Deliciously creamy and velvety, ready in 30 minutes, and made with just half a dozen ingredients, my easy vegan Nutella is quick to make, and far healthier than its shop-bought counterpart.
Vegan Nutella recipe
I suppose I shouldn't say Nutella though, since it's Ferrero's brand name... but 'vegan Nutella' rolls off the tongue so much easier than 'vegan chocolate hazelnut spread'.
It also rolls ON the tongue rather well.
Rather too well.
Am I right?
Making vegan Nutella
It's so easy to make this Nutel…. ummm…. chocolate hazelnut spread - all you need are raw hazelnuts, maple syrup, a little coconut oil, a vanilla pod (or vanilla extract / paste), a dash of salt, and some dark chocolate.
Which type of chocolate should I use?
I prefer to use 65% cocoa solids but if you like a more bitter chocolate taste, do feel free to go for 75% or even 80%. I find however, that really high percentages of cocoa solids have a tendency to give me tummy ache.
You don't want to know about the time I nommed a whole 100g bar of 80% within half an hour.
The aftermath was horrible.
Truly horrible.
And painful.
This vegan Nutella however, is lovely. And even if you gorge yourself on it, it won't give you tummy ache. Don't ask me how I know. 😉
Melting the chocolate
By the way, if you are going to melt the chocolate in a microwave, do keep an eye on it. Don't do as I did, and put it on for two minutes, and leave it while you do something else. Not only was the chocolate completely ruined, it stank out the entire apartment.
Oops.
Help - my chocolate has seized!
If you're going to add more maple syrup, you'll need to add a little hot water because the more syrup you add, the more claggy the spread will become. If the chocolate does seize up, add boiling water, one teaspoon at a time, and whisk until smooth again.
Tips
- I would suggest using a chocolate that's in the range of 50%-65% cocoa solids.
- Instead a vanilla bean, use 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.
- If you can't get skinned nuts, once you've roasted them, place onto a tea towel, and roll them around to remove the skins.
- If you're happy to have a slight coconutty taste, use virgin coconut oil, otherwise use refined.
- If you're going to add more maple syrup, you'll need to add a little more milk because the more syrup you add, the more claggy the spread will become.
- Depending on your food processor or blender, getting to the nut butter stage may be a bit quicker or take a little longer. My Magimix food processor takes around 10 mins to make nut butter. My Vac 2 is much faster - around half the time.
This vegan Nutella is...
- Gluten-free
- Soy-free
- Dairy-free
- Refined sugar-free
Spread it on bread or toast, have it on top of your favourite ice cream, on waffles, on pancakes (of course!), or my personal favourite, on top of banana roti.
Or just eat it straight off a spoon.
Buon appetito!
Check out these chocolate recipes, too!
- Nutella liqueur
- Mozartkugeln
- Perfect brownies
- Fudgy brownies
- Snickers bowl
- Chocolate maple pudding
- Foolproof choc chunk cookies
- Salted caramel chocolate pots
📖 Recipe
How To Make Vegan Nutella
Ingredients
- 400 g raw unsalted hazelnuts, skinned
- 100 g 60% dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoon coconut oil melted
- 4 tablespoon maple syrup
- 125 ml plain hazelnut milk
- 1 vanilla bean seeds only (note 2)
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 175°C (350°F / gas mark 4).
- Spread the hazelnuts in a single layer onto a baking tray, and roast for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, and place into a food processor or high-speed blender. Blitz for a few minutes, until you have a thick and creamy nut butter. (You'll probably need to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl - or jar - a few times.)
- While the nuts are processing, break the chocolate into small pieces, and place into a heatproof bowl over a pan of hot (not boiling) water, with the coconut oil.
- Once the nut butter is ready, add the melted chocolate and coconut oil, maple syrup, hazelnut milk, vanilla, and salt. Blitz for another couple of minutes, until everything is completely mixed together and smooth.
- Transfer to a sterilised jar, and store at room temperature. Assuming it's around that long, this vegan Nutella will keep for around a month.
- 1 cup = US cup = 240 ml
- 1 tablespoon = US/UK = 15 ml
- 1 fl oz = US = 30 ml
Choclette
Gorgeous. Your nutella looks so silky smooth and delicious. I've made both raw versions and roasted versions but can honestly say I don't know which was the best.
