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Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Butter with Almonds

A mini spatula with chocolate hazelnut butter with almonds above a food processor.
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This Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Butter with Almonds is ultra-creamy, intensely chocolatey, and has the perfect nutty crunch from roasted almonds. Sweetened with dates and finished with rich cocoa and melted chocolate, it’s perfect on toast, over oats and with ice cream, or enjoyed straight from the jar!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups / 230 grams Raw Hazelnuts (unsalted)
  • ⅓ cup / 50 grams Raw Almonds (unsalted)
  • 4 pieces / 30 grams pitted Dates (note 1 – I used dried Deglet Noor dates)
  • 1.5 ounces / 42 grams Guittard Semisweet Chocolate Baking Bars (or chocolate chips or wafers) – chopped
  • 2 tablespoons / 30 grams Coconut Oil
  • 2 tablespoons / 12 grams Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (I used Dutch Process – note 2)
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • ½ teaspoon Fine Sea Salt

Instructions

  1. Roast the nuts: Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C. Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper (nonstick cooking paper). Spread the hazelnuts and almonds out evenly in a single layer. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until you can smell the roasted hazelnuts. They should be lightly toasted but not burnt.
  2. Remove skin: Wrap the warm hazelnuts in a kitchen towel and rub to remove the skin off the nuts. You may not be able to remove all of the skin but that’s okay! Just remove as much as possible as too much skin left on can impart a bitter flavor.
  3. Process: Transfer the skinned toasted hazelnuts to a food processor bowl and add the pitted dates. Process, pausing to scrape down the edges as needed. It will look crumbly and become like a powder at first (hazelnut flour), then start to form into a ball and clump together. Continue processing until the crumbled hazelnuts and dates become creamy and smooth – 10-15 minutes.
  4. Melt chocolate and coconut oil: Meanwhile, melt the chopped chocolate baking bars (or chocolate chips) with the coconut oil in 20-30 second bursts, stirring each time, until melted.
  5. Add the chocolate: Once the hazelnuts and dates have transformed into a smooth nut butter has nearly reached your desired consistency, add the melted chocolate and coconut oil mixture, unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder, vanilla extract and fine sea salt. Process to combine until smooth and creamy – 2-3 minutes. (It will be slightly runny now but will firm up and thicken once at room temperature or if stored in the fridge.)
  6. Pulse in almonds: Add the roasted almonds to the chocolate hazelnut butter and pulse briefly until chopped almond pieces are evenly distributed throughout. Alternatively, you can chop the almonds and stir in by hand.
  7. Storing: Store in a jar or airtight sealed container for up to 1 week in a cool dry area or in the refrigerator for 4-8 weeks (refrigerator recommended – note 3).

Equipment

Notes

  1. Dried Dates. I used pitted dried Deglet Noor dates (noor is sometimes spelled ‘nour’), which naturally sweeten the chocolate hazelnut butter and add a subtle, sweet flavor. Any type of fresh or dried dates such as Medjool, Ajwa, and Bahri dates will work. Alternatively, add 1-2 teaspoons (or more to taste) of maple syrup, honey, coconut sugar, agave syrup or date syrup instead. Leave out the dates if you prefer an unsweetened chocolate hazelnut butter.
  2. Dutch Process Cocoa Powder. I highly recommend using a Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa powder as it has a richer chocolatey flavor. That said, a natural unsweetened cocoa powder (not alkaline treated) like Hershey’s will also taste good.
  3. Storing. I recommend storing in the fridge so that it stays fresh longer.
  4. Time to process and appliance. The time it takes to process until smooth and creamy will vary and depends on your appliance. My Kitchen Aid food processor required about 25 minutes of processing but it may take less or more time for your food processor or blender. I recommend using a food processor as it will be less hands on than a blender. I personally feel I have more control over the texture.
  5. Omit the almonds. If you’d like to make a chocolate hazelnut butter without the added crunch and flavor of the almonds, simply leave them out.
  6. Halve the recipe. You can easily cut the recipe in half if you’d like to make a smaller quantity! Click the ‘1/2x’ button at the top of the recipe card for the ingredient amounts for a half batch, which will yield about 192 grams/ almost 7 ounces of chocolate hazelnut butter.
  7. Use a wide mouth mason jar or airtight container for storing. It’ll be easier to transfer to a container with a wide mouth from the food processor bowl. An old peanut butter jar would be perfect for storing.
  8. How to use: Drizzle on top of baked oats such as this Chocolate Hazelnut Baked Oats, Pumpkin Baked Oats, Raspberry White Chocolate Baked Oats, or Banana Bread Baked Oats! Or try it with my Strawberry Protein Overnight Oats or Birthday Cake Overnight Oats! You can also spread it on toast, drizzle on ice cream like my Ninja Creami Peanut Butter Ice Cream or Coffee Protein Ice Cream, bake with it, eat with fruit, add to a smoothie, etc. See the ‘Ways to Use Chocolate Hazelnut Butter’ section in the post above for more ideas.
  9. See the ‘Variations’ section if you’d like to customize this healthy homemade chocolate hazelnut butter with almonds recipe.

Nutrition