Servings: 15 · Prep Time: 15 mins · Cooking Time: 0 mins
Total Time: 15 mins

Snacks | Desserts | Sauces

Did you know that a standard 440g jar of Nutella contains a staggering 249g of sugar. That works out as a 37 gram serving of sugar in every two tablespoons, or a whopping 57 cubes per jar. Worrying? The alternative options have the same amount of sugar and the supermarket own brands are even higher. Sugar is the number one ingredient on the nutrition label, which means that there is more sugar in the jar than any other ingredient. This homemade chocolate hazelnut spread is a perfect alternative to the high sugar shop bought products. It is loved by the whole family. Enjoy a dollop on some seed based "granola", over yoghurt or drizzled over some strawberry pieces. Our favourite way to enjoy it is on some brown toasted low carb bread - it tastes amazing and yet doesn't send you on a blood sugar rollercoaster, which is amazing. It is smooth, decadent and delicious. We tend to avoid adding sweeteners, as the hazelnut butter creates a natural sweetness, but if you do want to add something sweet then please read the notes on the recipe.

Ingredients

INGREDIENTS

  • hazelnuts, roasted (blanched hazelnuts are suggested) (280g)
  • cocoa powder, unsweetened (2 tbsp)
  • OPTIONAL: sweetener or sugar, powdered (2 tsp)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.
Place hazelnuts on a baking tray and bake for approximately 5-7 minutes until lightly toasted. If they still have the skins on they will probably need a little more time but they will be slightly blistered once toasted.
Keep a close eye on them as you don't want them to burn!
Allow to fully cool on the side. If the hazelnuts have skins, you can flake these off as much as possible by just rubbing them through your hands.
Place in a high powered blender and blend at the highest speed. You will need to scrape the sides every so often. It will go from whole nut, to ground nut, to thick butter, to a thin pourable butter. The time it will take to do this will vary, depending on the style of your blender. Anything high powered could take as little as 3 mins, or something slower could take much longer, but you just need to persevere.
Add the cocoa powder and pulse until fully conbined. Have a taste. If you want to add powdered sugar or sweetener do so now and continue to blend until fully mixed in.
Have another taste. Add extra cocoa if needed.
Pour in to a jar.
Seal.
Enjoy.

NOTES

You just need a high-speed blender (this is important), it needs to be powerful and able to grind through nuts. I recommend roasting the nuts first which will help speed up the butter takes about 7 mins at 180c. I used nuts with a skin on so once roasted I rubbed them through my hands to remove as much of the skin as I could. But, this isn't necessary. You can also buy blanched hazelnuts (which are more expensive), but don't have any skin.

Sweetener / sugar.
If you add sweetener, then add � tsp at a time (recommend powdered) and then try it, and see if you want more. If you use a liquid / sugar like honey, then you may find the consistency of the butter changes. You will need to continue to blend until you get it back to a pourable consistency / or consistency you like.
If you use a granulated sugar / sweetener, you will have crunchy bits in your mix, so best to use powdered.
If your blender is struggling and it isn't going to a thin butter then your options are to add � a tablespoon of coconut oil or other nut based oil. This will help.

PHOTOS

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