Homemade Ferrero Rocher recipe

This Homemade Ferrero Rocher recipe is seriously the most delicious chocolate bonbon ever: a whole roasted hazelnut in the heart, a delicious creamy hazelnut filling around, all covered with chocolate and crunchy hazelnut pieces. 

Have you ever wondered home to make Ferrero Rocher truffles at home? Making homemade chocolate truffles like this Ferrero Rocher is actually super easy and they are the perfect treat for holidays. It can be also a thoughtful homemade gift, ditch the supermarket versions!

Jump to:

• 💡 What is Ferrero Rocher?
• 🌟 Why this is the best recipe
• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
• 🎓 Expert tips
• 🍰 More Ferrero Rocher recipes
• Homemade Ferrero Rocher recipe

💡 What is Ferrero Rocher?

Ferrero Rocher is a chocolate hazelnut-based confectionery product by the Italian Chocolate company called Ferrero. Ferrero Rocher was introduced in 1982 in Europe, nowadays roughly 3.6 billion Ferrero Rochers are sold each year in over 40 countries. Each Ferrero Rocher hazelnut ball consists of a whole roasted hazelnut encased in a thin wafer shell filled with hazelnut cream and covered in milk chocolate and chopped hazelnuts.

This homemade Ferrero Rocher only missing out on the wafer shell for the sake of keeping this recipe manageable making at home but the flavors of the homemade version will definitely leave an impression!

🌟 Why this is the best recipe

1. It is rather easy – As fancy as Ferrero Rocher looks, this recipe for the homemade version is extremely easy and quick, most of the time will be spent waiting for the ganache to set. No food processor or fancy ingredients are needed.
2. It is super delicious – I never compromise on taste! Deep chocolate and hazelnut notes, and creamy and crunchy elements all can be found in this recipe! Having said that, your praline will turn out as delicious as the chocolate you are using, so aim for high-quality ingredients eg. Valrhona or Callebaut.
3. It is an honest, detailed tutorial – While this recipe might look long, all the information I have written here, every tip and trick will help you achieve the perfect results without any issues on the way. Remember, baking is science, and every little detail written here is to help YOU!

📝 Ingredient notes

1. Chocolate & Hazelnut cream: Ferrero Rocher is made by the same company that also produces Nutella so there is a reason why the filling of the Ferrero Rocher might remind you of Nutella! For making this bonbon use either store-bought Nutella or check my homemade Nutella recipe
2. Heavy cream: Cream is often used in chocolate truffles and will be used in our recipe too. Also known as whipping cream, has a fat content between 36% and 40%, the one I use is usually 36%. Avoid substitutes like vegetable-based “whipping cream”. The cream will bring creaminess to the recipe
3. Butter: Use always unsalted butter as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat content butter in all my recipes. The butter needs to be at room temp for a few hours so it will become soft enough but avoid last-minute microwaving
4. Hazelnut: Taking a few minutes to toast hazelnuts make the flavor of this homemade Ferrero Rocher to a whole new level, you must not skip this. There will be one whole nut used in the heart of the bonbon and chopped hazelnut to cover
5. Salt: An essential ingredient in most dessert recipes. Balances flavor and enhances other ingredients
6. Chocolate: Please use high cocoa content chocolate which you would anyway enjoy eating on its own and avoid using “baking chocolate”. I am using Callebaut Milk Chocolate (callets) which is a type of milk chocolate without being overly sweet, tastes amazing, and works wonderfully silk. Chocolate will be used 3x in this homemade Ferrero Rocher recipe: 1. for the hazelnut chocolate cream, 2. for the first glazing 3. for the second glazing
7. Sugar: You do not need extra sugar for this homemade Ferrero Rocher, I find other ingredients bring enough sweetness

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

2. Preparation process of the copycat Ferrero Rochers

Making Ferrero Rocher chocolate bonbon is similar to making any other truffle. It starts with making a ganache-like mixture using 4 simple ingredients - chocolate, Nutella, cream, butter - however one factor you have to bear in mind is .... TEMPERATURE of course, as always!

Out of the 4 ingredients, each has a different melting point: 1. Butter gets hardened in the fridge and gets soft on room temp 2. Chocolate is hard both in the fridge and also on room temp 3. Nutella has the perfect spreadable consistency sort of neither hard nor soft due to its unique mixture of ingredients 4. The cream is liquid no matter the temperature

What does this mean for us in terms of making this Ferrero Rocher recipe? The short answer is: you will have to play with the temperature in order to be able to make a Bonbon like the original Ferrero Rocher that is soft and creamy inside but with a stable, hard shell on the outside. Nothing too complicated, I will take you through the process, let´s see!

