Homemade Nutella

Everyone in my family loves chocolate, chocolate spreads, all kinds of chocolate sauce but somehow they had escaped the Nutella craze. There is never any Nutella in my house! So I decided to remedy the situation once and for all. I armed myself with David Lebovitz’s recipe and a box full of fine Turkish hazelnuts. Whiz, whiz, whiz goes the food processor and you don’t even realize when it’s done. Honestly, this is the easiest -quickest -most- awesome recipe ever. .

And now, I’m suddenly everyone’s favourite. I wield a whole lot of power. I’m the girl who can make Nutella at home..

 David Lebovitz’s  Homemade Nutella via Encyclopedie du Chocolat

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I agree with Lebovitz and think that the almonds can be swapped with hazelnuts. And though I would go with the honey, I would reduce the milk by 100 gms. Next time, I would also use only dark chocolate.

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Makes 2 jars (I made half the recipe and it turned out well)

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Ingredients

1/3 cup (40g) whole almonds
1 1/3 cup (160g) hazelnuts
1 3/4 cup (400g) whole milk
7/8 cup (60g) powdered whole milk
3 tablespoons (40g) mild-flavored honey
pinch of salt
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
5 ounces (140g) milk chocolate, chopped

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Method

1. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet, keeping the almond separate, and toast the nuts in a 350ºF (180ºC) oven, stirring a few times, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the hazelnuts are browned.

2. While they are roasting, warm the whole milk and powdered milk in a small saucepan with the honey and salt just until it starts to boil. Remove from heat.

3. In a clean, dry bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, or in a microwave oven, melt the chocolates together until smooth.

4. Once the nuts are well-toasted, remove them from the oven and use a spatula to place the warm hazelnuts in a clean tea towel, then fold them inside the towel and rub them vigorously to remove any loose skins. They don’t need to be pristine; just try to get as much off as possible.

5. In a food processor, grind the warm hazelnuts and almonds until they’re as fine as possible. You may not be able to get them completely smooth, depending on your food processor. (I have a brand new one and even after five minutes, there were little bits of nuts in mine, which is normal.)

6. Add the melted chocolate and continue to process the mixture, stopping to scrape down the sides of the work bowl, as necessary.

7. Once the mixture is smooth, add the warm milk mixture and process until everything is well-combined.

(The original instructions here said to strain the paste, which I didn’t do because I don’t mind the little bits of toasted nuts, but you can.)

9. Transfer the mixture into two jars and refrigerate until ready to use.

Storage: The Chocolate-Hazelnut Paste will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week ( it easily kept for 2 weeks for me).

Chocolate Hazelnut torte

I am in love with hazelnuts. I think its because they taste so nutty when toasted, quite unlike other nuts. When foodie got me a big box of these nuts, I spent months looking for the perfect recipe where the flavor of hazelnuts stands out. This torte seemed perfect – a moist sinful chocolate cake with whole caramelized hazelnuts on top. The chocolate cake is dense yet light and the hazelnuts are beautifully caramelized and crunchy. Goodness in every bite!

Having never made a torte before and being a complete novice at using eggs in baking (being a vegetarian and doing only eggless baking for the greater part of my life) I was a little bit intimidated with this recipe. A torte is like a cake but is based on nuts and eggs rather than flour. This means that you have to melt the chocolate and butter together and then add in the eggs (rather like a brownie). However, the catch is that the eggs need to be separated and the egg whites whipped. My main challenge has always been separating the whites without getting any of the yolk in it (c’mon I have not had any practice whatsoever in the last 23 years!). If you do happen to get some yolk in, the whites just won’t become stiff. Also, it’s good to add a pinch of salt just to help it stiffen up a little bit. Once soft peaks are formed, add in sugar little by little and keep beating until you are able to do the “standing on your head test.” Tilt the bowl completely (180 degree turn) over your head and the beaten whites should not move! 

Also, one good idea while grounding nuts is to toss in a tablespoon of flour along with one cup of nuts. This keeps them fluffy.

Once the chocolate is melted and the egg whites have been beaten with the sugar all you need to do is mix the yolk and sugar together. Then fold in the chocolate and butter into the egg yolks and then fold in the stiff egg whites. I even added some ground nuts to this mix. After this, all you need to do is bake until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

I made this cake even more decadent by simply melting some chocolate and pouring it over the cake before adding the caramelized hazelnuts.

Next time, I would like to do this differently:

1)        I would add more toasted ground or chopped hazelnuts to the cake batter.

2)     For the topping, I would chop the hazelnuts in half as some people do not like the heady taste of whole nuts.

3)     Instead of making a sugar syrup, I would caramelize some sugar using just a splash of water (instead of the amount I used this time) so that it turns completely brown. Then I would toss the hazelnuts in it and allow them to cool and become praline like. I would use this to top the torte.

Chocolate Hazelnut Torte

Adapted from Femina magazine

Total time: 1 hour 20 mins

Serves 4 – 6 depending on your serving size

Ingredients:

For the torte:

85 gms dark chocolate

85 gms butter

1 tbsp flour

A pinch of salt

2 eggs, separated

75 gms castor sugar (you can use powdered sugar as well)

½ tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp ground hazelnuts (I would add more next time)

For the topping:

100 gms sugar

50 ml water

100 gms hazelnuts

Method:

1)      Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease and dust a 6 inch cake tin.

2)      Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler and set aside.

3)      Sift the flour. Toss with the ground nuts and keep aside.

4)      Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar. Add the vanilla essence and whisk it mixture.

5)      In another bowl, beat the egg whites (adding a pinch of salt) until soft peaks start to form. Gradually add the remaining sugar, beating all the while until stiff.

6)      Fold the chocolate and butter into the egg yolks along with the flour and nut mixture. Then fold in the egg whites.

7)      Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 mins or until the cake springs from the sides of the pan and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

8)      Remove from the oven. Demould when cool.

9)      Melt some chocolate (approx. 50 gms) and spread it over the torte.

10 )For the topping, dissolve the sugar in water over low heat, stirring continuously. When its golden brown, remove from flame, toss hazelnuts and spread over the torte.