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Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (homemade Nutella) dairy-free

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homemadenutella
Slowly but surely I replace my old favorite store-bought items with new homemade healthier ones. I haven’t had Nutella in years. I first had it on a crepe in Rome. Sigh. When I returned to Pennsylvania, where I lived at the time, I began buying it in the store. I look at Nutella ingredients now (sugar is the first ingredient!), and I know I can make it better myself.

Making my own chocolate hazelnut spread was so simple and fast, I can’t believe I haven’t done it sooner 🙂

Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (homemade nutella)

Ingredients

1 & 1/2 cups hazelnuts
1 & 1/2 cups full-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 (3-ounce) bars 70% (or higher) dairy-free dark chocolate
optional: add another cup of coconut milk to make it spreadable straight from the fridge

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the skins are beginning to flake off.
  2. While the hazelnuts are toasting, place the coconut milk, coconut sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the sugar has melted, remove the pan from the heat and set it aside.
  3. Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate bars and set them aside.
  4. Remove the toasted hazelnuts from the oven and let them cool slightly. Rub the hazelnuts in a clean, dry kitchen towel to remove as much of the skins as possible.
  5. Add the hazelnuts to a food processor and purée until very fine.homemade-nutella
  6. Add the melted chocolate bars to the food processor and purée until smooth (about 2 minutes).
  7. Add the milk mixture to the food processor and purée until smooth.homemade-nutella
  8. Store in mason jars in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. This spread also freezes well.

♥, Kelly

—Use this recipe as a filling in my Chocolate Hazelnut Pies.

—Be sure to sign up to my new Spunky Newsletter for more recipes, news, and subscriber giveaways!

P.S. In my book, Paleo Chocolate Lovers’ Cookbook, you will also find all sorts of chocolate favorites like donuts, cheesecake, chocolate zucchini bread, cake, brownies, cookies, truffles, even a savory chapter! They are the healthiest chocolate recipes anywhere 🙂

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Comments

  2. I’ve never had Nutella before in my life, but I’m sure I won’t be missing out on anything w/ this recipe. Thank you Kelly!

    • If you read the contents of commercial Nutella one jar has 14 hazelnuts. The rest is basically trans-fats and icing sugar plus some chocolate. It is not a health food.

  3. how much chocolate does that work out to be? I am not familiar with those bars…so how many ounces approximately? Thanks

    • It works out at 9 onces, which is approximately three 70% Lindt chocolate bars (you’ll have about 2 squares left over to eat – yay!. Hope tht helps x

  6. Fantastic! I fell in love with Nutella on a trip to Paris back in high school, but I can’t bring myself to ingest some of those ingredients nowadays. Your homemade version looks great, and I will definitely have to make it!

  9. This looks so good!! I’ve never eaten Nutella, but I have had the Justin’s all natural chocolate hazelnut spread, and it is super good, but yours looks better!! Can’t wait to try it!

  12. You are a genius! I have not had much Nutella in my life, because I honestly was not a big fan of it, but this recipe looks delicious! What would you use the spread for?! Would love to hear ideas.

  13. You are really a genius Kelly! I eat Justin’s chocolate hazelnut butter like it’s my job;) I’ve been telling my husband that I wanted to try to replicate it some time and now I don’t have to! I won’t have to worry about freezing it in our house;)Thanks so much.

  15. Thank you, thank you! My son can’t do processed sugar, and him and I both need to avoid dairy, so my kids have never had nutella in their whole lives (though they are just 4 and 5). I can’t wait to make this, they are going to love me! lol

    • I would recommend an organic dark chocolate, Chocolove is not organic, and contains processed sugar.

  18. Becca- you can put it on a spoon! 🙂 I’m currently in a 30 day Paleo challenge but I can promise you once those 30 days are over, I will be making this. Yum!

  19. Fabulous! I really love the coconut milk in there (instead of oil). And even if it does freeze well, I’m sure it wouldn’t last that long around here! 😉

  20. Wow, looks delicious, Kelly! I tried my hand at a banana version of nutella and was pretty happy with the outcome. I used a base of raw almonds, chocolate, and mashed banana. It was delicious!

