Thursday, February 24, 2011

Homemade Dark Chocolate Nutella


Oh man, I admit, I LOVE Nutella. I feel like I discovered it, because long before I believe it came to the states, I made the discovery that it was ok to eat chocolate in the morning. I remember the summer of my 14th year, on vacation in Italy with my family for 2 months, and instead of realizing how lucky I was to be in that beautiful country, I was miserable. I hated the small town that my dad was born and raised in called Cervaro! The showers were terrible, we had no TV, we had no phone, the closest town was 5 miles away down a long winding mountain, we had no katsup, potato chips and most importantly Italy hadnt discovered peanut butter! ugh! But then one day, I noticed my cousin slathering a dark colored cream on toast in the morning and after I made sure it wasnt something like lard, or prune spread, I said "si" "fa me provarlo" - "ok, let me try it". And that was it. I was sold, and never looked back. Suddenly, I started to see Italy for what it was. We didnt need tv or a phone, we had mountains, rivers, dancing, feasts, amazing pasta meals, big smile on my dads face, most importantly discovering my roots- oh and Nutella!! i was hooked ever since. Unfortunately, my hips have been too hooked, and just recently, 30 years later, I decided to look at the ingredients and OMG, ok, delicious and worth every 100 calories, but no more! I wasnt going without nutella in my life, but the recipe just got changed. Here is my convenience store version of a Dark Chocolate Nutella. you wont be disappointed!!
ingredients:

1 cup hazelnuts
3 ounces dark chocolate
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon honey

bake hazelnuts for 15 minutes at 350
remove from oven and roll them in a clean dishtowel to remove all the skin
place in food processor and mix until they become a smooth mixture(this might take 5 whole minutes)
create double boiler- one larger pan of water boiling and a smaller pan inside
add chocolate, honey and oil and melt, stirring constantly
add hazelnuts when chocolate is melting
continue to stir
when all mixed together to form a nice creamy consistency remove
recipes all say to refrigerate for a month before serving and i dont really know why
mine is in the refrigerator, I dont know how long it is going to stay there untouched...I think a few days, and then I dont think I can resist, so stay tuned!!

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