World Nutella Day—Homemade Healthy Nutella

 

Happy World Nutella Day!  What does that mean for me?  I’ve always liked Nutella.  But it has lots of sugar and I don’t eat it anymore.  What did I do about this dilemma?  I made my own!  And you can, too!  It’s super easy and taste pretty darn good.  Is it exactly the same?  According to my boys, NO!  But for me, it works and I’m happy.

I made the Nutella  copycat and decided I needed to have it on some toast.  I don’t often have gluten free bread, but happened to have some I’d recently bought at Costco.  It comes in an interesting shape.  After slathering on the Nutella, I noticed it kind of reminded me of a ghost.  Then since it’s not Halloween, which would be super cute and fun to make these then, I made a second piece of toast and another cute ghost with a red mouth (although it looks more like a nose)—perfect!  Now they look like a perfect Valentine pair—don’t they?  Ready to dance the day away!

The recipe made a half quart (so 2 pints, it’s the wider but shorter jar), right?  Yeah, I know, I could check on the world wide web or ask my mom, but I’m too lazy and just can’t wait to tell you about this.  I know homemade versions of Nutella have been done before and I looked at some of them, but ultimately decided on my own amounts and ingredients.  Some had added coconut oil and regular sugar, etc.  I didn’t think that was necessary.  I like the maple syrup I used in this, but I’m interested next time in trying to make it with raw honey, too.  It’s definitely not too sweet, I’m now so used to things not being very sweet since I don’t eat much sugar/sweet things anymore, so this was just right for me.  I believe it would even be considered Paleo and vegan.

Homemade Healthy Nutella, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! (Paleo, vegan, refined sugar free, gluten free, dairy free)

1 ½ cups toasted (and skinned) hazelnuts, chopped (I bought some that are already toasted and chopped, which I prefer over toasting and skinning them myself.)

½ cup cocoa powder

½ cup almond milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

½ cup Grade B maple syrup (Grade A is okay)

Put the hazelnuts in the bowl of a blender (I have a Blendtec, which is super powerful!). You could also use a food processor, but note that it does take a lot longer to grind the nuts into a butter, maybe 10 minutes. Pulse nuts in the blender, scraping down the sides every 10-20 seconds. In the Blendtec this literally only takes about 2 minutes until it’s a pretty smooth butter. Add the cocoa powder and half the almond milk and pulse to combine. Add the rest of the almond milk, vanilla and salt and pulse to combine well. Add about half the maple syrup and combine, taste and add more to your liking, up to half a cup. I used the full amount.  I am going to try it with raw honey next time, I just like the flavor better. Store in a jar in the refrigerator. Makes half a quart/2 pints. This would be perfect to put in little jars for gifts, but it would be hard not to eat it instead.

I mean, really, this looks like it totally needed a companion.  And I needed a second slice of toast with this Homemade Healthy Nutella on it, too.  So it was a win for both of us.  Until this started happening……..

Sorry ghosts on toast, it had to happen. ; )

You can find a whole lotta Nuttela greatness and love on the Facebook page and on Twitter.  #WorldNutellaDay  You can also find a lot more Nutella laden recipes (and mouth-watering photos) on my blog.  I’ve been posting something for World Nutella Day since 2009!  And guess what—my blog will be 8 years old in less than two weeks!  How cool is that!

Nutella Buttons—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi

I have something sad to tell you.  I messed up.  While these mini cupcakes, made light and fluffy with whipped egg whites, look great, it wasn’t until they were baking that I realized I FORGOT THE BUTTER!  Even worse, while mixing the dry ingredients with the egg yolks, I thought it so strange that the dough was not coming together.  Dorie mentioned in the recipe that at this point the dough would look like a paste.  Here was mine--

My already melted butter sad in the microwave, waiting to be put in the mix.  I never once thought about it.  I was perturbed that this wasn’t right.  So my brain decided—add another egg yolk.  Okay, so I added a fifth egg yolk, it was a little better, but I decided to just mix in some of the whipped egg whites and carry on.  It looked like this after a little of the egg whites were added--

Okay, I decided to just carry on with that and folded in the rest of the egg whites.  And I made the little “buttons” as instructed, including the little dollop of Nutella in the middle of each.  The boys were going to like these!

I was excited to see that they baked up nicely and had hope everything would be okay even though I used an extra egg yolk.  While they were almost done baking, it hit me—THE BUTTER!!!  Sigh.  I was worried, but decided they looked good, so I kept my hope.

I was even happy that the cake pulled away from the wrapper pretty well.  But all WAS lost—they tasted horrible and were super dry.

