Love Nutella, Love this Better Chocolate Nutrition Spread

Love Nutella, Love this Better Chocolate Nutrition Spread

Thank you, Kristine Duncan MS RDN CDE of VegGirlRd.com, for creating this better nutrition upgrade! This one is a better Mediterranean Diet choice too. Hazelnuts are a great source of omegas. If you are interested in learning more about how to optimize omegas in your diet, check out the The Optimizing Omega 3s™ Program.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Snack
Servings 16

Ingredients
  

Ingredients

  • 2 cups shelled and skinned hazelnuts see notes below
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 ounces dark chocolate 66% cacao chips, discs or drops (about ⅓ cup)
  • 7 tablespoons hazelnut milk
  • ¼ cup good quality cocoa powder I like Dagoba or TCHO
  • ¾ cup powdered sugar
  • teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder or granules
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions
 

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Roast hazelnuts for 9-11 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice during roasting, or until fragrant.
  • Once cool, whiz nuts in the food processor, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides. (For me this took about 7 minutes. Mine never got quite to the nut butter stage, but rather tiny pulverized crumbs of nuts.)
  • Put olive oil and chocolate in a small bowl and microwave 15 seconds at a time until melted, stirring in between, for about a minute altogether. Add this to hazelnuts and pulse a couple of times.
  • Add remaining ingredients (hazelnut milk through salt) and pulse until incorporated and spreadable.
  • Spread and scoop to your heart's delight. Store in the refrigerator.

Notes

Notes:
I followed Charlotte Ryan's instructions for skinning the hazelnuts. You can watch the charming video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXKeK0yT4_I If you have a favorite dark chocolate bar on hand, just coarsely chop it and use as a replacement for the chocolate chips.
Keyword chocolate, hazelnut, homemade, spread