EVERYONE HAS A STORY ABOUT THE FIRST TIME they tasted Nutella. I lost my chocolate and hazelnut-spread innocence when I was in college. As I got older, I didn’t lose my taste for it, but I did lose my incredible tolerance for sweets. This version takes all the goodness of that iconic spread and transforms it into something slightly less sugary but no less delicious.
2 cups/270 g hazelnuts
2 teaspoons walnut oil (or any other complementary neutral oil)
3 ounces/85 g dark chocolate, melted
¼ cup/20 g cocoa powder
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
⅔ cup/70 g confectioners’ sugar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C/gas 4.
Spread the hazelnuts out on the prepared baking sheet. Roast in the oven until the nuts are fragrant, about 10 to 12 minutes, shaking the pan to stir up the nuts at least once during baking to ensure even roasting.
Remove the baking sheet from the oven and pour the nuts into a large, fine-mesh strainer and gently shake it. This helps loosen the skins of the hazelnuts. Alternatively, let the nuts cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. When the nuts are cool enough to handle, you can bundle them in a clean kitchen towel and rub vigorously to aid the removal of the skins. They don’t all have to be removed, but they can impart a bitter flavor if too many remain.
Pour the nuts into the bowl of a food processor and process until they resemble cornmeal. Add the walnut oil and melted chocolate, and pulse to combine.
Remove the lid, scrape down the sides, and add the remaining ingredients. Pulse to combine and then remove the lid and scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Repeat this process-scrape procedure until your product resembles butter.
Scrape the butter into a jar and store in the refrigerator. It will keep up to 1 month.