Nico
Thanks, Choclette - I love both too! xx
Exotic Fruit
I need to make this. I really really do. I’ve been wanting a healthier version of Nutella so I can eat more of it (obv) and this pretty much answers all my prayers. FYI, your photos are totally rockin right now!! Welcome to the RAW side hehehe
Nico
Who in their right mind would not want to eat more 'notella'? 😉 xx
Jozie
I just made this today and it's delicious (I already gave myself a tummy ache for eating too much of it lol)! I couldn't find any hazelnut milk so I used a plant based chocolate milk instead. I do wish it was a tiny bit sweeter, but I have a really bad sweet tooth.
Nico
You sound like my beloved, Jozie - I swear he would make sugar sweeter if he could! I'm really pleased you enjoyed the Nutella - you could always stir in more sweetener if you have any left. As for getting tummy ache - yep, been there, done that! I love the idea of using chocolate milk - I'll have to try that next time I make some. Thanks so much for the idea! xx
Hanna
Insanely delicious!! Only wished I had a higher powder blender to get it smoother. That’s literally the only negative. And I love that it’s fridge free ?
Nico
I am so glad you love this, Hanna - thanks so much for the feedback! xx
Netty
This recipe looks great! I can't wait to try it out once I've finished saving for a new food processor- my current one is older than I am and can't really handle nuts. I'll probably use a darker chocolate than you have, as I pretty much only use 90% and above. I've always found store-bought Nutella a little sweet for my liking, so hopefully this will be one that my whole family can enjoy!
Nico
Funny you should say that - my Magimix is almost as old as me... but it's still going strong! Do let me know how the 90% works out, won't you? Another reader said they thought that around 50% would be fine for them - I love how we all have different tastes! xx
Conrad
Hi, tried this recipe it was great but the only amendment to the recipe I would suggest is using a rarely low percentage dark chocolate, since I used 70% cocoa and it was a little bitter when tasting. It was ok but not to everyone's taste. I'm going to try again with 50%.
Nico
Thanks for the feedback, Conrad, I'll add your observations as a note. I use 65%, which is perfect for me but amato mio, who has a much sweeter tooth prefers it with a lower percentage. Do come back to let me know how you get on with the 50%, won't you? xx
FANE
Aww this recipe looks divine ? I’ve been looking out for
this ! I will give it a try and come back and share my experiment ?
High five to the photography
Nico
Thanks so much! Do let me know how you get on with it, won't you? xx
Nico
Oh gosh, Christina, I am so sorry. How disappointing,
I have honestly never had this happen; I've kept jars of it for several months, with no ill effect. I've never had to keep it in the fridge, even in the summer, in 30C heat. In winter, in a centrally-heated apartment (usually about 22C), it's always been fine too.
The only things I can think of are:
1. Maybe the milk you used was turning?
2. Perhaps the coconut oil? Although in saying that, I've never experienced coconut oil going rancid.
If neither of those, were the nuts fresh? The only reason I ask is because I did once have some hazelnuts lurking in the pantry for more than a year (possibly even two!), and when I went to use them, they'd turned really bitter. I wonder if something similar happened with yours?
I'm really sorry I can't be of more help; I've never had this happen to me, so can't offer a definitive solution. 🙁 xx
Christina Muscat
I bought hazelnut milk and ready packed hazelnuts especially for this recipe.. The coconut oil and vanilla extract I used from what I had at home... I will do it again and fridge the jars straight away as this time I will give to some friends and definitely do not want their spread to start smelling! Thank you very much for your reply 🙂 have a nice day
Nico
Hopefully the next batch will keep well, Christina. xx
Ellen
I live in Australia, I've never seen hazelnut milk here, where can I purchase it?
