Simple Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Butter
Written by MasterClass
Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 1 min read
A spoonful of this chocolatey homemade nut butter is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth. Plus, it's vegan and gluten-free.
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What Is Chocolate Hazelnut Butter?
Chocolate hazelnut butter is a spreadable, sweetened nut butter made from ground hazelnuts flavored with cocoa powder. The now-iconic flavor combination was developed in the early nineteenth century when Napoleon issued a trade embargo that caused chocolate prices to skyrocket. Italian cioccolatieri responded by stretching cacao with local hazelnuts, a flavor combination they called gianduja. Gianduja became world-famous in the 1960s with the development and marketing of a shelf-stable chocolate hazelnut spread known as Nutella. If you love Nutella but crave a dairy-free version with less sugar and no palm oil, chocolate hazelnut butter is easy to customize at home.
How to Use Chocolate Hazelnut Butter
Keeping a jar of chocolate hazelnut butter in the fridge is a quick way to infuse rich, chocolatey flavor into all kinds of treats. Try it in chocolate hazelnut butter cake frosting or chocolate hazelnut butter brownies, or pair it with homemade peanut butter (or almond butter or cashew butter) in cookies.
Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Recipe
makes
About 2 cupsprep time
15 mintotal time
25 mincook time
10 minIngredients
- 1
Toast the hazelnuts. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange the hazelnuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast until very fragrant and lightly browned, about 10 minutes.
- 2
Rub the still-warm hazelnuts between two clean kitchen towels to remove as many of the skins as possible, then let cool to room temperature and roughly chop the nuts.
- 3
In the bowl of a food processor or high-speed blender, process nuts until finely chopped. (For crunchy chocolate hazelnut butter, remove about ¼ cup finely chopped hazelnuts and set aside.)
- 4
Continue to process hazelnuts until they reach the consistency of crumbly sand. Add maple syrup, sugar, sea salt, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, hazelnut oil, and vanilla extract, and continue to process until smooth. Taste and add additional salt, sugar, and hazelnut oil as desired. (For crunchy chocolate hazelnut butter, add the reserved chopped nuts and pulse a few times.)
- 5
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
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