Celebrate Valentine's Day with this homemade Nutella recipe

If you love Nutella but stay away from it because it is made with unhealthy fats and lacks Omega-3s, here's a homemade Nutella recipe that produces a balanced version of this spread. Play around with this recipe to get it as soft and creamy as you want it by adding more canola oil. The original recipe from The Splendid Table  calls for straining the mixture at the end. That seems like too much work to me, who likes a little texture in what I eat, but for the softest creamiest mixture, it might be the way to go

Ingredients

• 1 cup hazelnuts

 

• 12 ounces milk chocolate, chopped -- or a mixture of milk and semi-sweet chocolate depending on how dark and sweet you want your Nutella to be.

 

• 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil, such as canola

 

• 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

 

• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

 

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons flaxseed meal  (yellow is better but brown will do)

• 3/4 teaspoon salt, more or less depending upon your preference

 

 In a food processor, grind the hazelnuts until they form a paste, then drizzle in the 3 tablespoons of canola oil. Add the sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, flaxseed meal and salt and continue processing until the mixture is as smooth as possible-or as smooth as you like. Add the melted chocolate, blend well, and then strain the mixture to remove any chunks of hazelnut that remain. The resulting homemade Nutella will be thin and somewhat runny and maybe even a little warm but it will thicken as it cools.