Pure Hazelnut Spread Recipe

Recently I’ve been really into making nut butters the past few weeks. It’s been great to eat on toast or a bagel in the morning. I like the wide variety you can make as well, so I thought it’d be great to share this really simple hazelnut butter recipe with you. Anyone can make this in their blender but it does take a slight technique to make it work correctly. You start out by getting a bag of hazelnuts from the store, naturally. Blanched ones make the process much easier so go with those if you can find them. Otherwise if you get ones with the skin still on you’ll need to remove it before you can begin blending. We’ll take a look at that process now.

hazelnut spreadTurn your oven on at 375 degrees and let it heat up. Place 3 cups of your hazelnuts in a single layer on a cookie sheet, this will allow for even cooking. Let them bake for about 10 minutes or so. You can take a bite of one to make sure it’s ready. It should have a toasted taste to it, but not burnt. I should note that you’ll do this with blanched hazelnuts as well. This process is specifically to bring the natural oils out of the nuts. Which will really help in the blending process coming up.

If you bought hazelnuts with their skins still on, there’s another step. Place a clean towel on your table now. Pour the hazelnuts onto the towel and fold it over the hazelnuts. You’ll proceed to vigorously rub the nuts, don’t worry about being gentle, to remove the skins. This is really the only time consuming process, but don’t worry about removing the entire skins. A little bit won’t hurt anyone.

After adding the 3 cups of baked hazelnuts you’re ready to start blending. Here’s the important tip though. Start your blender on a slow speed and gradually increase it to it’s highest setting. You’ll likely need to use your tamper to scrape the sides down while you do this. I found that for a Vitamix the “dry container” seemed to work a little better as well.

You’ll blend the mixture for just a few minutes until you hear a change in the noise it makes. That’s the blades turning the entire mixture fully into a liquid. If you don’t have a high-end blender this is going to take longer than a few minutes. Have a taste and decide whether you want to add any salt, honey, or other ingredient to flavor the mixture. I personally like adding a little maple syrup to give it an extra layer of flavor.

Once you’re happy the nut butter will stay fresh for about 2 weeks at room temperature, longer if you refrigerate it. I estimate that you’ll get about 1 1/2 cups of nut butter from the 3 cups of raw hazelnuts you added. Hope you enjoy!

Pure Hazelnut Spread Recipe
Author: Blender Insider
Ingredients
  • 3 cups of hazelnuts
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
  2. Pour the hazelnuts onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes
  3. Place a clean towel on your table (you’ll be using this to remove the hazelnut skins more easily)
  4. Remove the tray from the oven and place the cooked hazelnuts onto the towel
  5. Fold the towel over in half and vigorously rub the hazelnuts
  6. Pour the clean hazelnuts into your blender and mix on high for about 2 minutes or until you get the smooth consistency you want.