This delicious smooth and creamy healthy homemade Nutella recipe is one of the most popular recipes I’ve ever posted, and for good reason!
The Best Nutella Recipe
Currently with more than ten thousand positive online reviews, this surprisingly easy Nutella recipe is definitely a huge reader favorite.
Super rich and creamy, it effortlessly holds its own against that famous Ferrero chocolate spread in the iconic red and white plastic jars at the grocery store.
And yet the homemade version also has fewer than half the calories per serving.
It’s much healthier than store-bought, without sacrificing any of the kid friendly classic chocolate taste that we all know and love.
Also be sure to try these Black Bean Brownies
Homemade Nutella
Just one spoonful of the thick chocolate vegan Nutella recipe, and you’ll absolutely never want to put the spoon down again.
Yes, it’s that good.
Unless, of course, you don’t like Nutella… is such a thing even possible?
Is there really a single person in this world who can resist that luxuriously rich and velvety hazelnut chocolate spread?
If true, please send me your spoon so I can happily eat your portion.
I’m nice like that.
Healthy Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
I didn’t specifically set out to make a low calorie Nutella.
It just turned out that way.
Unlike store-bought Nutella, which lists palm oil and sugar as the first two ingredients, this option is suitable for vegans or those with dairy allergies and is lower in sugar or can be a sugar free recipe.
It’s also high in Vitamin E, B vitamins, and healthy fats.
My first introduction to Nutella was in preschool, and it was love at first bite.
Back then, the spread wasn’t popular like it is now. All of the other children in my class thought I was so weird for bringing Nutella sandwiches to school, neatly packed into a lunchbox with the crusts cut off.
Day after day, they ate their boring peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, while I blissfully devoured a chocolate sandwich.
Needless to say, in just a few months I’d hooked all of my friends on this miracle hazelnut cocoa spread, and soon everyone was bringing Nutella for lunch, as sandwiches or a dip for fresh apple slices, strawberries, or bananas.
Vegan Nutella Ingredients
I gave up eating Nutella upon going vegan years ago. Vegan Nutella or gianduja brands, including Justin’s or Nutiva, do now exist, but buying them can get expensive.
Making your own hazelnut spread at home saves money, and you get to control exactly what ingredients to use.
For the milk: If you choose a nondairy milk such as almondmilk or coconut milk, the recipe can be naturally dairy free, gluten free, egg free, and soy free.
The sweetener: Use your favorite all purpose sweetener, such as date sugar, regular granulated sugar, or coconut sugar. Liquid sweeteners like pure maple syrup, agave, honey, or date syrup also work but will yield a much less creamy and spreadable result.
For a low carb or keto Nutella recipe: Simply use a sugar free sweetener such as xylitol or erythritol instead of the sugar. The low carb version will have just 0.1 net carbs per serving.
I haven’t tried sweetening the Nutella with stevia or allulose, so feel free to experiment and be sure to report back with results if you do.
The hazelnuts: Look for raw hazelnuts in the bulk aisle of health food stores or online. I’ve also seen them sold in bags at Costco. Feel free to sub unsalted roasted hazelnuts and skip the roasting step in the recipe instructions below.
If you can’t find hazelnuts at all, the spread can be made with almonds instead. The flavor will be different but it’s still tasty.
How To Make Nutella At Home
Gather all of the ingredients, and preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roast the two cups of raw hazelnuts on the oven’s center rack for about 6 to 8 minutes.
Rub the roasted nuts together in a cloth or paper towel to remove the skins. Don’t worry if some of the skins refuse to come off.
In a high speed blender (like a Vitamix) or food processor (like a Cuisinart), blend the hazelnuts until they turn into a smooth butter.
Add all remaining ingredients, and blend on high for a few minutes until the texture resembles real Nutella.
Homemade Nutella Storage Instructions
Is using the oil instead of milk, the homemade Nutella is shelf stable and does not need to be refrigerated. It can be stored in a tightly covered container in your kitchen cabinet for up to two weeks. Or refrigerate for up to two months.
If using the milk, it’s best to store the recipe in the refrigerator, where it should stay good for two to three weeks.
After this time, to prevent the nuts from going rancid, you can freeze leftover Nutella. The texture will not be as smooth, but it still tastes great!
Is Nutella Healthy?
The main ingredient in store-bought Nutella is surprisingly not cocoa powder or hazelnuts. Palm oil and sugar make up more than 50% of the spread, which also includes skim milk, whey, soy lecithin, and vanillin (artificial flavor).
