Nutella with any other nut is just as delicious

I remember the taste of nutella, or at least I think I do. It's been awhile since my last indulgence.





I used to love the smell of nutella. I loved the sweetness of nutella. I loved the creamy texture and slight gloss of nutella. I enjoyed open-faced nutella sandwiches (i.e. nutella on white bread), which I'd regularly make and drop on the floor (nutella-side down). I'd even eat plain nutella by the spoonful. I was nuts for nutella.





Then, one day, I developed a hazelnut allergy. No more nutella for me.

 



I honestly had a panic attack over not being able to eat hazelnuts because I loved them so much (in fact, while toasting a batch for biscotti, I declared that I'd be including more hazelnuts in my diet, just moments before I had my first reaction). I got very upset because I really loved nutella, and my favorite French and Italian chocolates were all filled with hazelnuts or hazelnut praliné. How could this be? And of course, I could have developed a more troublesome dietary restriction, like an allergy to gluten or an intolerance to dairy (yikes), but in my little world, losing hazelnuts was a big deal. I used to be able to eat anything and everything without a care or a fear. There I was baking a batch of hazelnut and chocolate biscotti, and I couldn't even try just one.





I haven't touched a drop of nutella, let alone a single hazelnut, since that day three years ago, but the more I blog and tweet, the more I am faced with the temptation to forget about the consequences and just scarf down a jar of nutella. And, the fact that I can't have it makes me want nutella more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, even when it comes to something as "unimportant" as nutella. I want a nutty chocolate spread for my plain old white bread. I need it.









This is why I decided to make my own nutella, and try out different nuts to see which worked/tasted better in a chocolate spread. In fact, I screened seven different types of roasted nuts to find which would work best in my hazelnut-free nutella: almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pistachios, walnuts. First, I whisked together a large batch of salty sweet cocoa powder (a touch of salt?1/4 tsp, 2 parts powdered sugar?2 cups, and 1 part Cocoa Barry extra dark cocoa powder?1 cup). That amount of dry ingredients could be used to turn 4 cups hazelnuts into nutella. Instead, I toasted 30 gram amounts (~1/4 cup) of each non-hazelnut test nut, in a dry fry pan on medium heat, until they were nice and roasty-toasty. I processed them until they were as fine as I could get them in my mini Kitchenaid food processor. I processed each nut grind with about 22 grams of the dry ingredients, along with some vanilla (1/8 tsp), and some oil (amount varies, but I used at least 2.5 tsp). And to quote the slap-chop dude: "You're going to love my nuts!" Et voilà: a painter's palette of hazelnut-less nutella!







Okay, fine. They all pretty much looked the same: brown. A few might be a little smoother or glossier (a couple drops more oil), others might be a little coarser (I grew impatient with the intermittent processing interrupted by the scraping of the sides and bottom of the processor). However, tastewise, there was a world of difference between them. I hadn't expected to get much out of the macadamia nuts and pistachios. Don't get me wrong, I love them both, but I wasn't sure that these would stand up next to chocolate. I was completely wrong. Both of these were quite distinct from the others, and I wonder if the chocolate actually enhanced their distinct nuttiness. I found the walnuts to be the most earthy. The skins (which I lazily left if they were sold as is) added a little zip to the walnut and pecan spreads. The peanut nutella was awesomely reminiscent of a fancy, higher quality, Reese's peanut butter cup. Heavenly when indulged by the teaspoonful. I was floored by my little experiment. And the saltiness of them (I may have been a little heavy handed with the shaker) was welcome.







Now I can safely say that nutella can be easily made at home (a powerful food processor is necessary for this) with any nut your heart desires. Apparently, you can even use sesame paste, if nuts aren't your thing.



And, if you find out hazelnuts can kill you, don't panic! Just roll with it. Fix yourself a giant batch of hazelnut-less nutella. Soon, the store-bought nutella will be a distant dream, easily forgotten.



Here's the base-recipe I used to make my hazelnut-less spreads, taken from a fellow Montreal blogger: Letizia Golosa (be sure to check out her blog); the original recipe was published in the LA Times.



Hazelnut-less nutella

Makes ~1.5 cups

2 cups of any raw nut your heart desires
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (make sure it's top quality)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp (or more) oil (vegetable, or a nut oil if you prefer, for e.g. you could use walnut oil for a walnut nutella)
Preheat a dry fry pan on medium heat until it is hot.
Add the nuts and toast them, keeping the pan moving so that they don't burn.
When toasted, remove the pan from the heat and immediately pour out the nuts to cool.
In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugar, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a food processor, pulverize the toasted nuts for several minutes. They should be as fine as you can get them. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
Add the dry ingredients, vanilla, and oil. Continue blending until you obtain a spread (this could take at least 5 minutes). The more you blend, the more the oils of the nuts will be released, rendering the spread glossier. For a liquidier spread, add a few drops more oil and blend. Continue to do this until you obtain the desired consistency.
The spread can be stored in the fridge. Just bring it to room temperature before using it (or it won't be spreadable).