It’s been a while since I contributed to our blog pages. I thought very carefully about what would be important to share with you and I came up with ……
World Nutella Day!
Yes, It’s World Nutella Day on February 5th so I thought I’d do a little investigating to see what it’s all about and then share a tried and tested recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Spread.
So first, according to the internet, Nutella has been around since the 60s and was created by Italian company, Ferrero. The day of celebration was actually started by an American food blogger who, in 2007, was living in Italy and, prompted by her Nutella superfan friend, to suggest in her blog that the world get together to celebrate the wonder that is Nutella.
This brought the brand fame in America and so Ferrero soon saw the opportunity to use this fame to market Nutella to the whole world.
Now, after showing such enthusiasm you may be surprised to learn that I have never actually tasted Nutella! I have, however, made my own chocolate hazelnut spread which has all plant-based ingredients and tastes
A – MA – ZING!
The recipe I am about to share is adapted from a recipe book I bought from a Lidl in France a few years ago…Cuisine Végane. We were staying there for a few months and I thought it would help me to pick up some valuable vocabulary! Now that I’m no longer immersed, I’ve had to enlist Google translate to help me out but it brings back good memories!
INGREDIENTS
-50g coconut sugar
-135g raw or roasted and blanched hazelnuts -1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 pinch of salt
-85ml sesame oil
-3 tablespoon cacao powder
METHOD
-If you have raw hazelnuts put them on a baking sheet and roast at 175C for 10-15 minutes. If they are already roasted but still have their skins, roast for 5-10 mins and then let cool before rubbing the skins off. Otherwise, you have ready roasted and blanched hazelnuts, in which case you are ready to go!
-Put the nuts into a blender and mix until fine.
-In a pan heat the sugar with 200ml water until the sugar is dissolved, add the sugar water to the blender with the vanilla extract, salt and oil and blend until completely mixed.
-Pour the mixture back into the pan and heat on a medium heat. Slowly add the cacao whilst stirring.
-When the mixture is smooth remove from the heat and pour into clean jars and leave to cool.
(I found my mixture was a little lumpy as the hazelnuts weren’t quite blended enough so I put the mixture back into my blender when it had cooled a little and blended it on a high speed until completely smooth)
It will keep in a cool place for up to a month.
And if you think this sounds too much effort or you don’t have the time or you hate washing up, then head on down to Village Greens because you can buy any of these very similar products and have it ready made.
So…now I have my ‘pâte à tartiner chocolat noisette’ (a tad less catchy a name than Nutella!) what can I do
with it? Well of course, spread it on toast is the obvious one, I added bananas too….delicious. With pancake day coming up I will probably spread some on pancakes too. (Speaking of which, if you fancy making vegan pancakes you can see my efforts in my blog from Veganuary 2020)
I have had a little look at the Nutella website (Find your Nutella® recipe | Nutella® Uk and Ireland | Official Website) and there are plenty of suggestions there, many of which are very easily veganised for those wanting to avoid animal ingredients. I saw that they had drizzled it on cinnamon bun type swirls which looked delightful. It can be poured over sundaes and into smoothies and I’ve prepped myself some layered overnight oats with it too made with lovely Oato milk which I am looking forward to having in the morning....or maybe later on!
I hope you have enjoyed this blog. Your feedback is always welcome! Thank you for reading and…
Happy World Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Day!!
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