How to make hazelnut and cocoa spread – recipe

I find it alarming that a certain well-known chocolate and hazelnut spread seems to have joined those time-worn toast-toppers of jam, marmalade and Marmite at so many breakfast tables. It’s not surprising – children love it – and on the face of it, wholesome roasted hazelnuts are not a bad way to start the day. It’s a shame, then, that hazelnuts feature so low on the ingredients list – the two main ingredients on the label are sugar and palm oil.

With this in mind, I made some; I wanted my version of the spread to be more like a peanut butter (which the children also love) with extra cocoa and vanilla. I added sugar (you could omit it) because this was a treat and not intended as my default breakfast offering.

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(Makes a full jam jar)

200g hazelnuts

2 tsp groundnut oil

pinch of salt

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 tsp caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark four.

Spread the nuts on a roasting tray in an even layer and bake for 10-15 minutes until they are roasted – the skins will be dark brown.

Put the hot nuts in a clean tea towel and with the sides pulled together, rub the tea towel bag vigorously on the work surface. The friction should be enough to take the skins off the nuts. There might be a few prudish nuts; pop these back in the oven for another few minutes and repeat.

Put the roasted, skinned hazelnuts into a food processor and blitz with one teaspoon of the groundnut oil for a couple of minutes; the nuts will break down into dust and eventually butter. Add the remaining oil and salt, and blitz until you have nut butter.

Add the cocoa, vanilla and sugar to the food processor and blitz for 30 seconds to combine.

Store in a clean jar, with a lid, in the fridge. This will keep well for over a month.