Homemade Nutella! (Yes You Heard Me Right)

Nutella…need I say more?

My son loves nutella, but dairy does not love him 😦

When we began taking the “hidden” dairy out of his snacks and foods, nutella had to come out of rotation. Luckily after trying a few different recipes we found a winner – it is sooooo GOOD. And I feel better about him eating nutella sandwiches because I know what ingredients are in our homemade nutella.

Lexi’s Clean Kitchen has been a great resource for me over the years and her Homemade Nutella didn’t disappoint.

When I first started making Lexi’s nutella recipe I bought raw hazelnuts and worked so hard to get the skins off , honestly it is the most painstaking process. However, Trader Joes came to the rescue and has started making roasted hazelnuts that are skinless enough that you can just open and throw the bag into a food processor and skip the pain, and tons of time!

For the chocolate, I buy Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips since they are free from gluten, dairy, soy, and many other common allergens.

The other ingredients I pick up when I am shopping or have found some on great deals from Amazon using the subscribe and save program.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Hazelnuts (1 bag of Trader Joes
• 1 cup Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips
• 2 tbsp Raw Cacao Powder
• 1/4 cup (or less) Coconut Palm Sugar
• 1 tbsp Honey (Raw is best)
• 1 tsp+ Vanilla
• 1 tbsp Coconut Oil
• Dash Himalayan sea salt

Instructions:

1. Place hazelnuts in a food processor and process until it becomes a smooth butter (my processor can do this step in 3-5 minutes, I have seen others make quicker work of the step)
2. Add in coconut oil, palm sugar, vanilla, cacao powder, and your dash of salt
3. Blend these ingredients into the hazelnut butter for another 2 minutes or until smooth
4. Heat your chocolate over the stove; pour the melted chocolate into the food processor, along with the honey, and blend until smooth

I pour my nutella into glass mason jars for storage. Make sure you leave them out to cool, but try it warm as a treat for making the recipe – trust me, yum!

I will typically split my nutella between at least two jars so I can store one in the fridge and leave one out. Due to the coconut oil in the recipe the nutella will harden in the fridge. I like to leave one jar room temperature for easy spreading and the other we pull out when needed.

For those, like myself, that love the hazelnut flavor with just a touch of chocolate you can do a slight variation. Basically just stop at step #3. I have found for me that I prefer to double the amount of raw cacao, and leave out the melted chocolate all together. When doing it this way, it becomes more of a hazelnut spread. Made this way it is an amazing apple dip.

I find I can go a little lighter on the coconut palm sugar in either recipe. I have been pulling the sugar back slowly and find it is still just as tasty.

Enjoy this basic recipe that looks, tastes, and smells like you labored for hours! You will never miss the sugar and dairy laden original after you have this homemade.

Happy cooking!