Not quite Nutella – Chocolate Nut Butter Recipe

Chocolate Nut Butter:

There are things I wish I’d never tried making.  Mostly, as in this case, those things involve chocolate.  However, they are just a little too complicated to be a serious threat. And, mostly I can’t pretend they might be healthy.   So mostly I manage to limit my indulgence.

Somehow, the fatal combination of a new ‘Elite Blender’ and my need to clear out my larder has resulted in Not quite Nutella or, dare I be so presumptuous as to say  ‘Naughtier than Nutella’ – because the truth is this recipe can be just as naughty as you want.  I have lots of bits of left over chocolate left in the cupboard – ends of bars from when I’ve needed a certain amount.  And for some reason I seem to have bags of different kinds of nuts too.  After a bit of research I realised that nut butters are easy to make – and decided to try my hand at making chocolate nut butter.

The result, this recipe, is a luxurious, indulgent nut butter.  Using the froothie you just need to add in chunks of  chocolate of your choice to create the base for a perfect chocolate spread.  My recipe included some cocoa powder, raw honey and walnut oil to make the mixture chocolatier, sweeter and just a little smoother.  And a good pinch of fleur de sel because everyone knows you need to salt your chocolate for the perfect flavour notes.  Next time I’m seriously considering what would happen if I added in a glug of cognac.  Would that be really bad?

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Chocolate Nut Butter

Prep Time

15 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Course: Condiment

Cuisine: British

Servings: 20

Author: Fiona Maclean

Ingredients

• 200 g Hazelnuts
• 100 g Dark Chocolate
• 2 teaspoons Cocoa Powder
• 1 teaspoon Walnut Oil You can add more for a 'runnier' butter
• 1 teaspoon Honey/Agave Nectar Vegans can use Agave Nectar. Add more of either to taste
• 1 pinch Fleur de Sel Or more to taste

Instructions

1. Gently roast the nuts in a low oven for 20 minutes till the skins can be rubbed off (if not skinned already) or they are turning slightly golden
2. Remove the skins by rubbing with a clean tea towel
3. Pop the nuts into the blender or food processor and blitz until the mixture turns to peanut butter consistency. The length of time this takes will depend on your blender power and could take 5 - 8 minutes in a normal food processor
   
   
4. If you are using a vitamix or froothie type of elite blender, you can add the chocolate at this stage without melting first as the heat of the machine will melt the chocolate. If not, melt the chocolate over a bain marie or in the microwave
5. Add the chocolate, cocoa, honey, salt and walnut oil and continue to blitz until well mixed. You will probably need to scrape down the sides from time to time. Once blended taste and adjust salt and honey as required. You can also add more oil if you want a smoother spread. Reblitz as necessary
6. Enjoy! This will keep in the fridge for at least 2-3 weeks or in a cupboard for a week or so.

I like this rather better than commercial nut butters, perhaps because I don’t have that sweet a tooth and I can just add the right amount of honey for me.  The texture here is not quite as smooth as nutella, but I suspect it would only take a few more minutes of blending to remove all the last nutty bits.