Homemade Nutella

I originally found this recipe online, but I've modified it to suit my tastes and to create a much nicer, thicker consistency.

It’s such a simple and incredibly easy recipe, it might not be much healthier than shop bought Nutella, but sometimes it’s nicer to know exactly what’s going into your food. I also find this recipe much less artificial tasting than Nutella, and if you miss out the straining step you can have a delicious, crunchy texture too! 

I love spreading this on toast, or with a big slice of banana bread (which I’ll be posting a recipe for very soon).

Ingredients

250g hazelnuts

250g milk chocolate

1/2 tbsp coconut oil *

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Pinch of salt

*you can't taste the coconut oil once it's all mixed together, but you could use vegetable oil if you prefer.

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F/Gas 4

- Line a baking tray with baking parchment and roughly lay out the hazelnuts in a single layer.

- Bake for 10 minutes, or until the skins start to crisp and peel away from the hazelnuts.

- Leave them to cool slightly, then rub them between your hands, or kitchen paper, to remove the skins. This can take a little while, and the skins don't always come off completely (I always get a bit lazy and give up after a while, but as long as the majority of the skin is off you’ll be fine).

- Once the hazelnuts are cooled completely, tip them into a blender and blitz until they’re as fine as you’d like.

 

- Add the oil, icing sugar, cocoa, vanilla and salt into the blender and blitz until completely combined with the hazelnuts.

- Break the chocolate up and melt it over a medium heat (I do this by placing a heat proof glass bowl over a small saucepan of boiling water). Be careful not to burn it.

- Pour the chocolate into the blender and blitz a final time to mix everything together.

- I like to pour this straight into a jar whilst it’s still runny and leave it to cool, but you could strain it first if you prefer to get any lumps of hazelnut out (this will give you a much smoother consistency, but I prefer it to have a bit of crunch). It will appear very runny at first, but it will set as it cools.

This Homemade Nutella doesn’t need to be refrigerated, just keep it in an air tight container and keep it for up to two weeks.

I really love this recipe, please let me know if you try it out, it’s also delicious if you substitute the hazelnuts with an alternative, such as cashews or almonds.

🥜🍫

Gluten Free Crumble and Custard

This is a British classic, and by using different fruits you can completely alter this recipe to suit your tastes. This is my go to crumble topping recipe for any gluten free crumble, and serving it with homemade custard makes all the difference. 

Ingredients

For the crumble

150g gluten free plain flour*

100g soft brown sugar

100g ground almonds

25g porridge oats (double check that they’re gluten free)

25g flaked almonds for sprinkling (optional)

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

150g unsalted butter

*you can substitute this with regular plain flour if you're not making this recipe gluten free

For the filling

600g soft fruit of your choice, roughly chopped 

1 tsp cornflour

Juice of 1/2 lemon

25g soft brown sugar sugar

*I used 300g strawberries (I chopped the larger ones in half and kept the smaller ones whole) and 300g plums that I stoned and roughly chopped

For the custard *

1 pint / 570ml full fat milk 

50 ml single cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

1 tbsp cornflour

50g golden caster sugar

*if you don’t want to make your own custard you could buy a pre-made carton from the supermarket, or enjoy the crumble with a lovely rich vanilla ice cream or cream instead.

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F/Gas 4.

- In a large mixing bowl toss together all of the filling ingredients and set to one side.

- In another bowl add all of the crumble ingredients, besides the flaked almonds if you’re using them. Rub it all together until it forms a bread crumb like consistency (if you’ve made crumble before you’ll realise that the consistency isn’t as fine or as dry as regular crumble, this is because the almonds provide a lot more moisture).

- Pour the fruit mixture into a large ovenproof dish (I used a 24 x 20cm pyrex dish), and gently shake to level out the fruit.

- Tip the crumble mix over the top of the fruit, and gently push it into the corners so that the fruit is completely covered (don’t push down too hard as this will lose the crumbly texture).

- Sprinkle the flaked almonds evenly over the top of and place in the centre of the oven for 30-35 minutes, until until the crumble is golden brown.

- Remove the crumble from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes.

- Meanwhile, heat the milk, cream and vanilla essence together over a medium heat until just before boiling (small bubbles will begin to appear on the surface). 

- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together until smooth.

- Pour the heated milk over the egg mixture and stir well.

- Strain the mixture into a clean saucepan and heat for a few minutes, stirring continuously, until you have a lovely thick custard. I like to leave it to cool slightly for a few minutes and serve it straight away, but you could leave it to cool completely and store it in the fridge for a couple of days.

- Serve yourself a big slice of the crumble, pour over the delicious custard, and enjoy!

🍎🍒🍇🍓 

This recipe seems to go on forever, but it really is incredibly easy. Nothing tastes as good as homemade custard!

Lemon Drizzle Loaf

This is one of my all time favourite loaf cakes, and it always gets demolished in minutes. I made this recipe with regular flour for my Granny’s birthday, but I’ve made a note of how you can make a gluten free version too, the texture will be slightly different but still delicious! 

This really is an incredibly straight forward recipe, and once you have all of your ingredients ready it is only a matter of minutes before it is in the oven.

Ingredients

For the cake

200g unsalted butter

200g golden caster sugar

200g self raising flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp whole milk

3 eggs

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

For the drizzle

Juice of 2 lemons

115g caster sugar

*for the gluten free version I substituted this flour with 125g gluten free self-raising flour and 50g ground almonds

Method

- Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/gas 4.

- In a large mixing bowl cream sugar and butter until the mixture is pale and fluffy.

- Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl, then add the eggs, lemon zest and milk.

- Beat the mixture together until smooth and thick.

- Pour the mix into the prepared loaf tin and level off slightly.

- Bake for 40-45 mins, or until well risen and firm (mine actually took about 50 minutes to cook through this time, but usually 40-45 is about right).

- Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for a little while before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I was very envious watching everyone enjoy this at the weekend, but I’ll definitely be trying out the gluten free version for myself soon!

Sorry that the post haven't been quite as regular over the last fortnight, it has been a bit hectic, but I'm getting back on top of it again. Let me know if you make this recipe, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

🍋🍋