I’m not one to just throw things out, I try to repurpose or make things into something else that would work, but these were just not good.  They ended up in file 13 after I took a little taste.  I wouldn’t even let my boys have to eat them.

What can I say?  You win some, you lose some.  This was just yesterday, so I didn’t have time to make them again, but I plan to sometime.  PLEASE, check out others in the group for Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi, much more successful, and I’m sure tasty, Nutella Buttons.

Nutella Caramel Swirled Brownies—World Nutella Day

It’s World Nutella Day today!  You might remember back in August (or you might need this reminder), when I made and posted a bunch of recipes from Shelby’s blog, The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch for The Secret Recipe Club.  Normally, we were just to make one recipe for the blog we were assigned that month, but Shelby and her blog are one of my favorites and we are good friends, so just for fun, I spent that whole month after getting my assignment, making as many recipes from her blog that I could during that time.  Here's that post—look for something with Nutella among all the deliciousness. 

One of the recipes I made from her blog then were my version of her Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies.  After getting things measured and ready to make her brownies, I realized I was out of peanut butter, so I did what any smart person would do—I made the caramel with Nutella instead.  These brownies are so good.  You might be thinking that you thought I don’t eat sugar and gluten anymore.  Well, I don’t, mostly.  These brownies became an occasion where it was necessary (for quality control purpose, you understand) that I taste the caramel AND then ultimately a bite of the brownie that I then topped with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with chocolate syrup (next time save some Nutella caramel for the brownie sundae!) and some hazelnuts.  I only took a small bite….see….

Don’t be intimidated by the idea of making caramel, this is so easy, even more so if you measure out the ingredients first and have everything ready.  When I made these brownies last August, I made a full batch, which is a 9x13 inch pan.  For the remaking of them today, I halved the recipe—the ingredients are all perfectly easy to halve, so you decide how much Nutella caramel you want and how many brownies.

 

Nutella Caramel Swirled Brownies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

Nutella Caramel Sauce:

½ cup heavy cream

¼ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup water

½ cup (148 grams) Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread), warmed slightly

1 tablespoon corn syrup

Pinch of salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat cream on low heat in a small saucepan (or in a microwave safe measuring glass) until hot (just barely simmering). In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water and heat over medium-high heat. Do not stir it. Let it cook until amber brown (2-3 minutes). Slowly whisk the hot cream into the sugar until smooth and let it cook for 1 minute. When you stir the cream into the caramelized sugar, it will bubble a lot. Don’t worry, just keep stirring. After 1 minute, remove from the heat and whisk in the warm Nutella (it combines better when it is heated up a bit—just microwave it in a small bowl for 20-30 seconds and stir), corn syrup, salt and vanilla. Stir together until well combined and smooth. Set it aside to cool while you prepare the brownie batter.

Brownies:

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

3 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1 ½ cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a 9x13 pan by lining it with tin foil (I prefer nonstick foil). Spray lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until well combined. Add vanilla extract. Set aside.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder and salt. Whisk together. Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Drop spoonsful of the Nutella caramel in dollops over the brownie batter. Drag a knife through the batter and the caramel to swirl. Don’t do it too much or you’ll lose the swirled effect. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with crumbs on it and not wet batter. Cool completely before cutting. Serve individually or as a base for brownie sundaes with ice cream, chocolate syrup (or more of the Nutella caramel if you didn’t use it all) and some toasted hazelnuts.

I mean, come on, don’t these look like great brownies?  If you are a Nutella lover, like so many, you will love this caramel and these brownies, they stand alone great, but also make an awesome brownie sundae.

Thanks to Sara at Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso for their inspiration and the start up of World Nutella Day.  Check it out for hundreds of mouth-watering Nutella recipes!

Check out all the Nutella goodness on my blog!

Ruttan and Law Family Recipes—The Secret Recipe Club

Big Fat Delicious Clone of a Cinnabon

Guess what?  For this month’s Secret Recipe Club assignment, I FINALLY got one of my favorite blogs and one that I’ve been waiting for well over three years to be assigned.  It has been a party at our house as I have made a ton of recipes from Shelby’s blog, The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch.  Going out with a bang here, but I’ve made the decision to not be part of the Secret Recipe Club anymore.  I have been with it from the day Amanda created it more than three years ago.  I have never missed one month.  It has been so fun, such a great time, and I have made some great friends along the way.  I’ve been feeling for a number of  months now that it will be time to move on once I finally get Shelby’s blog.  That has been what has kept me going, the excitement of waiting and wondering when I’ll finally get THE assignment. 

