This healthy Nutella recipe couldn’t be easier to make, and I think it tastes even better than the store-bought version! All you need is 4 ingredients to make it, without using any refined sugar.
What is Nutella?
If you’re not familiar with the store-bought version, Nutella is a popular brand of chocolate-hazelnut spread. It’s sweet, ultra-smooth, and totally addictive!
This famous spread was created by Pietro Ferrero, who was from an Italian town known for producing hazelnuts. He sold his first batch as early as 1946, but it was officially sold under the name “Nutella” in 1964 and was an instant success. (If you’ve tasted it, you know why.)
How To Make It
How do you make Nutella from scratch? It’s easy to make this chocolate-hazelnut spread at home! All you need is 4 simple ingredients, and a little bit of patience.
Step 1: Roast the Hazelnuts
Start by roasting the hazelnuts. This will help them break down, to make a creamy hazelnut butter. Once the hazelnuts are roasted, let them cool briefly, then rub them with a towel to help remove their skins.
You don’t have to be a perfectionist about removing the hazelnut skins. Most of them should flake off easily, and if a little bit of the skin still ends up in the food processor, that’s fine!
Step 2: Make Hazelnut Butter
Now that the hazelnuts have been toasted, it’s time to blend them into a silky-smooth hazelnut butter. I like to do this in a food processor, as I find it makes nut butter easier than a blender does. (A blender might work, too, if you don’t mind stopping to scrape it down often.)
This is where you’ll need to be patient. It can take a while to break down the hazelnuts into a smooth consistency. It will look very dry and grainy at first, but keep scraping down the sides every now and then.
It can take 10 to 15 minutes for the hazelnuts to become smooth.
Pro Tip: The more full your food processor is, the faster the hazelnuts will become a smooth nut butter. If you double this recipe and use 3 cups of hazelnuts, it will process faster, but then you’ll also have a huge batch of Nutella. If you have 3 cups of hazelnuts to blend, feel free to do that! You can use half of the resulting nut butter for this recipe, and then save the other half for future use, if you’d rather not make a huge batch of chocolate spread.
Step 3: Blend it all together!
Once the hazelnut butter is very smooth, you can add in the remaining ingredients. The mixture will look grainy at first, but it will become super-spreadable once you add some water into the mix.
I start with 1/4 cup and process until smooth, but I find 6 tablespoons total is the sweet-spot for making this recipe perfectly spreadable. (So 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of water total.)
Adding water to this recipe will make it spoil faster than if you were to use 6 tablespoons of oil, but I think the result is worth it. There’s no added flavor when you add water (so your spread won’t taste like coconut oil or avocado oil), and if you want to make it last longer, you can always freeze it!
This homemade Nutella is:
- Naturally sweet (no refined sugar!)
- Dairy-free
- Gluten-free
- Low in oil
- and super-simple to make!
How to Serve It
Wondering how to serve homemade Nutella? Try it as a dip for apples, a spread for toast, or try it sandwiched between two cookies! (My Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies would be a good choice.)
I haven’t tried a version sweetened with dates yet, but if you want to experiment with that, check out my date caramel recipe for guidance. I would use hazelnut butter instead of peanut butter, and add some cacao powder to it!
Healthy Nutella (4 ingredients!)
4.50 from 14 votes
Here's how to make homemade Nutella, using only 4 ingredients. This chocolate hazelnut spread is naturally sweet, and easy to make! Vegan & Paleo friendly.
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Prep Time: 20 minutes mins
Cook Time: 10 minutes mins
Total Time: 30 minutes mins
Servings: 12
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups hazelnuts (7.5 oz; 212 grams)
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar (118 grams)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (12 grams)
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil (12 grams)
- 6 tablespoons water
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350ºF and arrange the hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet. Toast the hazelnut for 10 minutes, or until their skins begin to crack. (This helps the skins slide off easier.) Allow the nuts to cool, then rub them in a dishtowel to help remove their skins. It doesn't matter if you get every last speck of skin off-- you just want to remove as much as is easily possible.
Place the peeled hazelnuts in the bowl of a large food processor fitted with an "S" blade, then process them into a creamy nut butter, stopping to scrape down the bowl if necessary. This process should take 10 to 15 minutes, so be patient. You should hear a "sloshing" sound when the hazelnut butter has reached a nice and runny consistency.
Once the hazelnut butter is smooth, add in the coconut sugar, cocoa powder, and coconut oil, and process briefly. The mixture will look crumbly. Add in 1/4 cup of water and process again. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time after that, until your desired texture is reached. I typically add 2 to 3 more tablespoons of water after the initial 1/4 cup.
Enjoy right away, and transfer the remaining chocolate hazelnut spread to an airtight container to store in the fridge. It should last up to 5 days in the fridge, or you can freeze it for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
Nutrition information is for 1 of 12 servings. This recipe makes roughly 1 1/2 cups of spread, so the serving size is roughly tablespoons. This is just an estimate and not a guarantee.
Note: This recipe has been updated to be more clear & concise. I used to use only 1/2 cup of coconut sugar + 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, but now I use only coconut sugar to keep things more simple. Feel free to experiment with what you have on hand.
Nutrition
Calories: 139kcal, Carbohydrates: 12g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 20mg, Potassium: 115mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 7g, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 18mg, Iron: 1mg
Author: Megan Gilmore
Course: Snack
Cuisine: vegan
Keyword: nutella recipe
Additional Notes:
- If you’d prefer to use maple syrup instead of coconut sugar, you can replace the 1/2 cup of coconut sugar with 1/4 cup of maple syrup and reduce the water to just 4 or 5 tablespoons. The results aren’t quite as delicious as the recipe written above, but they’re still tasty.
- I haven’t tried this using other nuts or seeds yet, but I think it would be worth a shot if you’d prefer to try something other than hazelnuts. As always, please share your results in the comments!
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Reader Feedback: Are you a fan of Nutella or other chocolate nut butters?
