Recipe: Homemade Nutella

My apologies for keeping you waiting for days for this epic recipe. Some big posts snuck up on me . Let me introduce this recipe by listing all the adjectives I’ve come up with so far to describe my homemade Nutella:

• healthy
• delicious
• easy to make
• awesome
• raw
• vegan
• sugar free!

Wait WHAT? Vegan Nutella ok, but sugar-free? How would that work, one might wonder. Well, in my quest of giving Nutella a vegan make-over, I didn’t even plan on giving it a health make-over… but sometimes ingredients get their own life in my kitchen .

Nutella is for many a childhood nostalgia, but for even more, I suspect, a guilty pleasure to be induldged in even as grownups. Even before I went vegan, I had shunned it off and on from my pantry because it’s so notoriously sugar-y (Nutella’s main ingredient is not nuts, nor chocolate, it is sugar) and processed. Ok, that and because I kept coming back for more every time Nutella was in the house. With my version though, I don’t see that as a problem since it’s barely processed, and a tad less sweet than the original which doesn’t give me a sugar rush pulling me back to the jar.

Homemade Nutella
Yields ~2.5 cups
* 2 cups hazelnuts  (300 g)
* 1/4 C raw cacao powder (30 g)
* 5-6 T vanilla protein powder (25-30 g)*
* 3 T coconut oil, warmed if necessary

Requires: food processor

Throw nuts in food processor and process to a smooth butter. Now, add in cacao powder and vanilla protein powder, use 5 or 6 T according to preferred sweetness. At last, drizzle in 3 T coconut oil with the motor running for a super smooth consistency. I let my processor run quite long for a super smooth result. (If you don’t care about the raw-ness; lightly toast hazelnuts in the oven (8-10 mins at 180C/350F) and let cool a little before processing).

As you can see the ingredient list is super short and made up of wholesome ingredients. Vanilla protein powder (*I use raw, vegan protein powder which is fermented instead of processed) instead of white, refined sugar, and extra virgin coconut oil instead of hydrogenated palm oil (yuk). The main ingredient of this beauty is what it should be: hazelnuts!

Chocolate-y perfection..

I have a decent sweeth tooth and find this hazelnut spread just right: sweet, but not overly so. If you have a big sweet tooth, consider adding 1 or 2 T (powdered) sugar, or replace 1-2 T protein powder with the sugar. Also, if you enjoy a more coconutty flavor, try adding more coconut oil or coconut butter to the mix, I bet it would be great.

Let me know what you think of this recipe and, if you try it, if it’s any good ! I must say it’s one of my best creations as of late!

Love,

Sabine