GUYS, homemade healthy Nutella that will rock your socks off!
Cue the dismal, dark, melancholy music......... I have SIBO. That's a whole other blog post but this one needs to begin with "I have SIBO" so you understand why the heck I'm making my own Nutella.
I never thought the day would come when I would be content to NOT eat my favourite foods: Sugar, chocolate, milk, sugar and chocolate and milk all mixed together in one big happy cup. Sugar with chocolate on....... ok moving on. Wait, I forgot about Big Macs. Ah Big Macs, my high school sweetheart that my high school sweetheart (now my husband) introduced me to, I do miss you just a teeny bit, but I'm happy we broke up-- you were so bad for me and really brought me to a very dark place full of pain and sadness.
My God is good and has given me good things in Christ. Even better than all the above (WHAT?! Yep, that's right, you heard this 31 year-labelled chocoholic girl correctly). He has saved me from my sin, pulled me out of darkness and brought me into light, and though this world is still full of sin and pain and stinky painful health problems, He is using SIBO to shape and grow me.
So with that being said, I cut out most sugar and carbs several months back (and high lactose, and all beans, and many veggies and fruits, etc which feed my lovely bacteria that moved into my small intestine a while back and are still camping out there for the moment- hopefully they'll be evicted soon or murdered...... murdered would be good) and by God's grace I went through two weeks of withdrawal symptoms but BEAT my sugar addiction. Most of us have it and don't know it until we cut it. It was crazy. I have not craved sugar or processed foods in so so long so now I can have a bit once in a while: i.e. a treat! Not a daily bedtime snack of 3-5 President's Choice Chocolate Chip Cookies with a giant cup of homogenized milk that I called a treat every night for ten years. Not that kind of "treat" ;) I know I can't go back to eating the way I did (even though, despite what I wrote two paragraphs up and two sentences back, in reality was a fairly balanced Western diet) as then my painful symptoms will return. I've been so thankful for all the foods I can eat, rediscovering the plethora of choice we have in the basics that God has created in the earth for us!, and have had to change the way I think and use food before I could come to this point.
This point is Nutella. Nutella is all things delicious and all things deceiving. The commercials used to state it had natural ingredients with "a hint of cocoa" but plum forgot to mention it's mostly oil and sugar. I'm not slamming those who eat Nutella: I ate it until I had to stop! :) But now that I know more about my own body and what is good and bad for it, I have to steer clear. Enter: My Very Own Chocolate Hazelnut Spread that is actually truly healthy as long as you don't eat the whole batch in one sitting. For reals yo.
Note, I used dextrose as this is one sugar I'm allowed to eat with my condition. It is quickly absorbed by your blood stream and doesn't sit and linger in your digestive tract. That was your fun fact of the day. Our five year old loves fun facts, especially about the human body or carnivorous plants. I hope you love them too. If you subbed maple syrup I'm sure that would be even better for you, but this is better for me! Dextrose, stevia, honey and maple syrup are the better sugars from what I've researched but they are still sugars, so treating them like "treats" is best.
ALICIA'S NUTELLA (phew, glad she finally shut up so I can get to the good stuff- oh no, she's talking as if she were the audience, Jim Gaffigan style)
Yields 1/2c
100g hazelnuts (soaked overnight (8-12 hrs) and dehydrated (12 hrs at 150-170F)- optional)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp cocoa butter
1 tsp coconut oil
2 tbsp dextrose (maple syrup may work- let me know!)
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt (a "teeny wittle one" as my toddler would say)
1. Toast hazelnuts at 325F for approximately 5 minutes or until the skins turn a bit darker and you smell that heavenly hazelnut smell when you open the oven. Remove from oven and roll them vigorously in a tea towel to remove as much of the skins as possible. Don't worry about being picky as you're going to be straining them later. Place in food processor and process until it turns into a butter (3-8 minutes). You will likely have to scrape the edges a few times.
2. While nuts are processing, melt the cocoa powder, cocoa butter, coconut oil and dextrose in a double boiler until combined. The dextrose may stay grainy and that's alright because homemade Nutella just isn't going to be store-bought smooth. Edit: You may be able to make a syrup out of the dextrose first. I'm going to try that next time just for fun ;)
3. Once hazelnuts are buttery, place mixture into a mesh sieve over the container you will store your Nutella in and scrape until as much of it is through that will get through. Remove sieve. Add chocolate mixture, vanilla, and that little itty bitty pinch of salt to the container of hazelnut butter and stir.
4. GO CRAZY! Do a happy dance! Shout for joy! Cry yourself to sleep! You may not be as ecstatic as I am right this minute but oh boy was I excited I could eat something this tasty. I topped two puffed rice cakes with it and didn't feel like I wanted to die because my insides were wanting to go head to head with me in an Ultimate Fighting Championship ring. Woot!
This is the first recipe I've ever fully created all by myself. No help! Look ma, I did it! :) I tried one online Nutella recipe that got five star ratings and it was gross, no offence. My husband and I enjoyed this one but the real test will come tomorrow in the form of a five year old boy and two year old girl. Also, forgive my photography, I just knew I had to take a picture so you'd see the finished product. I'm not a fancy blogger yet. Maybe I'll get fancy someday. I do like fancy things.
I hope you enjoy and come back and read my very sporadic future blog posts (not as sporadic as my past ones!). Full of mystery and intrigue. Ok, full of posts about my life as a wife to an amazing hub, as a homeschooling mother of two hilarious kids, and as a woman with a chronic health condition. An intriguingly mysterious condition????? You'll have to wait and see.