Brownie Biscotti

Shelby, Shelby, Shelby—what a wonderful woman!  We’ve “known” each other (haven’t met in person yet) since way back in about 2008 when we were both involved with Tuesdays With Dorie and baked our way through Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours in a huge weekly-posting group.  Those were the days, weren’t they?!

Throughout this last month, I have had the fun and pleasure of seeing how many of Shelby’s recipe from her blog I can make.  I have not been disappointed with a single one!  I loved the brownie biscotti and made it gluten free and used organic cane sugar to make myself a treat.  Can’t wait to make them again!

Way back when she posted these unique chocolate chip cookies, I made them.  I looked back through all my photos and my blog and never did put them on the blog.  But I did find where I wrote some notes after making them that Kevin really liked them.  This recipe, that Shelby posted back in 2009, was one she found on a handwritten recipe card that her family believes was from her Grandmother Lottie.  They have no butter and are made with cream instead, which is probably because cows’ milk/cream was more at hand back in those days than butter.  I made these to take to a get together we were having with some friends along with a couple other goodies and they were gobbled up.

 Grandmother Lottie's Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookies

I didn’t want to only make treats or desserts from her blog, so I have turned to it for dinner inspiration over the last month.  I made a great chicken recipe weeks ago that was well liked here at my home.  I will not hesitate to make it again.  Just like when Shelby made it, I served it with rice (and for me quinoa).

Chipotle Chicken Skillet

My family LOVES cinnamon rolls, which Shelby has mentioned she can’t resist either.  It only seemed right to make the recipe she has pictured at the front and center of her blog.  These just might replace my cinnamon roll recipe, which I’ve used for years because the boys all really liked them.  How could you not like a giant cinnamon roll that is similar to Cinnabon?!  (Wish I could have had one!)  This recipe, which is similar in size of ingredients to mine, makes EIGHT rolls.  They are huge, and I think I rolled them the wrong way (from the long side of the dough instead of the short side, which would make each roll bigger).

Big Fat Delicious Clone of a Cinnabon

I really enjoyed looking all through Shelby’s blog and ended up having to make another recipe from her family file and settled on these date treats made by her Aunt Helga.  I changed up this recipe for candied date balls so I could eat them (no one else here will eat anything with dates!) and made the recipe with coconut sugar and raw honey instead of sugar and coconut oil instead of butter.  I also used some organic brown rice crisp cereal instead of Rice Krispies.  I enjoyed making some different with unsweetened coconut, chopped walnuts and even adding a little chocolate to some.

Aunt Helga's Candied Date Balls

Another awesome recipe I made were a quick-change version of Shelby’s Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies.  I had the brownies all ready to make and was getting out the ingredients for the peanut butter caramel, which called for smooth peanut butter and found that we were out.  Staring at me in the cupboard was some nice, smooth Nutella.  So I made the caramel sauce (which came from a Bobby Flay recipe) with Nutella!  After making the caramel and once it cooled, I will have to admit I tasted a little bit, for quality control purposes, you know.  It was good!  The caramel was swirled in to the brownies.  They made for a yummy dessert with ice cream on top.  It seemed necessary to take a bite of the one photographed here, so I can really attest to their deliciousness.  I’m a bad, bad girl, I know. ; ) 

Nutella Caramel Swirled Brownies adapted from Peanut Butter Caramel Swirled Brownies

The 9x13 inch pan of brownies lasted a few days around here.  One of Kevin’s 18 year old nephews was over and had one of the brownies and said they were SO good.  He asked for another.  Then he said I definitely had to make those for the next family get together. 

Nutella Caramel Swirled Brownies with ice cream

Wait, there’s more!  It has been strangely cool and quite rainy for an August in the Utah dessert here, so I was recently in the mood for chili.  Shelby to the rescue!  She has a great, simple White Chicken Chili on her blog!

White Chicken Chili

Another night for dinner, I had some more chicken I wanted to use.  Our dinner that night was Apricot Glazed Grilled Chicken from The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch.  Mmm, it was good!

Apricot Glazed Grilled Chicken

I made the glaze with some apricot jam my friend gave me that was made with agave instead of sugar!  I’m so blessed to have friends that care about my dietary needs.  My dinner included some sauteed sweet potato and portabello mushroom hash and a caprese salad.  Delicious dinner!

I saw Shelby’s post for Spicy Mango Lime Salsa with Pears and just like she said she had to when she saw it posted somewhere and had to make it, I did, too!  I also made homemade tortilla chips.  I made some with flour tortillas (not pictured) and some with corn tortillas, which I loved!  The boys couldn’t eat the flour tortilla chips fast enough and want more soon!  The salsa was supposed to be made with finely chopped red onion, but since I knew I was the one who was going to eat most of it (Kevin doesn’t like fruit in salsa), I left out the onion and added chopped jalapeno instead.  Yum!

