Homemade Nutella

The original Nutella, invented by Pietro Ferrero in Alba, Italy, in 1946, was born of necessity. Cocoa was scarce in postwar Europe, but hazelnuts were abundant in Piedmont. Stretching precious chocolate with ground hazelnuts produced something accidentally magnificent—a spread that tasted richer than its ingredients would suggest. The recipe has since been optimized for industrial production, which is to say it now contains more sugar and palm oil than strictly necessary. Making Nutella at home corrects this historical drift. The Thermomix version is particularly elegant: the machine first pulverizes the nuts to a paste, releasing their oils, then melts the chocolate and combines everything into a homogeneous spread. The result is darker, nuttier, and less cloying than the commercial version—closer, arguably, to what Ferrero originally intended. The recipe below uses dark chocolate and coconut oil rather than milk chocolate and palm oil, which shifts the flavor profile toward sophisticated and away from merely sweet. If you prefer something more faithful to the jar on your childhood breakfast table, substitute milk chocolate and increase the sugar. Either way, the finished product will be superior to anything you can buy, and will last approximately three days before you eat the entire jar with a spoon.