Gianduja is a chocolate hazelnut spread similar to Nutella but with fewer things added. Historically Gianduja is a predecessor of Nutella. I’ve created a recipe for vegan Gianduja by basically just taking away two ingredients out of my vegan Nutella: vegan butter and vanilla powder. In this way you get more hazelnuts and more chocolate in the vegan Gianduja spread than you would in vegan Nutella.
To create a really amazing taste of vegan Gianduja I recommend using blanched hazelnut butter instead of just roasted hazelnut butter. Blanching hazelnuts removes the grainy taste in this spread and leaves you just with a wonderful hazelnut flavour. If you can find blanched hazelnut butter in the store, you can skip the step of making homemade blanched hazelnut butter. Just make sure that it is also roasted and not just blanched. Or if you can find blanched hazelnuts, you can skip the blanching part and follow the instructions from there on.
Other ingredients in this spread are evaporated coconut milk, maple syrup and 100 % chocolate. I chose evaporated coconut milk because the taste is the most similar to a real milk out of all plant based alternatives. It’s rich and creamy and it doesn’t have a distinct coconut taste as coconut milk does. I love evaporated coconut milk from the brand Nature’s Charm. Maple syrup works best in this spread among the possible sweeteners because it makes the consistency very silky. For the chocolate I’m using Lindt which has the best flavour in my opinion. Using chocolate instead of cocoa powder produces much better taste.
You can use Gianduja as a spread on bread or as a filling for my vegan Baci bliss balls. Another option is to transform it into soft bites. To make little bites with Gianduja just freeze it for a couple of hours so that it gets hard enough to slice, then divide it into bite size rectangular cubes.
Have you made this recipe? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your feedback.
More delicious copycat candy recipes:
Vegan Gianduja (GF)
Ingredients
Vegan Gianduja:
- 130 g blanched hazelnut butter recipe below
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) evaporated coconut milk
- 45 ml (3 tbsp) maple syrup
- 30 g 100 % chocolate melted; I used Lindt
Blanched hazelnut butter:
- 260g (2 cups) raw unsalted hazelnuts
- water
- 3 tbsp baking soda
Instructions
Blanched hazelnut butter:
- Put hazelnuts in a cup and set aside. Put water in a large pot so that it fills about half of the pot. Put it on the stove over high heat and when it starts to boil put 3 tbsp of baking soda in it. Add also hazelnuts and cook them for 3-4 min, lowering the heat to low when it starts boiling again. Take one hazelnut out of the water with a wooden spoon after 3-4 min and splash it with cold water then try if the skin comes easily off the hazelnut. If it doesn't come off easily, cook for additional 30s then test again. When the test shows that the skin comes easily off the hazelnuts, turn the heat off and pour the water and hazelnuts over a strainer then splash hazelnuts under cold water.
- Remove the skins off the hazelnuts one by one with your hands. They should come off easily. Put peeled hazelnuts on a paper towel.
- When all peeled hazelnuts are placed on the towel, take another paper towel and rub them with it so that you take as much as excess water from them as you can. Then leave them on the bottom paper towel over night so that they dry completely.
- Next morning roast hazelnuts in the oven at 180 °C for 10 min. Leave them to cool a little bit then place them in a blender. Blend until you get a smooth blanched hazelnut butter. I have a separate post on how to make hazelnut butter that you can check. It will take a bit more time and effort for blanched hazelnuts to transform into butter than it would with hazelnuts that have only been roasted and not blanched, so be patient.
- After blanched hazelnut butter is made, use some of it to make vegan Gianduja. Transfer the rest of blanched hazelnut butter to a container and seal it so that it can stay fresh as long as possible. Store it in the fridge. From 260g (2 cups) of hazelnuts you will get about 230g (scant 13 tbsp) of blanched hazelnut butter.
Vegan Gianduja:
- Put 130g of blanched hazelnut butter in a blender along with evaporated coconut milk and maple syrup. Blend everything together.
- Chop chocolate into smaller pieces and put them in a double boiler over medium heat to slowly melt. Add melted chocolate to the mixture and blend again.
- If you want to use Gianduja as a spread, pour the content into a bowl and store it in the fridge. Use it as a spread on bread or as a filling for vegan Baci bliss balls.
- If you want to use Gianduja to make soft bites, pour the content into a baking dish (I used 10×10 cm) with removable bottom, lined with baking paper. Spread it equally around. Cover the baking dish and put it in the freezer for about 2 hours. After taking it out of the freezer, cut into the edges of the dish and lift the bottom to release the content from the dish. Chop 12 small rectangular cubes from the hardened spread. Put the chocolates on a plate lined with baking paper and store them in the fridge.
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