  22. Oh my gosh I love your blog! Thank you so much. I have been a vegetarian for 7 years, but about 5 years ago I had took a medicine that caused gal bladder disease and ever since I have become increasingly more allergic to soy, gluten and basically anything prepackaged or “normal”(I was already allergic to dairy products). I have been trying to eat gluten free and it has really helped. Thank you so much for all your yummy recipes and tips, what a blessing.

  23. You are such a lifesaver!! My oldest has been begging for Nutella, which he can’t have due to being GFCF. This is perfect. God bless you!

  25. I can’t wait to try this! I wonder if the jars could be processed in the canner and the spread preserved?

  27. I make homemade Nutella by blending roasted hazelnuts with 70% dark chocolate chips (the 365 brand). No recipe, just blend 1 cup of hazelnuts in the food processor and then add as much dark chocolate as you see fit. Keep going til it’s creamy 🙂

  28. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. As an Italian…what I miss most is Nutella! Once in NYC, I had a crepe at a little restaurant called The Crooked Tree, smothered with Nutella and Bananas…and now I can make that decadent treat for my sons…

  29. Thank you! My cyclist friends love Nutella for a sugar-filled energy boost. Glad to find something I can recommend as a substitute!

  31. I have a question… what about the sugar content in the chocolate bars? They have added sugar to the tune of 8g per 1/3 bar, so that’s a lot of added refined sugar! That makes it 72 grams for the whole batch.

  32. Anonymous, Three of those bars contain about 7 tablespoons of sugar (a little more than 2 tablespoons in each bar), and the recipe makes almost 3 cups of spread. We had to freeze one cup because it made so much. You could use cocoa powder in place of the bars to cut back on the sugar, but I’m not sure how much cocoa powder you would need. Maybe I’ll try it with cocoa powder next time, or let me know if you try it first. You could also substitute stevia and more coconut milk for the honey/coconut sugar. Hope that helps.

  33. I did the math on the cost per serving for homemade versus commercial. Despite using ingredients I don’t have on hand like coconut sugar, and the “good stuff” artisan chocolate, homemade is cheaper per ounce.

    1 1/2 lb hazelnuts = $7.49/lb bulk = $11.24
    1 1/2 cups coconut milk = 13.5 oz can $1.49
    1/4 cup honey = 48 oz $8.32 = $0.34
    1/4 cup coconut palm sugar = 17.6 oz $4.69 = $0.54
    1/8 tsp sea salt = 14.5 oz $1.99 = $0.01
    3 bars (3.2 oz each) of dark chocolate = 9.6 oz = 9.7 oz artisan chocolate $7.99

    homemade nutella total $21.61
    3 quart mason jars = 96 oz = $0.23/oz
    canned nutella = 13 oz $3.69 = $0.29/oz

  35. First spread Nutella on toast, cookie or a cracker and then spread Peanutbutter on top. Do the Nutella first so the rest of it won’t taste like PB

  36. This looks great. I have made my own before and my children love mine better than the store bought. The other recipes I have seen use oil, which I am not crazy about. I like that yours has coconut milk. I also made it once substituting almonds instead of hazelnuts. The taste is different, but still delicious. Plus hazelnuts are not that easy for me to find, but almonds are everywhere!

  39. I’ve never actually had Nutella, but I’ve been dying to try the Justin’s spread. I’ve steered away because it only comes in expensive little packets near me. I cannot wait to try making it myself! Thanks.

  43. I made this–it is DELICIOUS!! However, must I refrigerate it to get it thicker? I only had two 4 oz. bars chocolate and a leftover bar with about 1.8 oz. Maybe together they were too liquidy when melted? Also, a small fraction of the coconut milk was “lite”–maybe that was the issue? If it ends up not getting thicker, I will just use it to dip fruit and possibly some blanched nuts.

    I have already forwarded this recipes–and will recommend to all! I love your books, too. Thanks for paving the way for us so we don’t have to re-invent the wheel, but instead get to reap the rewards of your hard work! 🙂

  44. Kelly, have you ever substituted honey with coconut nectar in this or any of your recipes? I’m in the process of making this right now! I was going to try it with the nectar but didn’t find it until I had already used honey – oh, well. 🙂

    Coconut nectar does have a different taste… and it seems like it could be a great lower-GI alternative!

