Nutella-esque

Well hi there people, babies, dogs and unicorns alike!  Today, a friend and I took on the challenge of duplicating Nutella into a recipe she can eat (read: no sugar or gluten) and we were successful!  We followed a recipe found here but agreed we would make a few changes next time..  If you are Celiac or Vegan or sugar-free, THIS is a great cocoa-nut spread you can use like Nutella!  And for the rest of us without dietary restriction, this is just healthier. 

Let me state right now: THIS IS NOT IDENTICAL TO NUTELLA!!!!  So get over it.  I know it's not the same.  It's different, and that's okay.  This is a nod to Nutella and it's super yum.  Junk food is junk for a reason.....

Here are my recommendations and planned changes for next time:

• Double the cocoa powder.  At least.   And maybe triple it.
• Use dark cocoa powder, or mix regular and dark... much more flavor.
• This recipe wasn't quite sweet enough... we ended up using WAY more stevia... like 5 or 6 packets instead of 1.  Next time I'm planning on trying honey, but the person with whom I was making sharing this recipe, isn't much of a honey fan.  Try honey instead of Agave, or mix agave, honey and stevia to your desired tastes.
• Cut the nuts a bit.. this recipe calls for 2 cups but it was overwhelmingly nutty... I'd say next time I'll use 1-1/2 cups instead of a full 2.
• Don't.Burn.The.Hazelnuts.  When roasting, turn the oven down to 400 if you need, but don't burn them.  We burnt ours just a tad and you could taste it in the finished product

Also, this recipe isn't smooth like Nutella, it has some texture to it.  I am a huge fan of chunky peanut butter so when we were finished with our Nutella-esque, I thought you could make this chunky too by processing the nuts in two batches...  Put 1/2 the nuts you plan to use in the food processor first, blend, add other ingredients, blend, then add the other 1/2 of the nuts - chunky Nutella!! 

We ate this on bananas and apples and it was delicious!  I can't wait to try this on pancakes, frozen bananas or on toast... YUMMY!  If you give this one a whirl and have tips/tricks/ideas/changes, be sure to post them!

Enjoy!

KDH.