Spicy Mango Lime Salsa with Pears and Homemade Corn Tortilla Chips

Are we there yet?  You know, how when you’re on a long trip and the kids complain and ask if we’ve arrived at our destination yet?  I’m almost done.  But aren’t you starving now?  Yeah, get over to Shelby's blog for all these delicious recipes.  Finally, I ended the month recently with another biscotti, which is the same thing I made first when I got my assignment (the brownie biscotti).  Since Shelby is from upstate New York and they love their maple syrup there, I wanted to make something with maple syrup, so I settled on her Maple Walnut Biscotti.  I have simply loved having so many treats this month, a lot of them I have adapted to gluten free and refined sugar free when it was something I wanted to be able to eat, like the biscotti.  I will spend the next month or so sharing individual posts for my adaptations for all these recipes.  For now, all the links to the recipes I used from Shelby are under each photo. 

Maple Walnut Biscotti

Shelby dipped her biscotti in a white chocolate glaze, I added some Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips to some of mine.  I’m not a coffee or tea drinker and don’t dip my biscotti in anything, but sure love it!

This Sunday night for dinner, I planned ahead and made one more recipe from Shelby’s blog—Pot Roast and Onions.  While I don’t like onions, my family does and I knew I’d be okay putting an onion in the slow cooker with a roast.  Loved this simple recipe and the gravy it made.  When it comes time to eat, my family is not happy to wait for pictures, so I got them all eating, then snapped this quick one of my dinner.  (They had mashed potatoes, but I don’t eat potatoes anymore, so I had a sweet potato.)

Shelby's Pot Roast

Is it over?  I mean this “era” in my blog life of being part of the Secret Recipe Club?  Let me just say that I’ve sure been torn from one day to the next, even one hour to the next throughout this last month.  I will still be checking in on reveal days as much as I can.  One of the reasons I feel like it’s time to let it go is because I just can’t seem to get around to as many blogs as I’d like and it doesn’t seem fair.  I’ll definitely still be here in food blog land, so never fear!  Peace out!  And we will meet someday, Shelby, my sista from another mista!

An InLinkz Link-up

Lucky Leaf Pie Fillings—Delicious Treats and a Giveaway!

Blueberry Meyer Lemon Cream Meringue Cups

So many treats, so little time to tell you about them.  But you must know, so here it is. 

The folks at Lucky Leaf were nice enough to send me more canned pie filling—and a couple other things, too.  I had fun playing around with different recipes to use the fillings.  One of my favorite things about their pie fillings is that they are not made with high fructose corn syrup.  So they are kind of like me making a similar thing from scratch at home.  Sometimes we just need a little less fuss in life and sometimes I want to make a really yummy treat to share, but don’t have the time to turn fresh fruit in to pie filling.  Another thing I love about the Lucky Leaf premium pie fillings is that you can use them for SO much more than pie!

In fact, with the fillings they sent me to try out, I didn’t make pie with any of them.  As you can see in the first picture, I used the blueberry filling to top some fancy, but super easy meringue cups filled with Meyer lemon whipped cream.  The meringue cups are so simple and are fat free and gluten free.  So besides the dollop of real whipped cream, flavored with Meyer lemon, they are a great, indulgent treat without too much alarm for ruining your new year’s diet resolution.  Loved these!  I love their recipe for Baby Blueberry Pies, which are similar to the mini blueberry pies I made last time they sent me some fillings.

Applesauce Spice Muffin with Apple Pie Filling and Whipped Cream

Next up I made some simple homemade muffins with applesauce and spices, perfect for cold weather!  These were topped with some whipped cream, Lucky Leaf apple pie filling (which I really like and was filled to the brim with apples) and a drizzle of caramel sauce.  Lucky Leaf sent me some recipes for ideas to use with their fillings, like this one, I got the idea from their Apple Spice Babycakes which are cupcakes made with a boxed spice cake and topped with vanilla ice cream and the apple pie filling.  While I’m not against boxed mixes and have used them plenty of times in my life, I wanted to try to make things that were from scratch.   The boys ate these up!

Finally with some strawberry pie filling, I also made something similar to a recipe they suggested for some Strawberries & Cream Chocolate Muffins.  Instead of making these with a chocolate cake mix, I made my favorite healthy, whole grain, no egg banana muffins, then I swirled in some strawberry pie filling and some Nutella to kick them up a bit!