1. Measure chocolate and Nutella and gently heat them in the microwave. Stir every 30 seconds and make sure temp won´t go above 45C / 113F
2. Heat cream until simmering. Pour warm cream over melted chocolate & Nutella mixture, stir
3. Mix in room temp soft butter, a small amount at a time, stir
4. At this point the ganache mixture will be liquid, not appropriate to form a ball out of it, you have to chill it in the fridge for about 1 h
5. In the meantime roast hazelnuts in the oven 200C / 392F for 10 min. You will need 15 whole hazelnuts - there will be 1 hazelnut in the heart of each Ferrero Rocher dessert
6. Place 15 whole hazelnuts onto a baking sheet or Silicone baking mat
7. After 1 h chilling time ganache should be firm enough to pipe. Move the mixture into a piping bag and pipe the ganache over the whole hazelnut pieces
8. Refrigerate the whole tray again for min 1 h
9. After 1h chilling time form balls out of the piped shapes, try to keep the hazelnut piece in the heart of the ball. Make sure you use gloves as the mixture will be still a bit on the soft side
10. Refrigerate the whole tray again for min 2 h

💡 Top Tip: While making the bonbon is literally mixing a few ingredients together, achieving the right texture is a step-by-step process and involves a few chilling times

2. How to coat the Ferrero Rocher balls

Once you have the Ferrero Rocher balls ready, it is time to proceed with the coating.

If you look at the original product it has a somewhat triple coating: first, a chocolate coat then chopped hazelnut, then another thin layer of chocolate on top. Most copycat recipes would stop at the hazelnut coat but not this one, as we aim for the signature Ferrero Rocher dessert look!

1. Make sure balls are nicely chilled = firm enough. After 2h chilling time mentioned above mixture should be firm enough to coat, however, to be on the safe side you can further chill the balls for 15 minutes in the freezer
2. For the coating melt the milk chocolate in the microwave making sure that temp does not go above 45C / 113F. No need to temper the chocolate at this stage as a hazelnut layer will go on top
3. Prepare a bowl with chopped hazelnut
4. Take the Ferrero Rocher balls out of the freezer and coat the bonbons with the melted chocolate while chocolate temp around 30-35C / 86-95F. During the process, if chocolate temp cools you might need to re-heat it in the microwave.
5. After the first chocolate layer is on, immediately move the balls into the bowl of chopped hazelnut and coat them with hazelnut too then set them aside to a parchment paper to set. The bonbon might feel soft at this point but the coating will harden in 10 minutes on room temp giving the Bonbon a firm texture outside while the inside will remain creamy
6. Refrigerate the Bonbons for 15 minutes
7. Start tempering a small amount of milk chocolate to apply the last layer of coating. I have a step-by-step tutorial about how and why to temper chocolate. This is the cocoa butter method and this is the seeding method
8. To achieve the signature Ferrero Rocher design put a small amount of tempered chocolate into your hands (use gloves) and roll the Bonbons in it for a few seconds. In this way, the chopped hazelnut layer will get a thin layer of chocolate coat only and the hazelnut pieces still will be visible. It might look messy at this point but once it sets, you will get beautiful, homemade Ferrero Rocher truffles just like the original ones!
9. Give your lovely homemade Ferrero Rocher bonbons a few more minutes of resting time in the fridge - so the last layer of tempered chocolate can set- then they are ready to eat!

💡 Top Tip: Why temper chocolate for the last layer? Since this last layer of chocolate will be effectively the outside surface of the Bonbon it is worth taking the extra mile and using tempered chocolate so that Bonbon will be shiny on the outside and can be comfortably touched without melting with your fingers or leaving fingerprints on it. Tempered chocolate also provides a firmer snap while biting into the Bonbon similar to the original Ferrero Rocher!

3. How to store

I suggest storing the Ferrero rochers in the fridge for the best crunchy yet creamy experience! It is just wonderful as you bite into the layers of chocolate and chopped hazelnut then reach the delicious hazelnut creamy part and the hidden whole hazelnut piece in the middle. You can store the Ferrero Rocher Bonbonb in the fridge for a week or two but I am sure it will be gone much quicker.

They are wonderful as a snack, or homemade present, or why not make my Ferrero Rocher cake and use these balls as decoration?

🎓 Expert tips

1. Use high-quality chocolate as that will define the taste of your homemade Ferrero Rocher
2. Heat milk until just simmering. If it’s boiling, the milk is too hot and could burn the chocolate. If it is not warm enough, it won´t melt the chocolate properly
3. Do not skip roasting the nut. It brings out the flavor
4. Pay attention to the chilling time of each step
5. The last step, with the tempered chocolate, can be skipped, however, chocolate tempering will ensure the signature Ferrero Rocher snap when biting into it

🍰 More Ferrero Rocher recipes