutely NOTHING but nuts. Cool right?

So this gave me inspiration to create my own nut butter right here at home. Just me and my pestle & mortar.

TIPS

You will need a pestle & mortar for this, as you can easily crush the nuts to small grains – it takes longer to do if crushing them in a zip-lock bag, but it is do-able!

If you have a food processor, I would highly recommend using this as it is effortless and speeds up the process.

PLEASE NOTE

This is a homemade nut butter with only few ingredients and no emulsifiers or preservatives. This means that your nut butter will harden over a couple of days as there are no ingredients in there to keep it smooth (like Nutella). If you find your nut butter has hardened and is no longer at spreading consistency, just add a couple of teaspoons of vegetable oil to it and give it a good stir. This should bring your nut butter back to a soft consistency.

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INGREDIENTS

180g blanched hazelnuts

360g milk chocolate (I used ordinary bars of Dairy Milk Chocolate)

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD

1. Preheat your oven to 175ºC fan, and bake the hazelnuts for about 10 minutes. Switch the oven off once the nuts have baked.

2. Once the hazelnuts are baked and slightly browned, grind them with a pestle & mortar or in a food processor until fine grains. If using a pestle & mortar, don't worry if you have slightly large chunks – this just means your butter will be a little crunchier! If you prefer a smooth spread, keep grinding until nuts are super fine. Put nuts into a medium-sized bowl and set aside.

3. Place the chocolate in a large heat-proof bowl. On low heat, bring a small pan of water (less than half filled) to a simmer. Balance the bowl on top of the pan (it shouldn't be touching the water) and gently stir the chocolate until it has completely melted.

4. Whilst waiting for the chocolate to melt, mix together the vegetable oil, cocoa powder and vanilla essence with the crushed hazelnuts with a fork until well combined.

5. Once chocolate has fully melted, turn off the heat and pour the nut mixture into the melted chocolate. Mix thoroughly. Be careful as the bowl will be hot!

6. Pour your nut butter into a jar or container and leave it out overnight/for 24 hours for it to set.

7. Enjoy in porridge, on toast, with strawberries, or on it's own on a large spoon ;)