  47. It’s not hazelnuts and not quite like nutella, but a decent store bought healthy alternative is dark chocolate peanut butter dreams peanut butter.

  49. Oh my Kelly, I want some of this! That looks so delish and what a lovely gift for someone!
    From the looks of all those comments, you could have people fighting over it! lol

  50. This looks so good! I love Nutella, but not the ingredients, and other homemade versions still didn’t fit the bill. This looks like the one! I’m curious to try the coconut palm sugar; I currently use Rapadura and wonder how they compare.

  51. This is a wonderful recipe — except I think Raw Cacao would be the better choice than chocolate bars or chocolate chips. It’s just raw cocoa powder and so wonderful for nutrients, like polyphenols. A bit more sweetener might be needed.

  52. A friend of mine bought a totally raw version of Nutella – cost $14.50 for about 4 oz.!! It was so hard it was almost impossible to get out of the jar. Following Kelly’s recipe, we put it in a VitaMix and added coconut milk (the ingreidents were only the nuts, raw cocao and honey). With the coconut milk, it was perfect! Spread easily. And those asking about different sweeteners, Kelly’s recipe says other sweeteners can be used!

  54. I made this today and it didn’t turn out. I am reading the comments trying to figure out what I did wrong, but not seeing anything similar. I followed the recipe to the letter except I couldn’t find chocolove chocolate so I used Endangered Species Extreme Dark Chocolate 88%. Is the recipe correct in that it calls for 3 – 3.2 oz bars or a total of 9.6 oz of chocolate? That is what I used and it was very bitter. I added another 1/2 cup of coconut sugar to it and unfortunately it did not improve the flavor. I assume it’s just the chocolate that I used and it seems like too much dark chocolate to me. I does make quite a bit and I was hoping to use it for gifts, but I will have to experiment a little and try it for Valentines Day gifts instead. Thanks for the inspiration and please let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

  59. We made this today and it is wonderful, not nearly as sticky sweet as Nutella. My question is why does it need refrigeration, perhaps the coconut milk?

  61. Hi Kelly,

    Thanks for the inspiration! I adapted your recipe and blogged about it with a couple of links back to Spunky Coconut. I used DuChilly hazelnuts, which don’t need the skins off, along with TJ’s Pound Plus Dark Chocolate, a little less sugar (Sucanat) and the coconut milk. The result was heavenly spread on French toast with sliced bananas on top!

  63. Becca asked what to do with it, sometimes I just add some nuts to it in the jar and spoon them out. Yum. It is my chocolate fix. Can’t wait to make this, I quit eating it because of the ingredients in the original.
    Thank you so much.
    Jan

  64. Love your site! I also love chocolate but am allergic to it. Do you ever use carob? I am substituting it for my hot cocoa. It’s not chocolate but it’s not bad…may try your nutella this way. Very dark chocolate is also the same as drinking expresso for me…get jittery.

  65. Love your site! I also love chocolate but am allergic to it. Do you ever use carob? I am substituting it for my hot cocoa. It’s not chocolate but it’s not bad…may try your nutella this way. Very dark chocolate is also the same as drinking expresso for me…get jittery.

  69. Thanks, Kelly! This turned out great! I used a bar of Trader Joe’s 85% chocolate (3.5oz) and weighed out the rest in 60% chocolate chips. Then I made it a bit easier by heating the coconut milk, sugar (I used sucanat) and chocolate all together on low. It worked great! I might add some almonds too next time to make it a bit more like the Justin nut butter we’re used to eating.

  70. I can’t wait to make this! I am planning to put in mason jars, but am wondering if I have to go through the whole canning process (boiling in water bath)? I am also planning to ship to family, does it have to be refrigerated or chilled during that time? Thanks!

  71. Hi Kelly,

    I really enjoy your website and recipes! Really wonderful all around. I don’t comment much, but I wanted to ask you about Chocolove. I also have liked this brand; I like the 70 and also 77%. But I was recently reading an article about chocolate and that often the cocoa butter is replaced with soy lecithin (usually GMO). I guess I wasn’t really looking closely, thinking this was a great dark chocolate, but yes, Chocolove contains soy lecithin. I’m wondering if this is any concern for you? I will be looking for other brands because I don’t want the soy for a number of reasons and I also want the healthier cocoa butter. I guess you can never be too careful…I just bought some Frontier lemon and maple extract which were on sale, but I got home and noticed the lemon has canola oil as it’s first ingredient, and the maple extract contains gluten and soy (yes in small amounts, but still surprising). Well, just wanted to inquire about this. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes and information!

