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)
Thank you for the recipe, turned out good!
Amen sisters but be cautious of vegetable saturated fats. They are not 100% good for us either. Palm oil even less so. By the by, the Palm most often planted in those plantations that the rainforest is being chopped down for? Well they are the weedy palm tree, known as the Coconut Palm! The palm kernels come from the family of palms so any one of several varieties can be used. But the Coconut is the rabbit of Palms, it grows in the salty sand of beaches all over th Pacific
and Indian Ocean.. some sprout even in the waters edge where the tide washes over their roots 2xdaily. Did I say weed. It grows like bamboo. As for being heart healthy, it’s no different than butter really. It is better than the GMO vegetable oils, but it’s still saturated, if you use a Jar a week you will regret it!
We need to be moderate in all things. Too much fat is just too much fat.! Your gall bladder will drive you too the ER thinking your having a heart attack I saw plenty of that in my working years. They send you to the OR to remove a sac the size of a medium chicken egg with a batch of stones in it the size of chickpeas, that caused your agony. I don’t recommend vegetable oil. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is not reccomended for cooking,, it is for Cold applications only! For cooking you want regular olive oil the clear yellow oil or it’s lite version they are clarified for cooking on the store top. They don’t breakdown for general use in cooking & Baking. For real high temperature cooking such as stirfrying in a wok. The oil of choice is peanut oil. But get it Organic to ensure none of that GMO disaster has ruined in it . GMO contamination is the most dangerous problem. But fryolator fat is GMO vegetable oil. Except in good quality Asian restaurants where imported peanut oil holds sway. Far better to avoid to much of any fat animal saturated or vegetable saturated, plunk your money for the organic saturated vegetable fats & use them very sparingly, that includes the avocado too. Too much of a good thing is still too much. Moderation is the one true path. That includes all those convenience foods AKA packaged processed foods too much palm Oil, too much salt, too much sugar. We don’t eat them the reason I want that healthy (+/-) Nutella recipe.. Then I have control over what’s in it. Don’t care for chocolate myself, but Hubs will eat a Jar with a spoon! If you can’t stop them save an old Jar & put the better stuff in it. Way to go! MA from Boston. Good night. Katie this would make a good healthy blog article!
I just made this!! Took forever in my old food processor, I thought I’d never get there, but literally hours later (yes… it was a process haha) here I am with a really tasty homemade nutella!! I was convinced it was not going to be creamy enough so I added an extra teaspoon of oil (I used coconut oil, totally recommend it) and it turned out almost too liquid haha, but I like it better this way. The taste is really amazing, I wasn’t expecting it to be this good. Now I wanna put it on everything sweet haha
Thanks for this great recipe!! and here’s to hoping I’ll get my hands on a more efficient food processor one day, because I really want to make this again 😉
Oh and I used cashew milk, also totall recommend it 🙂
How do you properly store this? And how long is it good for?
How do you store this? I know Nutella is shelf-stable. How about this version?
No need to reply. I now see this has already been answered. I didn’t read all the comments. Maybe add this detail to the instructions so we don’t keep asking? LOL
I have a couple of questions.
1. How does one get a majority of the skins off of the hazelnuts? It seems that no matter how much I rub them in the towel, a lot of the skins stay on. Does anyone have a quicker way?
2. Whenever I make this recipe, it tastes delicious, but the consistency turns out almost like dough. It is not creamy at all. I’m following all of the directions to a T, but it never turns out creamy. Maybe it’s because I have too many skins left on the hazelnuts? That’s the only thing I can pinpoint. Has anyone else struggled with this and/or solved it?
Thank you for the recipe, Katie! It tastes so good.
Hi! How would you store the nutella (frigde vs counter) and how long would it keep? Thanks! 🙂
Fridge, maybe a week or two
I tried it today with my ninja it tastes amazing i replaced the maple with a no calorie sweetener and the sugar eith splenda so its more low calorie. But i am wondering how to store it ? Fridge ? And for hoe long ?
Thank you for this amazing recipe
I just made this and it’s fantastic! Super smooth and creamy. My question is how do you store it? Does it need to be kept in the fridge? Thank you so much for this recipe, my kids and I all love Nutella but I refuse to buy it because of the Palm Oil and the deforestation of the rainforests.
Yes I would fridge it!
Hi, how long will this keep? Should it be placed in the fridge? Thank you
This recipe is amazing. I’m totally in love. I’ve made this almost 10 times now! It’s really is amazing. Thank you so much and many kind returns. Good day to you. ?❤️
How long is this safe to eat after making it, and do you store it in the refrigerator or not?
Heaven!! I looooove Nutella, but ever since I became pregnant and more so, had my son I have taken out sugars (for the most part) and in the beginning with nursing I had to avoid soy and dairy as he was allergic. Sometimes I would just stand in the shopping isle staring at the Nutella missing it…and then, I saw this post! It took me a while to find hazelnuts, none of our stores sell them! But good old amazon came through and I just made THE BEST batch of Nutella ever! I used my ninja (it’s extremely powerful ) and honey as my sweetner (only about two tablespoons ) and it is soooo good! I couldn’t stop eating it out of the machine! I was able to fill two mason jar cups and also a few ice cube trays! I’m going to use them as my frozen base for smoothy bowls. As I spooned the creamy yet nutty grain beauty into my jars I dreamt of christmas and big red ribbons on the jars as gifts. Hope my whole family likes Nutella! Thank you, I may invest in a hazelnut plantation! !!
Do you know how long it will last? Thanks! I’m going to try it soon 🙂
Ana
Maybe a week?
Just made this using all stevia for the sweetener..tastes ok. A tiny bit bitter, but still yummy
For the homemade Nutella, can other nuts or chickpeas be substittued for the hazelnuts??