Nico
Hi Ellen,
I'm in Britain, on the other side of the world to you; I have never even been to Australia, so have absolutely no idea where to buy it there! Also, Australia is a pretty big place, so it will really depend on where you are, and how close you are to a major city, I suspect. I'm sure Google will tell you where you can find it. xx
Christina Muscat
Hi Nico,
i made it with my food processor and the hazelnuts came sooo smooth that i just added the rest of the ingredients and voila! it was ready! this week i will make it again cause it's almost finished and this time i will use my Blendtec. what i like about this nutella is that a little is enough to fill me and i have not pigged out and ate the whole jar, which is what i was afraid of doing 😛
Nico
Ha ha, I know exactly what you mean about pigging out on the entire jar - it's easy to do, isn't it?! I'm so glad you like it! xx
Christina Muscat
hi, I would like to make the Vegan Nutella recipe, do you think I could use my Blentec instead of my food processor and achieve same smooth results? My food processor is kinda old and not sure it will make it smooth ! thanks 🙂
Nico
Hi Christina, if it's high-powered, it should be fine. You'll probably need to stop a few more times to scrape the sides down than you would with a food processor though but it should be OK. One of my friends made some in her Vitamix! Do let me know how you get on! xx
Kristína
Ahoj dnes som to robila a mám to také nie moc dobre,pustilo mi to veľa oleja.cim to môže byť.zmeni sa to na druhý deň keď ju premiešam?dakujem
Som zo Slovenska ?
Nico
Ahoj Kristína! Prekladačom Google je odpad pri prekladaní slovenčiny do angličtiny a pravdepodobne rovnako zlé z angličtiny na slovenčinu .. ale tu ide!
Hovoríte, že ste použili viac oleja, a tak šírenie nebolo veľmi dobré? Ak áno, bolo by lepšie použiť viac mlieka. Ak váš kuchynský robot alebo mixér nie je veľmi vysoko výkonný, alebo ak ste použili viac javorového sirupu, mohlo by to vysvetliť potrebu väčšej kvapaliny.
Dúfam, že to pomôže. xx
Rosie
This sounds absolutely amazing ? I'm going to have to try this out when we get a food processor.
Nico
Oh yes, you must - you won't regret it, Rosie! xx
Shakti
I made half of the recipe a few days ago, because I didn't have enough hazelnuts. I've made several recipes of vegan nutella and this one is way ahead! Very tasty. The only downside is that mine was not as smooth as the picture, but pretty thick. It's not very much of a problem, but I wonder why, because my hazulnut butter was pretty smooth. Thank you Nico for this great recipe I'll make over and over again!
Nico
Hi Shakti - I'm so glad you like the recipe, thanks for letting me know. Regarding the smoothness, I use a really high-powered food processor, which gets it super-smooth. Another reason for the lack of smoothness could be the chocolate you used - some chocolate can go a bit grainy when melted. If you can, it might be an idea to try different brands of chocolate to see if that makes a difference. Or you could use cocoa/cacao powder instead (you'll have to play around with amounts though because I don't remember offhand how much to use... I've only done it that way once!). Do keep me updated! xx
Kayleigh
This looks amazing!! Do you know roughly how long you can store it for before it'll need to be eaten?? I'd love to make a huge portion and live off of it for breakup for the week 🙂
Nico
Hi Kayleigh, thanks so much for dropping by - you sound like a woman after my own heart! LOL! I've kept it for around a month (I know, right!) but it might keep for a bit longer. You'll definitely be fine for a week though! xx
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche
Yuuuum! This definitely looks lick-it-off-the-spoon worthy 😀 I love that you roasted the nuts for extra flavour!
Nico
Roasting them also helps to release their oils, Becca, which makes it a bit quicker to turn the nuts into butter. I'm all for time-saving, even if it is only a couple of minutes! And of course, the roasted nut flavour doesn't hurt either! x
Julie @ Running in a Skirt
What a great idea and so much better than the packaged kind. Love how fresh it is and the vanilla pod in it. Gorge away!
Nico
I have a confession about vanilla pods, Julie - they're my 'happy' scent... if I'm feeling a little bit down, I open up a pack, and just inhale the scent! Of course, then I have to cook something with the vanilla. Oh, the hardship!
So glad you understand the importance of gorging! Ha ha! xx
Monika Dabrowski
I absolutely love every single ingredient in this recipe! Why didn't I come up with it first? I am sure it tastes fabulous! By the way, have you rearranged your blog? It looks different somehow, but good different! And your photography is to die for:)
Nico
Ha ha ha, I can't tell you how often I look at other people's recipes, and think, "Darn, this is so obvious, why did I not think of it?"!!
I'm glad you like the new look - I've been fiddling around with the blog for a little while now; it's not 100% done yet but it's getting there! And thank you for your lovely, kind words about my photography - it's something I've really been working hard on these past few months, so it's really good to know I'm doing something right! xx