Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (A Healthy Vegan Nutella!)

Every vegan needs to have a recipe on hand to make a chocolate hazelnut spread. Why? Because Nutella is awesome. Whether or not we want to admit it, there is something wonderful about the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate in a spreadable paste.

Unfortunately, brand-name Nutella isn't suitable for vegans, as it contains skim milk and whey. Also, Nutella is full of palm oil and sugar, making it less of a healthy nut butter choice. For that reason, I have been seeking a way for me to make my own vegan version of Nutella that maintains the great taste but without ingredients I don't want.

Since this recipe makes a spread that is thin, dense with hazelnuts and not overly sweet, it doesn't really resemble Nutella all that much. For that reason, I like to say that I adopted the idea of Nutella and used it to make my own unique spread using cocoa and hazelnuts (also called Filberts!). I hope you love it as much as I have come to!

Because this butter is very nut-dense, it is not based off of sugar and palm oil; for this reason, making your own version of a chocolate-hazlenut spread may not be cheaper than buying one, but it is certainly better for you and worth the control you can have over what ingredients go in.

At first, I was surprised by how thin this spread was compared to its store-bought counterpart. After refrigerating the spread for a few hours, though, it became a bit more congealed and butter-like. This consistency makes it a great addition to a piece of toast, an apple slice or a peanut butter sandwich.

I love how this recipe only uses a few ingredients that I don't always have on hand: hazelnuts and walnut oil. Other than that, I always have a supply of the vanilla extract, maple syrup, cocoa powder, salt and almond milk. The simple list of ingredients makes this recipe an even more convenient and healthy choice!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of hazelnuts, soaked in water for 12 hours
• 2 teaspoons of walnut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder (or, for a deeper cooked flavor, roast some cacao nibs in the oven and grind them into a powder)
• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of almond milk (preferably unsweetened or Original flavor)
• 1/3 teaspoon of salt

Directions:

1. After soaking the hazelnuts for 12 hours, drain them (maybe soak them too, if the water they were soaking in get too chummy). Put them in a tough food processor and blend them until they become finely chopped and have a  kind of sticky texture. Be sure to continue scraping down the sides as you go. This process can take anywhere from 3-30 minutes, depending on the blender you have and the number of hazelnuts you're using. (It took me about 25 minutes, just because my food processor has a hard time with small quantities or nuts.)
2. Drizzle in the walnut oil a bit at a time, stopping to pulse the processor so the oil can get mixed into the nuts well. Once all of the oil has been drizzled in, the ground pieces of hazelnuts should stick together in clumps or pills.
3. Now add in the vanilla, cocoa powder, syrup, almond milk and salt. Continue to grind the whole spread for another 5 minutes or so, waiting for the hazelnut pieces to get to a fine enough texture for your liking.
4. Once you're done grinding the spread, move it to a container to store it in and refrigerate it for an hour for the spread to solidify a bit more.

In the past day of having a supply of this spread in my fridge, I haven't been able to get enough of it1 I have loved eating it on apple slices and on bread alike. My next idea is to blend it with some frozen bananas to try to make a hazelnut chocolate milkshake!

This chocolate hazelnut spread keep fresh for a long while in an airtight container when refrigerated. (If it lasts that long!)