Vegan Gianduja (GF)
This vegan Gianduja is a more nutty and more chocolaty alternative to my vegan Nutella. It can be used as a sweet spread on bread, as an ice cream flavour, as a filling for my vegan Baci bliss balls or it can be transformed into soft bites.
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 10x10 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.
Notes
*The recipe as written yields about 260g (heaped 14 tbsp) of vegan Gianduja.
*A tip how to make blanched hazelnuts taken from Will Cook for Friends.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 servingCalories: 102kcalCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 2gFat: 8gSaturated Fat: 2gSodium: 6mgFiber: 1gSugar: 4g
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