Creamy, nutty, and sinfully chocolatey, I don’t believe I’ve ever met a person who doesn’t like nuttella. Sadly, upon becoming vegan, many people (My self included) are suprised to take a closer look and discover that this decadent spread actually contains whey. I really don’t understand the purpose of it – Shouldn’t it just be a pure hazelnut spread, uncontaminated by unneccissary additives?
Well, I had been thinking this for quite some time now, unwilling to give up on such a wonderful product, when I came across a fairly lenthy post on Su Good Eats extolling the virtues of this Italian invention and testing out various recipes that utillize it. Right there, she posted a recipe to make your own homemade Nutella, and lo and behold, it was a simple hazelnut spread, prefectly vegan without needed any extra adaptations.
No way could I resist giving it a shot. It seemed like just the perfect thing to include in the vegan / veggie swap since I wanted to send some food-type item, but I wasn’t sure what would hold up long enough, seeing as it might take longer to ship to Canada. Sealed in an airtight jar, this sweet treat should keep for about a month or so, refrigerated.
Now, I’m not even going to mention how it took me over two hours to skin the toasted hazelnuts. Nor will I agonize over how painful it was to scrape burning nuts with my finger nails after the towel – trick didn’t work. I have no clue what went wrong, but these were some subborn nuts! If I were to make it again, (Which I see being very probable) I would definitely buy pre-skinned hazelnuts.
As the food processor hummed away busily, I was facinated to watch the hazelnuts change into a spread. I’d never made any sort of nut butter before, so I was enchanted with the idea that without the added chocolate or sugar, I had essentially produced hazelnut butter. Without the torture of skinning the nuts, it was very easy to get to this step, so in the future I might be a bit braver and experiment with making my own almond butter, or cashew butter, or… The possiblities are endless!
The mere two cups of hazelnuts grind down to a relatively small jar of Nutella, but I’m sure the recipe could be doubled or tripled almost effortlessly. With such an addictive spread, wonderfully suited to be incorporated into any meal, snack, or dessert imaginable, I’m sure you’ll want to whip up extra, as I’m sure you’ll be hitting the bottom of an empty jar before you know it!