Homemade Healthy Nutella

I am sure each and every one of you loved Nutella as a child. I sure did. And the commercials make it sound so healthy with all the hazelnuts and cocoa it contains. But if you read what I just wrote carefully, you could see that I said cocoa and not cacao. There is a big difference between the two. Cocoa is raw cacao roasted at high temperatures which changes the molecular structure of the cocoa bean, reducing the enzyme content and lowering the overall nutritional value (you can read more here). In addition to that, it often contains sugar. And this is just the beginning, not even listing all the additional unhealthy (or less healthy) ingredients in store bought Nutella.

But making your own healthy Nutella from scratch is so fast and simple that you will never consider buying Nutella again.

There are many good recipes to make your own Nutella on the internet and they all contain the same or similar ingredients. In the end, it all comes down to your own taste and preferences so feel free to use the below listed ingredients in different quantities or even leave some out. I started making my Nutella according to a few different recipes (so I can’t really credit them here) and ended up using the below listed ingredients and following the below described steps:

Ingredients:

200 g hazelnuts

1/2 tsp almond oil

5 dates

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tbsp raw cacao

1 tsp carob powder

6 tbsp rice milk

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius and roast the hazelnuts for 8 minutes.

2. Transfer the roasted hazelnuts to a paper towel or cloth and rub the hazelnuts together to get rid of all the skins. Toss the skins and move the hazelnuts to a food processor.

3. Add the almond oil and process the hazelnuts until they form a smooth hazelnut butter. Add the remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

4. Serve immediately with fresh bread or crepes or transfer to a glass and keep refrigerated.