Easy Homemade Nutella

I bet you are a Nutella lover! You are not alone… You won´t believe how easy it is to make your own Homemade Nutella! Whether the stores run out of Nutella or perhaps you are looking for a healthier alternative (that is still crazy delicious), this is the ultimate Easy Homemade Nutella recipe you can make in literally 15 minutes using a few simple ingredients. This Nutella is smooth, has a deep nutty flavour with deep cocoa afternotes. It is sophisticated, sweet but very well balanced in sweetness compared to store bought Nutella. My favourite Nutella ever!

Some important notes regarding the INGREDIENTS of this Homemade Nutella

1. Hazelnut: Nutella is effectively a chocolate hazelnut spread so you will definitely need hazelnut to make it. You have two options: either buy raw whole hazelnut with skin on it, roast it yourself then then process the nuts in a food processor until smooth – for this option you will need a food processor and the stronger the food processor is the smoother the hazelnut spread will become. Other option is to purchase hazelnut butter or hazelnut spread that contains 100% hazelnut. Both work, choose your preference
2. Chocolate: You will need some good quality milk chocolate to make Nutella, the one I am using is Callebaut Milk Chocolate (callets). Chocolate has two function in this homemade Nutella recipe, on one hand it gives the chocolate taste everyone loves, on the other hand it also provides texture. Chocolate is solid on room temp so it will make your Nutella thicker and effectively less runny
3. Sugar: Everyone knows that store bought Nutella is quite packed with sugar. You can make this homemade Nutella either with or without sugar, depends on your preference, if using please use powder sugar. From a taste point of you it is obviously more similar to the original Nutella if you use sugar however from a texture point of view it is not strictly necessary. The sugar I state in the recipe gives mild sweetness. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my article in here
4. Cocoa powder: Use dark, so called Dutched processed unsweetened cocoa powder
5. Salt: An essential ingredient in most of the dessert recipes. Balances flavour and enhances other ingredients
6. Vanilla: Please avoid using artificial vanilla, use organic pure vanilla extract if you can access it
7. Some sort of fat: Now this is totally optional and largely depends on how much fat get released as you process the hazelnut. If you feel that your mixture is too thick, use one tablespoon of oil eg. hazelnut oil or even melted butter however if there is enough fat in your hazelnut paste mixture, this can be left out

4 Tips regarding the TECHNIQUE of making this Homemade Nutella

This is literally a 10 minutes recipe so not much can go wrong! I have a few tips though:

1. How to roast hazelnut

Roasting hazelnut is an absolute must. Roasting brings out their flavour and always recommended whenever you work with nuts.

Pre-heat oven to 200C / 392F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. Place hazelnuts on the sheet. Roast for 10 minutes. Easy! Monitor the colour of the hazelnut towards the end as you want it to turn golden brown and the skin to loosen up but make sure you do not burn the hazelnut. Remove the tray from the oven and transfer hazelnut onto a clean kitchen towel. While hazelnut is still warm gently rub the nuts with the towel until the skin comes of properly.

2. How to make hazelnut paste / butter

For making hazelnut paste all you need is a good quality food processor that will process hazelnut until finely ground. Hazelnut will start to release some oil in about 5 minutes then becomes a smooth paste.

Now truth is that unless you have a good quality food processor you won´t be able to make hazelnut paste or it won´t become smooth enough. Alternatively buy the hazelnut paste from store or online, make sure you purchase 100% hazelnut.

3. How to make Homemade Nutella

All you need to do is to mix all ingredients in the food processor or blender! Once hazelnut paste is ready, add cocoa powder, powder sugar, salt, melted chocolate, vanilla extract and process the mixture for another minute and done!

Tip 1.: melt chocolate in the microwave but make sure you do not over-heat it. Milk chocolate temp should not go above 45C

Tip 2: if mixture is too thick, add in 1 tablespoon of oil or melted butter

4. How to use Homemade Nutella

Use it exactly the same way as you would use store bought Nutella! You can use it on cupcakes, pancakes, cheesecake or eat it straight out of the jar to lift your mood! I have an amazing Nutella Babka recipe too, dangerously delicious and totally addictive, you have to try it!