Nutella, the popular chocolate-hazelnut spread from Italy, is dangerously easy to make with this homemade recipe. Just dump cocoa, chocolate, hazelnuts, and sugar in a blender and whir. Then spread on everything.
With this homemade Nutella, no longer can you consider yourself safe from temptation just because you mustered the wherewithal to walk on by the Nutella aisle at the grocery store. Nope. Temptation lurks in your very own pantry, every second of the day, with this made-from-scratch rendition. Lord, deliver us from temptation. And while we’re quite content to simply consume it by the spoonful, if you have the patience to wait just a couple minutes longer, you can also make Nutella frosting to slather on brownies and cakes and whatever else you fancy. You’ll learn how to make that simple fix in the how-to beneath the recipe.–Renee Schettler Rossi
☞ Contents
Homemade Nutella
Ingredients
- 1 cup hazelnuts
- 12 ounces milk chocolate chopped
- 2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil or coconut oil
- 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
Directions
- Crank the oven to 350°F (176°C).
- Spread the hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer and toast them in the oven until they’ve browned a little and the skins are blistered a bit, about 12 minutes.
- Wrap the hazelnuts in a kitchen towel and rub vigorously to remove as many of the loose skins as possible. (Some skin will inevitably cling to the nuts. It’s okay. Doesn't have to be perfect.) Let cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate in a saucepan over gently simmering water or in the microwave. Stir until smooth. Let cool completely.
- In a food processor, grind the hazelnuts until they form a paste.
- Add the oil, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, and salt and continue processing until the mixture is as smooth as you like. Add the melted chocolate, blend well, and then strain the mixture to remove any chunks of hazelnut that remain. Keep in mind that it will thicken as it cools.
- Scrape your homemade Nutella into a jar or other resealable container and let it cool to room temperature. Cover the container and keep on the counter at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. (Hah! In theory, anyways.)
Notes
How To Make Nutella Frosting
Here’s what you do to make Nutella frosting. (Yes, Nutella frosting.) Just grab your stand mixer and beat 1/2 cup homemade Nutella, 3 tablespoons room-temperature butter, and 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar until creamy. Crank up the speed to medium-high and slowly, slowly drizzle in 2 tablespoons heavy cream, beating just until smooth and fluffy and irresistible. Immediately slather it over cake or cupcakes. Don’t forget to lick the beaters and the spatula.Show Nutrition
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We’d love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
Before I saw this homemade Nutella recipe, the idea of making my own had never entered my mind. It looked so simple I had to give it try. My teenage son (who is a Nutella connoisseur) loved it. I don’t think I can go back to the store-bought version.
The roasted nut aroma from the nuts while rubbing them together is heavenly. The skinning of the hazelnuts was straightforward, but did take a few minutes. The processing part of the recipe worked like a charm. At first I thought the straining aspect to be a bit redundant, but then as I strained the Nutella I noticed the little “sand” size pieces of nuts. The Nutella does profit texturally from the straining.
This would be a fabulous gift presented in a little old-fashioned jar.
The flavor of this homemade Nutella is great—not too sweet and a strong chocolate taste.
What’s nice is that you can select the type of milk chocolate you want to use. In this case, I used a European milk chocolate. The texture is just a little more sandy than a regular Nutella, but it’s not offputting. If I were making this again, I might actually use a mix of chocolates—like a mix of dark and milk chocolate.
My son’s favorite TV commercial is the one where Nutella is billed as part of a healthy breakfast, and I must admit to digging into a jar of the stuff myself on occasion. Naturally, we had to give this homemade Nutella a try. It was quick and easy and the difference between jarred Nutella and homemade Nutella is significant. The hazelnut and chocolate flavors are so much more pronounced in the homemade version.
If you have ever enjoyed Nutella, do yourself a favor and make this ASAP.
Where do I start? Well the best way to explain is that we have three daughters plus extra visiting kids in this home, and this homemade Nutella was 200% approved by all from age 3 to 43! WOW! So very easy to make and so very good.