  72. This sounds wonderful. Can’t wait to try this recipe. I do have a question. Do you have an internet source for bulk raw nuts. My local Sprouts has almonds, and cashews but they do not carry raw walnuts. Trader Joes has them but way more expensive then in bulk.

  73. Made it and love it! Thinking about sharing as Christmas presents.

    Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe!

    I used a 1/4 cup grade B maple syrup instead of the coconut flour and it did seem a bit liquid-y at first but after being in the fridge overnight it was perfectly creamy. As a gift I may put more maple syrup so it tastes as sweet as nutella, but I liked it not being too sweet because as one commenter mentioned the chocolate bars do have sugar in them.

  74. Hi Kelly. Thank you for sharing. I followed your recipe and while it is delicious, refrigeration stiffens the spread considerably. Too much, in fact, to spread. Given the ingredients, it surely must be kept in the fridge… Am I the only one who has this result. Ehat can I do to achieve and keep a spreadable refrigerated product? Grateful for your advice!

  75. If I wanted to use cacao powder instead of chocolate bars, how much would you suggest?

    Thanks!

  76. would love to use less sugar for my kids, even if it’s coconut sugar -have you tried this with cocoa and stevia or part stevia and sugar?

  77. Oh a LIFE SAVER!!! We lived in Germany for 6 years and my youngest lived on Nutella! I can’t give him the American version because I am opposed to palm oil, which the German version doesn’t have. YAY! I am going to try adding crispies cereal to mine. They have Ovamaltine in Germany that is basically Nutella with crispies in it…and it is FABULOUS!

    • In our pre-gluten-free days my husband was in Germany, but didn’t know how to speak the language. He asked a crepe vendor if he spoke English. The guy said yes, and Andy asked for a chocolate crepe. The vendor replied, “You know, saying that in German isn’t so hard. It’s ‘schokolade crêpe.'” Which sounds almost exactly the same. So, Andy felt kind of embarrassed!

  78. I made 3 batches with an extra can of light coconut milk (4cans total) and to my delight, made 12 6oz jars (plus extra!) I used less sugar, only 2/3 and mixed both 70% and 65% Chocolove. It turned out great, smooth with a tiny bit of grain from nuts and creamy! Now I have delicious holiday gifts for teachers and friends as well as some for myself. It gets a bit messy with shelling the hazelnuts and all the pouring, but was truly a labor of love! I may just make another batch next week!

  79. I cannot say enough now delicious this is. I am currently making my second batch. The first was just eaten straight from the fridge with a spoon! Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us.

  80. How good is that!
    Nutella is back on the menu for my 14 year old son!! The only time he ever gets it is when he is visiting a friends home as we don’t and have never had it in our cupboards!
    I have just made a large jar full for him while he is at school 🙂
    Thank you, Thank you xx

  81. I’ve had the Paleo Chocolate Lovers’ Cookbook for quite a while and I LOVE, love it. My family went gaga over Chocolate cupcakes with cookie dough icing. We had those for dessert at Christmas dinner. Even the type 1 diabetic member of the family could eat them.

  82. Good grief.

    Thank you. I am going to have to try to make this. I have MCS and haven’t been able to actually eat Nutella in years.

    This recipe also makes me want to create a chocolate tea based around the taste of Nutella…. Again, thank you.

  83. This IS as delicious as it sounds. I want to experiment using it as filling for home made chocolates, or between layers of a cake. So. Good. My vegan brother in law was very, very excited about it too!

  84. My kiddos love Nutella in a pb sandwich but I can’t stand the ingredients of the store bought stuff. If I add the extra coconut milk to make it spreadable from the fridge will it be too liquid to hold up in a sack lunch sandwich? Would it be better to make as is and set out the jar for a bit before making sandwiches? Thanks! Your recipes are AMAZING!