Recipe Wednesday: Homemade Nutella

I bet you can't guess the next new recipe I'll be trying out??

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I've only recently started being more adventurous in the kitchen. I've always cooked and made some tasty meals, but usually they were really simple and the same few over and over again. Can a girl really eat a homemade veggie pizza or quesadilla every day? Well, yes. But what fun is that?

Oftentimes I would find a recipe I wanted to make but would decide to not do it because I didn't have the ingredient on hand and why would I want to buy an ingredient that I may end up wasting. I was also afraid it wouldn't turn out right. Oh, the stress!

Well I decided that if it doesn't turn out right, so what? I'll eat almost anything. And I give food to my friends. Or I freeze it. Or, more often than should happen, I eat it all in one sitting. Oops!

This homemade nutella, found on the beautiful Bon Vivant blog, is probably the next thing I'll make and eat within 15 minutes.  Maybe I'll share it...but probably not. And the pictures are so appropriate because my favorite way to eat Nutella is on a baguette. And then on a banana. And then straight off of the spoon. And then digging my finger into the almost empty jar to get every last niblet. Oh, I'm getting hungry.

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Grown-up Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (Nutella) (adapted from David Lebovitz and Su Good Sweets)
Makes about 14 ounces

10 oz/ 300 grams hazelnuts, toasted and skins removed
2 oz/ 60 grams cocoa nibs
1/2 to 2/3 cup/ 60-70 grams powdered sugar
7 teaspoons unrefined hazelnut oil
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder

To toast the hazelnuts, preheat your oven to 300F and spread the nuts on one layer on a large baking sheet. Toast the nuts for about 15 minutes until golden brown, then rub their skins off with a clean cloth. Set aside.

Toast the cocoa nibs by placing them in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until they darken and are slightly shiny. Remove from heat and set aside.

Place the nuts and cocoa nibs in a food processor and chop them until they liquefy. Your processor will sound as if it’s throwing a hissy fit and about to implode, but keep your finger on the pulse button until you get a thick, lovely dark chocolate hazelnut butter. The nuts and nibs will first gather into a ball before turning into butter. To help move things along, you may need to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl to ensure that everything is pulverized.

Add the sugar, oil and espresso powder and pulse again, scraping down as needed until everything is well incorporated into a lusciously thick sauce. There will still be chunks of nibs remaining which will give a slight crunch to each spoonful.

Store the spread in clean and dry airtight containers/jars and refrigerate. Bring the spread to room temperature before using.