Strawberry Nutella Banana Muffins

Check out all the recipes at Lucky Leaf!  I got the recipe for the meringue cups from Holly at Phemomenon.  She made them with a Meyer lemon custard, I just stirred some Meyer lemon juice into some whipped cream.   The muffins were my own recipe.

If you want any of the recipes I have made, let me know and I’d be happy to send them to you.  I need to finish up this post and offer a giveaway to you from Lucky Leaf!  They sent me along with some pie filling a bunch of other things for giving away treats to loved ones and they want to send a reader of my blog some, too.   There’s recipe cards and bags and cupcake holders and all kinds of things for you to be able to give away some goodies.  I love the Lucky Leaf slogan—Good Things Come to Those Who Bake.

If you’d like a chance to win, leave me a comment telling me what you favorite kind of fruit pie is.  For a second chance to win, leave me a separate comment after visiting the Lucky Leaf Recipes Page telling me which recipe you’d make first.  This giveaway is only for U.S. residents (or with a U.S. mailing address) and will end on Wednesday, February 13 at 6 p.m.  A winner will be chosen at random from the entries and notified that evening, so make sure you have a way to be reached in your comments.

Check out their Twitter page and all the yummy things at #LuckyLeafLuckyMe.  You can also like them on Facebook and for even more deliciousness, follow them on Pinterest.  Hey, you can follow me on Pinterest, too, at Baking and Boys!

Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Cookies for World Nutella Day 2013

Today is World Nutella Day!  A couple of bloggers a few years back decided their love for Nutella needed to be known, shared and united.  February 5 was the chosen day and here we are!  I’ve enjoyed over the last four years or so playing around with delicious things for this day and this one is no exception.  These look like meager, little brown cookies, but the punch of Nutella taste with the crunchy hazelnuts in a soft, chewy cookie is delicious!

I made most of them just as simple, smaller (2  1/2 inch) cookies.  But they really do taste like the perfect hit of Nutella and the fresh roasted hazelnuts are the perfect touch.  I did play around with a little of the dough and made some bigger cookies.  They seemed like they really needed more than just to be bigger.  So---I made them in to a sandwich, and of course, they were sandwiched with NUTELLA!

I had to take a bite.

I will make my oldest, Scott, finish the cookie when he gets home from school.  I would love to indulge, but am still on my not-much-sugar kick.  sigh

Chocolate Hazelnut Nutella Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

4 ounces good, dark chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips)

6 ounces Nutella, divided use

10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted butter

½ cup (2 ¼ ounces) all purpose flour

3 tablespoons (15 grams) natural cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (125 grams) granulated sugar

½ cup skinned and toasted, chopped hazelnuts

Spread 4 ounces of Nutella on plastic wrap about ¼ inch thick. Lay it flat on a plate or baking sheet and put it in the freezer (this can be done anytime ahead of making the cookies, you probably want to freeze it for at least a half hour.)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Melt the chocolate chips, 2 ounces of Nutella and the butter in a microwave safe glass bowl in 20-30 second intervals (or in a saucepan on the stove). Stir to combine well. Let cool 5 minutes.

Whisk together in a smaller bowl the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Whisk in the sugar and stir until well combined. Add the melted chocolate mixture to the eggs and sugar and stir to combine. Add the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Working quickly (because the frozen Nutella melts quickly), remove it from the freezer and cut in into small pieces. Put the Nutella chunks and chopped hazelnuts in the cookie dough and carefully stir it together, folding it lightly. It’s okay if melts and looks like it’s making more swirls in the dough than remaining chunky. Scoop mounds of dough onto baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 11 minutes, you can go a little longer for a crispier cookies, but these are soft and chewy. Makes about 40 cookies that are about 2 ½ inches round.

Confession, okay, I made the cookies yesterday and ate a whole one of these little ones. 

Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso are the two masterminds behind making this day a WORLD holiday. ;)

You can find hundreds of Nutella recipes from years past on the World Nutella Day website or check out the Facebook page.

Here’s a look at some of my past post involving Nutella in all its delicious chocolate and hazelnut glory.

Nutella Brownies

Pretzel Nutella Chunk Cookies and some Frosted Nutella Brownies

Nutella Truffle Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Cookies

Nutella Banana Oatmeal

 

Nutella Chocolate Cream Pie

Chocolate Graham Cracker Nutella S'mores

And a little stroll down memory lane with this little guy, Sam is almost six now, but he’ll always be my baby and he still loves Nutella!

Would you look at this face!

Happy World Nutella Day and grab a spoon!