Vegan Nutella

The first time I ever had "real" nutella was when I was in middle school and I spent the night at my cousin Kari's house and her husband Max from Italy made me some delicious waffles for breakfast and instead of syrup we had nutella.... and it was heavenly! Ever since I have been obsessed but unfortunately the real stuff is full of milk and non vegan ingredients. So in my new VEGANOMICON cook book, by Isa Chandra Miskowitz, I found a nice mocha-y recipe for not-tella!

Ingredients include:

1 generous cup of toasted and skinned hazelnuts
2 T hazelnut liquor (such as an airplane bottle of Frangelico)

1/4 t vanilla extract
3/4 C. powdered sugar
1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
8-10 T peanut oil

First toast your hazelnuts at 300 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes until the skin is peeling back but do not burn your nuts!

Take the hot nuts and put them into a dish towel and roll them in with the ends all twisted to remove the shells. If you cant get all the shell off its okay it will just give it a more nutty taste which some may prefer.

Next put your hazelnuts, which I found out are also called Filberts, into either a food processor or if you have a juicer with a blank used to make nut butter use that (I used my juicer and will take a lot less time).

Blend until you have a creamyish butter and then add the hazelnut liquor, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and cocoa.

Blend until it is crumbly and then add 4 to 5 T of oil and scrape down the sides and keep blending in your food processor. Now you will have a some what fudge like mixture. Add the rest of the oil a tablespoon at a time until you have a desired consistency. If not sweet enough add 1-2 more tablespoons of powdered sugar. Store in an air tight container in the fridge. When you take it out of the fridge let it sit out for 20 minutes to let it become spreadable again. I had mine on toast and by the spoonful but it is also great on fruit or with your soy ice cream!

ENJOY!