French kids really enjoy nutella on a slice of fresh bread but homemade chocolate spread tastes 200 times better! |
I was inspired to give
this recipe a French title. I know Nutella is far from being a French specialty
but every kid in France know about it and well, just loves it. It’s one of the
most common thing we eat when coming back from school at 5pm. Because in
France, we have diner at around 8 pm. So kids (and grown ups too!!) often have
to snack between lunch and diner. And a slice of bread with chocolate or
Nutella and a glass of fresh milk is usually what’s being eaten here.
I used to love Nutella
too, but I have to admit that just reading the ingredients list on the back of
the jar has frightened me a lot. Moreover, I tend to think it’s a bit too sweet
and too fat.
It doesn’t mean that I
dislike the association of chocolate and hazelnuts. On the contrary. It’s
probably one of my favorite ones. Bakers in France are full of great idea to
invent flavored chocolate spread. A member of my family had once told me about
Christophe Michalak's one.
So I thought why not
try it. And I did it. And I should never have! Trust me, it’s probably the most
delicious thing you’d want to have as a snack when coming back from school. And
it’s gluten free. This hazelnut and chocolate spread has everything to look
forward to!! Just take a spoon and you won’t be able to get yourself out of the
jar. So I clearly advise you to hide it if you don’t want to ruin all the
efforts you made to have that bikini body ready for summer time!
How long will you resist the temptation to taste it ? |
Ingredients for a big
jar:
-
270 g
Hazelnut
-
150 g
powdered sugar
-
120 g
granulated sugar
-
150 g milk
or dark chocolate
-
10 g unsweetened
cocoa powder
-
10 g oil
-
3 g salt
1.
Preheat
your oven to 350°F.
2.
Place the
hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast them for 25 minutes or until they become
dark brown, almost black
3.
Let the
hazelnuts cool down and wrap them in a clean kitchen towel to remove the skin.
4.
Line a
baking sheet with foil
5.
In a
saucepan, prepare a caramel: bring the granulated sugar over a boil. Don’t stir
too much, just enough to make sure all the sugar is melting and is being turned
into a caramel. Add half of the salt in the end. Stop the caramel when it’s
brown.
6.
Immediately
pour the caramel onto the lined baking sheet. Tilt the sheet to spread the
caramel as thinly as possible. Let harden completely (about 15 minutes).
7.
Break the
cooled caramel into pieces.
8.
In a food
processor, grind 120 g of hazelnuts with the caramel until you get a
homogeneous paste. Set it apart.
9.
Grind the
rest of the hazelnuts with the icing sugar in a food processor, until you
obtain a smooth hazelnut paste.
10.
Place the
chocolate in a medium bowl. Set the bowl over a large saucepan of simmering
water. Stir often until the chocolate is melted. Remove the bowl from over the saucepan and
pour the melted chocolate in the hazelnut paste. Mix the ingredients together:
you have just made a gianduja.
11.
Add to the
gianduja the first hazelnut mix (hazelnut and caramel). Grind the whole thing
until you have a homogeneous paste. Add the oil, the rest of the salt and the
unsweetened cocoa powder. Keep grinding until you obtain the texture wished.
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