Two tablespoons of the packaged hazelnut spread with cocoa contain 200 calories, 11 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, and 21 grams of sugar.
Even if you use all regular sugar in the recipe below, it will still only have 70 calories, less than a gram of saturated fat, and under 5 grams of both fat and sugar per two tablespoon serving, making the homemade Nutella a much healthier option.
Recipes With Nutella
Other good uses for homemade Nutella include spreading it over toast or Vegan Pancakes, frosting cupcakes or adding a spoonful to hot chocolate, or eating it straight out of the jar with a spoon!
Above, watch the step by step homemade Nutella recipe video
Homemade Nutella Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups hazelnuts (240g)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup sweetener of choice (see above for options that work here)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup milk of choice or 2 tbsp oil, optional
Instructions
- Homemade Nutella Recipe: If hazelnuts are not already roasted, preheat the oven to 400 F and bake for 6-8 minutes or just until they begin to brown. Rub them together in a paper towel to get the skins off. It’s okay if a few stubborn skins won’t come off. In a Vitamix or food processor, blend the nuts until they’ve turned to butter. (This could take up to twenty minutes in a food processor.) Then add all other ingredients except milk or oil and blend a long time until it’s smooth like Nutella! If desired, add in the milk or oil. Storage tips are listed above.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Easy Chocolate Recipes
Homemade Chocolate Bars (3 Ingredients)
I was looking in the freezer today when I saw the little bag of hazelnuts that I have been saving for this or The Gracious Pantry’s version and decided that today was the day to make it!
I chose to make your recipe for my first homemade Nutella batch even if I had to half the recipe and use my blender instead of my food processor. The boys I live with though didn’t seem to mind as they enjoyed your version very much! Thank you for posting yours, Katie! A great addition to homemade bread! 😀
-Kimberli
I just made this and it’s my first disappointment from your site 🙁 It just wasn’t sweet enough for me. I ended up adding tonnes of maple syrup and sugar but it just wouldn’t reach the sweetness I wanted 🙁
maybe you mis-measured something? It should be as sweet as regular Nutella.
Jenna, xylitol takes sometime to give you the sweetness. let it sit in the fridge couple hours. It might help. It has this coolness when eaten directly coz which sweetness goes undetected. Always combine xylitol with sugar to enhance its sweetness.
This was awesome! I added some espresso powder to intensify the chocolatey flavor and omitted the milk which made it a bit dry but I was ok with that. Munched on it with some Dave’s Killer Bread. Lovely.
Katie, after trying my hand at a few different vegan nutella recipes, without a doubt I have to say your recipe wins! You’re the only one who really got the consistency right! I just used this to make a batch of chocolate nutella cookiess – YUM! Thanks again, girl!
Do you have a recipe without using Xyletol? That stuff works like a laxative. It can cause great intestinal reactions, and really bad gas.
I would much prefer using Splenda.
Interesting fact, Splenda, despite all the good publicity it has been getting, is actually really bad for you. I have read many articles on this topic and have found that it is basically a bleached sugar with chemicals added to reduce the calories. It is something that I used to adore, and after learning the facts, I have learned that Xyletol is actually much, much better for your body and for your health.
It says xylitol is optional.
I know xylitol is a laxative in larger (more than 3 tsp) quantities at a time. But in this recipe its 18 tsp approx, so distributed over 2 C of nuts its negligible even for 2 tbsp of spread. Believe me I had severe reaction trying to use xylitol in butter icing. I stayed away for a long time. Hope that helps.
I ordered hazelnuts and xylitol on amazon.
this is sooo. so yummy and definitely better than nutella in regards to sugar content and just the flavor! and it was so easy to make. i loved it thanks a lot 🙂
I just got turned onto your blog today and, boy, am I happy that I did! I chuckled when I first read your story because my husband also used to take Nutella sandwiches to school as a kid and his schoolmates thought it was so weird, until they tried it!! I first tried Nutella in 1986 when I started dating my husband and it was love at first spoonful!! We travel to Italy every summer for vacation and always bring back with us 2 of the largest jars we can find…..either 750 grams or 1000 grams if we can find it. We also have my mother-in-law bring us a jar when she visits us in January. The Nutella you get here in the U.S., which is made in Canada, tastes different….probably because in Italy they use vegetable oil instead of the Palm Oil. Not sure what other differences there are. Also, one serving of the Nutella in Italy is 8.5g of sugar; not sure if that’s the same or less than the one made in Canada. Our daughter doesn’t like it which is okay with us because otherwise she’d eat it all on us. We just ran out of Nutella yesterday so now I have to go buy the lesser-quality one which will do us until we go to Italy in August and can replenish our supply. I really want to try your recipe but have to wait until I get a food processor…..probably in the fall (I know you have a Cuisinart and that’s what I want). If you have a panini press, I have a great recipe for you using Nutella but you’ll have to email me for it!! 🙂
Also, I have one request….is there any way you can add a print option to your recipes? I love printing recipes but it’s a nuisance when I have to print out the entire page instead of just the recipe. Thanks for your consideration.
