Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

Nutella is tasty and a really nice treat, but we all know that it probably isn't the healthiest thing for us! I love Nutella and don't buy it, because if it is in my house I will eat it.

After some experimentation and looking at different homemade recipes online I came up with one for a "Chocolate" Hazelnut Spread on my own.  The ingredients are simple and it isn't time consuming to make.

"Chocolate" Hazelnut Spread

You will need:
2/3 cup Hazelnuts
3 oz Carob Chips (or you can use Cocoa Powder, instead)
Raw Honey (to taste)
Splash of milk (whatever type you fancy)
1 tsp of coconut oil

Now hazelnuts have a skin so you need to roast them A) to make it easy to remove the skin and B) to make them more flavorful.

You can roast them too much, so make sure you watch them. I did about 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

The hardest part of making this was taking the skin off.  I did it with my fingers, but I did read you can skin them with a towel as well.

Once their skin was removed I put them into my crappy food processor.

NOTE: this was my downfall.  If you have a good food processor you will get a smoother hazelnut spread.  My processor is cheap and I didn't get a fine powder (which is what you really want if you want it smooth).

Once the Hazelnuts were ground as much as I could get them I added in about 3 oz of Carob chips.

Now many of the recipes for chocolate hazelnut spread on the internet say to use Cocoa Powder, but I didn't have any on hand...just carob chips and my 5 year old gets crazy when I give him chocolate so this was a better thing for us.

I blended the carob chips and the Hazelnuts together and then added a splash of whole milk and a teaspoon of coconut oil to give it a creamier spreadable texture.

Finally once it was completely blended I added in some raw honey. 

NOTE: Honey has a very distinct flavor that might be too much for some people.  If you are someone who doesn't like honey, raw cane sugar or regular sugar would be just fine.

After it was all blended I ended up with this: 

The truth is that it tastes really good, chocolatey and hazel-nutty, but it isn't Nutella.  If you want something that tastes EXACTLY like Nutella you are better off going to buy some at the store.

Mine had a texture like a crunchy peanut butter because I couldn't get the Hazelnuts ground fine enough, but I imagine that if you had a good processor it will be smoother.  There are many variations of this recipe on the internet that seem pretty easy.  I think next time I will use dark chocolate to see how it tastes.  My kids loved this as a dip for graham crackers and on toast.