METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C.

Spread the hazelnuts out evenly across an oven tray and toast in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until fragrant and deeper in colour. You can usually see that the dark brown skin is drying up and coming off the nut when it’s ready.

Allow the nuts to cool slightly and then transfer them onto a clean tea towel spread out onto a flat surface. Rub the nuts with the palm of your hands against the tea towel until most of the skins have come off the nuts. Use your fingers to rub off the remaining skins and then separate the nuts from the skins.

Add the peeled hazelnuts to a food processor with an s-blade. Sprinkle in the vanilla powder and pinch of salt.

Set the food processor to auto and allow it to blend for a couple of minutes. Turn it off and scrape down the sides with a spatula before turning it on to auto again. Repeat this process a couple of times until no dry bits get stuck to the sides. Then keep blending on auto for 8-10 minutes or until the nut butter is silky smooth.

While the nuts process melt the chocolate*. You could do this in the microwave or over a stove top bain marie made by placing a glass or metal bowl over a pot of boiling water. Make sure the bowl covers the entire hole of the pot so that no steam can escape. Break the chocolate into smaller pieces and place them in the warm bowl. Use a spatula to gently move the chocolate pieces around until they’ve melted nicely.

Once the nuts have processed for the 8-10 minutes add the melted chocolate little by little as you keep blending. Then keep blending as you pour in the maple syrup. Use 1 to 2 tbsp of maple syrup, until you reach the sweetness you like.

See the video for more visual details and tips on the blending process.

Finally pour the chocolate hazelnut spread into a clean air tight container or jar and allow to cool. Then close the lid and store in the fridge for up to one month.

*If you like a sweeter spread use a vegan chocolate that has a lower cocoa content. Something like 55-60% but if you like it to be more rich and less sweet use a 70% dark chocolate.