The final result is not as thick as the Nutella from a store-bought jar but the taste is so much better. Right after making the first batch, we went on to repeating it and not doubling but TRIPLING it and jarring it for Christmas gifts and, well, for the kids in this household.
Hooray! This homemade Nutella is a huge hit in my household! Nutella rarely makes it into our house due to the ingredients in the store-bought version. But once again, a LC recipe allows me to score some serious bonus points in the culinary arena.
Everyone loves this version, they didn’t even want me to strain it, they liked it just as is. I only added 1/4 teaspoon salt yet it provided a great salty-sweet balance—just the right amount for us.
I used a food processor to make this.
UPDATE: I’ve made this recipe about 5 or 6 times and I just made a couple of great discoveries when making my latest batch. First, Dry Roasted Unsalted Hazelnuts from Trader Joe’s! I picked up a bag from my local store and guess what? I had homemade Nutella in minutes without the wait of roasting the hazelnuts myself. The flavor was just as good as the home-roasted hazelnut version, if not better. The dry-roasted nuts also surprised me in that they ground up so finely in the food processor that there were no detectable hazelnut pieces—it was as smooth as store-bought Nutella without the extra step of straining (even though I never did strain the other version because my family loved the textural bits of hazlenuts). I even left the skins on and again the skins were not detectable at all in the finished product! I love the smooth version, so from now on it is dry-roasted hazlenuts for me. I also substituted coconut oil instead of canola and loved the flavor all the more.
The hardest part of this homemade Nutella recipe was finding the hazelnuts. This is so much better than the jarred stuff, you will never buy it premade again.
I thought too much skin may be left on my hazelnuts, it was not a lot, but many of the nuts had a little skin still on them. I processed the spread until it was pretty smooth, and so I decided not to strain the mixture—I wanted the added texture, then realized I could strain one jar’s worth and leave the rest with bits. Next time, according to what I am using it for, will determine how much I strain. For the frosting I used strained, but to spread on bread (or homemade graham crackers) the added texture is nice.
Originally published January 6, 2012
HUNGRY FOR MORE?
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #LeitesCulinaria. We'd love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
I’m in the process of gathering my ingredients and tools to make this version. My question is what kind of strainer will make the mixture smooth?
Hi Sarah, a fine mesh strainer. I use this one:
Have been a longtime fan of Nutella. Making my own has never occurred to me. Interested in trying it. Pinned to my “Frugal Family Fun” board.
That’s terrific to hear, Suzanne! Yeah, there are a lot of things I’ve always just bought and never thought to make myself but am just beginning to try—and loving it. Would really like to hear what you think of the recipe when you try it!
The problem here is ‘canola oil’ is grown on land that previously was primordial forest that today has been decimated, together with its wildlife and habitat too. There’s also risk it could be GMO canola oil. Not to mention canola requires 5~10 more lands to produce same yield with oil palm.
FMN, I share your concerns about GMOS. If you prefer not to use canola oil, any mild-tasting vegetable or fruit oil will work just fine in this recipe.
I have been looking for a palm oil free hazelnut spread in stores for over a year with no luck, so naturally when I saw this I knew I had to make it. A word of warning though – make sure the chocolate you use does not contain palm oil – otherwise it defeats the purpose of trying to make a palm oil free spread.
Also, I would leave out the salt in its entirety, because there is nothing in the recipe that is water-based and thus the salt literally cannot dissolve. This results in the salt remaining granular (undissolved), which ‘surprises’ you a little when it contacts the saliva in your mouth.
Otherwise – this is a recipe from heaven!
We have a hazelnut tree and after the first bucketful decided we needed to make something else. For the first batch, I tried white chocolate. Too thick, white chocolate doesn’t melt very well. So after 3 bars, we added 2 bars of milk chocolate. The result is still too thick to strain and a little sandy, but tastes great!!
Bob, yeah white chocolate isn’t chocolate at all, so that was the issue. It should be all pure milk chocolate. But glad you liked it!
My nutella turned hard that night? Do you know why?
Hi Alix, older nuts tend to dry out and create a thicker nutella. You also might want to try a chocolate with a higher fat content.