I had a few spare milk chocolate buttons and hazelnuts so I took it as the universe willing me to make some homemade chocolate spread. I was hunting for the simplest recipe possible so I didn’t have to buy any extra ingredients and after finding a few basic ones I combined them to create this.
Ingredients:
- 150g Milk Chocolate Buttons ( Substitute for Dark if you’d like a vegan versions)
- 120g Hazelnuts
- Couple pinches of salt
- 1-4 tablespoons icing sugar for sweetness if using darker chocolate
Method:
- Warm an oven to 200c and spread hazelnuts out on a tray. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes until toasted and fragrant.
- Place hazelnuts into a clean tea towel, wrap and rub vigorously to remove as much of the skin as possible. Don’t worry too much if some still have a bit of skin left you just want to remove the majority as they will make the final mix a little bitter.
- You’ll need a high powered blender or food processor for the next bit. I have a hand blender with a processor attachment and was worried it might not be up to the job so I pre chopped the nuts to give it a helping hand.
- Add the still warm hazelnuts to your food processor and blend the nuts until they form a moist paste. I blitzed for a few seconds then scraped down the sides and bottom then repeated a few times to ensure I got an even blend and my hand mixer didn’t overheat!
- Chop the milk chocolate buttons into smaller chips and add them to the nut butter. The butter should be warm from blending and this helps the chocolate melt.
- Blitz the chocolate and nut paste together and blend until super smooth.
- Give it a taste and add the icing sugar and salt as desired. As I was using milk chocolate I only added a little salt.
- Pour into a jar and store at room temperature for a couple weeks.
NOTES:
My mix was a little more liquid at first but it should set more as it cools. If it sets too hard you can warm it slightly by popping the jar into some warm water.
You could try maple syrup or blitzed dates for natural sweetness if you wanted to avoid sugar
You can spread it on almost anything – I cannot wait to try it as a dip for pretzels! I’m a sucker for salted chocolate.