Make your own Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

By Ben Mims
For Cooking Newbie, a blog for beginner cooks

As I said in my Special Fork debut post, I love breakfast. It’s the best meal of the day and has the best dishes to choose from: biscuits with sausage gravy, chilaquiles; corned beef hash!

But more often than not, I always choose something sweet, whether it’s a simple scone or a rich slab of cake. One of my favorite things is Nutella, and for years, I spread it liberally, rotating it with peanut butter, jelly, or cinnamon-sugar butter, on my 7-grain toast.

I got the idea one day to try and make my own “Nutella” for a dessert I was developing, and it came out better than I expected. It retained small chunks of hazelnut, and I could control the sweetness and quality of chocolate.

Now I use it for all sorts of things: spreading on my morning toast, for sure, but also as a filling between cake layers, as a filling for warm crepes or between pancakes, in custard for bread pudding, or even as a mousse-like filling for pie when you fold in some whipped cream.

Play around with the chocolate, sweetener, and heck, even different nuts, if you want, and make this spread your own. It will keep for about a week in the refrigerator, but I doubt it will ever have the chance to last that long.

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Homemade Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread
Makes about 3 cups

1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar, honey, or whatever sweetener you like
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably 60 percent cacao, evenly chopped
8 ounces whole hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and cooled
1/2 cup crème fraîche or yogurt (optional)

Bring the cream, sugar and salt to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt. Meanwhile, place the chocolate in a small bowl. When the cream begins to boil, pour it over the chocolate and let it sit for 1 minute. Using a small rubber spatula, slowly begin stirring the cream and chocolate from the center outward until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Place the hazelnuts in a food processor and process until very finely ground. With the processor still on, slowly pour in the chocolate mixture through the feed tube, and continue processing until evenly combined. Add the crème fraîche, if you like, and process until smooth. Transfer to a plastic container and refrigerate until thickened. Store for up to 1 week.

Note: While the spread is usable when chilled, it becomes easily spreadable if brought to room temperature before using.

Tip: You can buy hazelnuts pre-skinned and toasted. If you toast and skin your own, check out our Special Fork how-to video.

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