Thursday, September 15, 2011

Homemade Nutella

Everyone who knows me, also knows that my chocolate-obsession
is rooted in a life long addiction to nutella.
Living in the GDR as a child, my Dad would sometimes buy forbidden products
from the capitalistic West as a special treat.
I learned at a very young age that Nutella has to be seen as a reward and special gift
for living in a communist prison.
And so my chocolate/nougat-obsession began...


I'm pretty picky about Nutella substitutes and plagiarism and never found an alternative chocolate spread that gets even close to the original.
That's why I was pretty sceptical about making Nutella style chocolate spread myself.
But the fact of doing it myself was pretty exciting,
even though it didn't turn out to be exactly like Nutella in the end.
This doesn't mean it was bad.
Just different...
I will definitely try making it again some time and vary a bit with the ingredients.


As it was my first time I pretty much followed the instructions and did it like this:

Roast  

200g of hazelnuts 

until golden brown (don't burn them!)
Mix them in a blender until they turn to hazelnut butter. Be patient this will take a while!
It will look like nothing is happening but if you keep going  all of a sudden the mass will turn creamy and buttery!
In the meantime melt 

250g dark chocolate 

in a hot water bath, by putting the chocolate in a small saucepan/bowl that is sitting/swimming in a bigger bowl with hot simmering (not boiling!) water.
When the chocolate is melted add one  

can of sweetened condensed milk

Stir until even. I scraped out 

1 vanilla bean 
and added that to the chocolate mix, as well. Pour in the hazelnut butter and combine everything. You may wanna  

add some  hot milk (about 125ml, but you'll see how much you need),

as well, in order to liquify the spread and make it smoother and creamier.
Pour everything in a

preserving jar 

and let cool down to room temperature.


Serve!

PS: I found the original recipe here.
Next time I will use a some milk cocolate, as well, and more hazelnuts.
I also will roast the hazelnuts longer.
I was just scared to burn them...But they could have spent a little longer in the pan.
Maybe some roasted almonds, as well.
Oh, and I will probably add some vanilla extract.
It's more intense than the vanilla bean which I can hardly taste...

2 comments:

  1. Juliiiiaaaa, Have your tried the french nutella? they're different nutella mixture for every country, the frenchy fits baguette, and is more creamy than the german one. I miss it! JuliaX

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  2. no, I haven't. Really? It's different than the German one? I have to try it. As long as it is Nutella, it' good. I like it creamy but also hard (no euphemism). Putting it in th fridge, then taking one spoon full and dumping it into a glass of cold milk is my secret tip for the ultimate Nutella experience!

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