I really want to! Unfortunately, I have a corrupt plugin at the moment, and it’s made it impossible to add any other plugins (like the “print it” plugin). I’m trying to fix the corrupt plugin, and as soon as I figure out how to do that, I’ll definitely install the print function!
Just copy and paste the recipe it into a word processor page, or even an email, then print that.
Aaaaaahhhhhhh……okay. Hopefully you can get that fixed soon. 🙂
We just made this and oh my goodness!! So good! Had to hide it from my 12 year old. She loves nutella and I thought this might be a tough sell, but she is in love! Did not need or use the oil and used xylitol and just a smidge of pure stevia powder. We are on our way to deliver some to a friend. So far we LOVE everything we have made from your website! Only thing we had a problem with was the single lady cupcake. But we are going to try again :0) Our favorite is still the deep dish cookie. Next recipe to try is the cookie dough dip.
Have a great day! Grace, Marsha and Madeline…The flavor seekers!
Aw thanks, Grace. What problems are you having with the cupcake? Maybe I can help figure it out? What flour are you using, and what’s the problem you’re having?
Thank you!!!! We made it with spelt flour and it turned out kind of gummy and it didn’t rise. Flavor was good :0 Oh yeah, we did it in the microwave also. Will try again in the oven but we were looking for a late night treat :0)
Baked goods are gummier in the microwave. Do try in the oven :).
THANK YOU KATIE.
You have made my dreams come true.
Dessert here I come! I’M SO EXCITED!
Also, when’s the book coming out?? Can’t wait!
lol I love your comment name :).
I’ve just started the actual writing of the book, so it’ll be awhile. But I’m working on it!
Wouah ! I have been searching for such a receipe for months ! I tried it and could not help eating it out a spoon and taste it again. I could not believe this was THE recipe I was searching! It is so tasty ! And on the contrary to Nutella, the main ingredient is nuts !! Nuts and nuts ! Just a small quantity of agave and an optional quantity of oil. Not only sugar and fat as Nutella is. No palm oil ! Thank you so much. This is already the 3rd time I am doing it ! I am going to try other of your recipeq because if there are as delicious as this one is, whaouh ! I admire !
Aw so glad you like it!!
I noticed the xylitol on your ingredient list and wanted to leave a note for all dog lovers (as I can see you are) that xylitol is HIGHLY TOXIC to dogs (not sure about cats) even in very small amounts. It was news to me, so I thought perhaps it might be important info. to pass on. Xylitol is in so many products now, even toothpaste. So, if you use it, make sure you don’t accidentally share any goodies with your furry friends.
Thanks, SDC!
Same thing with chocolate… and raisins! 😕
Once I added the milk, I used like 1/4 cup of regular milk, something went wrong, it became a big greasy mess, not sure why? This is why I didn’t add the rest of the milk as in the recipe. It’s like the milk took out all the oils from the nuts and brought them to the top. The whole thing looked shiny and greasy, tasted this way too, the texture changed from creamy to clumpy. Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? Yours looks so different. Any advice appreciated, thank you!
This is referring to things that are toxic to dogs…..you can add grapes (which makes sense because of the raisins) and garlic to that list. I didn’t know about xylitol. I’ve never actually used xylitol but it’s good info to have…..thanks!!
Wow, garlic? Maybe I should do a whole post on this…
Maybe you should!! :))
What’s the best way to store this? Does it need to be refrigerated? I made one batch and stored it in the fridge and it got kinda hard 🙁
Well I am quite surprise to read this. This is one of the great advantage of this marvellous receipe : it does not get hard in the fridge ! It just has the perfect consistency. Have you used chocolate instead of cocoa powder ?
Nope I used cocoa powder… Might be my fridge though, my freezer turns things into blocks of ice and the fridge sometimes goes on the fritz… I’ll take that as it needs to be stored in the refrigerator then?