Alicia
I never thought the day would come when I would be content to NOT eat my favourite foods: Sugar, chocolate, milk, sugar and chocolate and milk all mixed together in one big happy cup. Sugar with chocolate on....... ok moving on. Wait, I forgot about Big Macs. Ah Big Macs, my high school sweetheart that my high school sweetheart (now my husband) introduced me to, I do miss you just a teeny bit, but I'm happy we broke up-- you were so bad for me and really brought me to a very dark place full of pain and sadness.
My God is good and has given me good things in Christ. Even better than all the above (WHAT?! Yep, that's right, you heard this 31 year-labelled chocoholic girl correctly). He has saved me from my sin, pulled me out of darkness and brought me into light, and though this world is still full of sin and pain and stinky painful health problems, He is using SIBO to shape and grow me.
So with that being said, I cut out most sugar and carbs several months back (and high lactose, and all beans, and many veggies and fruits, etc which feed my lovely bacteria that moved into my small intestine a while back and are still camping out there for the moment- hopefully they'll be evicted soon or murdered...... murdered would be good) and by God's grace I went through two weeks of withdrawal symptoms but BEAT my sugar addiction. Most of us have it and don't know it until we cut it. It was crazy. I have not craved sugar or processed foods in so so long so now I can have a bit once in a while: i.e. a treat! Not a daily bedtime snack of 3-5 President's Choice Chocolate Chip Cookies with a giant cup of homogenized milk that I called a treat every night for ten years. Not that kind of "treat" ;) I know I can't go back to eating the way I did (even though, despite what I wrote two paragraphs up and two sentences back, in reality was a fairly balanced Western diet) as then my painful symptoms will return. I've been so thankful for all the foods I can eat, rediscovering the plethora of choice we have in the basics that God has created in the earth for us!, and have had to change the way I think and use food before I could come to this point.
This point is Nutella. Nutella is all things delicious and all things deceiving. The commercials used to state it had natural ingredients with "a hint of cocoa" but plum forgot to mention it's mostly oil and sugar. I'm not slamming those who eat Nutella: I ate it until I had to stop! :) But now that I know more about my own body and what is good and bad for it, I have to steer clear. Enter: My Very Own Chocolate Hazelnut Spread that is actually truly healthy as long as you don't eat the whole batch in one sitting. For reals yo.
Note, I used dextrose as this is one sugar I'm allowed to eat with my condition. It is quickly absorbed by your blood stream and doesn't sit and linger in your digestive tract. That was your fun fact of the day. Our five year old loves fun facts, especially about the human body or carnivorous plants. I hope you love them too. If you subbed maple syrup I'm sure that would be even better for you, but this is better for me! Dextrose, stevia, honey and maple syrup are the better sugars from what I've researched but they are still sugars, so treating them like "treats" is best.
ALICIA'S NUTELLA (phew, glad she finally shut up so I can get to the good stuff- oh no, she's talking as if she were the audience, Jim Gaffigan style)
Yields 1/2c
100g hazelnuts (soaked overnight (8-12 hrs) and dehydrated (12 hrs at 150-170F)- optional)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp cocoa butter
1 tsp coconut oil
2 tbsp dextrose (maple syrup may work- let me know!)
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt (a "teeny wittle one" as my toddler would say)
1. Toast hazelnuts at 325F for approximately 5 minutes or until the skins turn a bit darker and you smell that heavenly hazelnut smell when you open the oven. Remove from oven and roll them vigorously in a tea towel to remove as much of the skins as possible. Don't worry about being picky as you're going to be straining them later. Place in food processor and process until it turns into a butter (3-8 minutes). You will likely have to scrape the edges a few times.
2. While nuts are processing, melt the cocoa powder, cocoa butter, coconut oil and dextrose in a double boiler until combined. The dextrose may stay grainy and that's alright because homemade Nutella just isn't going to be store-bought smooth. Edit: You may be able to make a syrup out of the dextrose first. I'm going to try that next time just for fun ;)
3. Once hazelnuts are buttery, place mixture into a mesh sieve over the container you will store your Nutella in and scrape until as much of it is through that will get through. Remove sieve. Add chocolate mixture, vanilla, and that little itty bitty pinch of salt to the container of hazelnut butter and stir.
4. GO CRAZY! Do a happy dance! Shout for joy! Cry yourself to sleep! You may not be as ecstatic as I am right this minute but oh boy was I excited I could eat something this tasty. I topped two puffed rice cakes with it and didn't feel like I wanted to die because my insides were wanting to go head to head with me in an Ultimate Fighting Championship ring. Woot!
This is the first recipe I've ever fully created all by myself. No help! Look ma, I did it! :) I tried one online Nutella recipe that got five star ratings and it was gross, no offence. My husband and I enjoyed this one but the real test will come tomorrow in the form of a five year old boy and two year old girl. Also, forgive my photography, I just knew I had to take a picture so you'd see the finished product. I'm not a fancy blogger yet. Maybe I'll get fancy someday. I do like fancy things.
I hope you enjoy and come back and read my very sporadic future blog posts (not as sporadic as my past ones!). Full of mystery and intrigue. Ok, full of posts about my life as a wife to an amazing hub, as a homeschooling mother of two hilarious kids, and as a woman with a chronic health condition. An intriguingly mysterious condition????? You'll have to wait and see.
Alicia
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