Are you a fan of Nutella? Hardly seen anyone who does not like it after having tasted it. We were big Nutella lovers too and used to stock it in our pantry. We used to have it as a spread for bread, better still if you use banana along with it inside your sandwich. Well, it is best if you just take a spoonful and put it inside your mouth. So we used it a lot till we started discovering more about commercial food and since then have not used it. Looking at the ingredients, you will find that Nutella is loaded with sugar and other ingredients which are strict no-no in quicknhealthy kitchen for the past few years. That does not mean that we do not like the taste of it anymore as the hazelnut-choco combo is awesome :-).
So I have been trying to recreate homemade versions of it which are close to the original in taste, but comes devoid of all the unwanted ingredients, and hence does not have the infinite shelf life like the branded version. But who cares about the shelf life when we can make it as much as we want, when we want it and using only ingredients that you believe in. So here is my latest version of homemade Nutella which is made with organic hazelnuts, pure organic chocolate, grass fed organic dairy and sweetened with only dates and pure honey. We can call it as Nutrella !!!
Ingredients:
- Hazelnuts - 3 cups
- Dates - 2 cups (packed)
- Raw unfiltered honey - 1/4 cup
- Unsweetened baking chocolate - 6 oz
- Organic cream - 1/4 cup (I just separate cream from top of my milk can)
- Organic whole milk - 3/4 cup
Directions:
- Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast at 350 Deg F for 15-20 minutes. Let it cool completely. Remove skin as much as possible (just by rubbing them between your palms.
- Add the nuts and dates to a vitamix and process at high speed tamping down as you go till you get a nut butter consistency. Try to do this as fast as possible and finish everything under a minute, else the nut butter might heat up and start separating oil.
- Chop the chocolate into chunks, melt them over a pot of hot water till nice and creamy.
- Add the melted chocolate, honey, cream and milk to the hazelnut butter and process till everything is nice and creamy.
- There you go, your homemade Nutella is ready. Scoop up and fill into glass jars. Let it cool down completely. Close the jars and keep refrigerated.
- Makes about 4 cups of homemade Nutella.
- Enjoy!!
