Homemade Nutella

So, I would tell you what I'm making for dinner, but it's another tomato thing (Verrill Farm just keeps producing prodigious amounts of delicious tomatoes), and I don't want this to just be a tomato blog (though tomatoes are definitely delicious).

So, instead, I'll tell you how to make your own Nutella. Hazelnuts are my favorite kind of nut, and combining them with chocolate is always a good thing. And so I absolutely love Nutella. I'll put it on toast, fruit, whatever (or I'll just eat it straight out of the jar).

But I was thinking with my dad recently that there isn't really much in Nutella, and it should be easy to make it at home. And then it gets to have butter in it, and not palm kernel oil (whatever the hell that is), and if you can add stuff like cinnamon and honey. And maybe if you don't like hazelnuts, you can try to make it with almonds or peanuts (though I haven't tried either of those, so I can't vouch for if those taste good, so only try that if you are adventurous and enjoy tinkering with recipes)

Homemade Nutella

1 cup hazelnuts

8 ounces dark chocolate (I used 60% cocoa)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1 heaping tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk (or less or more depending on how thick/milky you want it to be)

Preheat oven to 350°F

Spread hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes (you can tell when they’re done when when your kitchen smells like delicious toasted nuts). If you used raw hazelnuts, you can try to remove the skins by rubbing them in a kitchen towel (but be warned, this process can be incredibly tedious and results in hazelnuts-skin-dust going everywhere, and only half of the skin comes off anyway). If you used hazelnuts that have been treated in some way so they don’t have skins (usually they are blanched), you’re all set to move onto the next step.

While the nuts are roasting, microwave the chocolate and 2 tablespoons of the butter slowly until fully melted (for me it usually takes a 2 to 3 30-second rounds in the microwave, stirring in between to speed the melting process). 

Add the roasted hazelnuts and the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter to the food processor and run until it forms a paste (it might be a little grainy, but it will get smoother as you blend more). Add the honey, confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Blend well

Add the melted chocolate and butter and blend well. Slowly add milk, stopping and tasting as you go, until it reached the consistency and taste you desire. Store in a resealable container. 

Also, as usual, feel free to tinker with this recipe as you see fit (that’s how I got to this recipe in the first place. I found this recipe this recipe, but it called for milk chocolate, which I don’t have in my house (dark chocolate FTW!). And then I added honey, since it was sitting on the counter and called out to be added, and cinnamon, because I love putting cinnamon in chocolate. 

-----

So, I'm just going all over the place with these recommendation sections, because now I'm gonna talk about movies. I recently saw The Dark Knight Rises, the third film in Christoper Nolan's Batman trilogy, and I highly recommend it. As usual, Nolan took the stories and themes from Batman and made it feel like a serious action film, not just another silly comic book movie. All of the characters are fantastic and compelling (I especially like Anne Hathaway's Catwoman. She effectively uses her "feminine wiles" without being automatically stuck in the romantic interest slot. Bane's approach to his villainy was also fantastic. He was so polite and classy while bringing about the destruction of Gotham. You could easily understand why the citizens were willing to go along with him). I loved when Scarecrow made his little appearance as Banes judge (of course he would take that role where he can sit up above everyone else and pass down judgement on people).

However, I wouldn't say this was the best of the series. I would have to award that honor to the second film, The Dark Knight. In that movie, we don't get bogged down in learning how Batman came to be, like we did in Batman Begins, and Gotham isn't quite as run down and depressing as in The Dark Knight Rises. In The Dark Knight, you see Batman in his prime going against one of his best villains. By that, I mean the Joker. Heath Ledger's Joker was amazingly creepy. He seemed so affable as he was cutting down all your henchmen. But mainly, his motivation was the most appealing part of him. He loved evil for evil's sake. Ra's al Ghul and the League of Shadows think they are making the world a better place, and Two Face came about through guilt and vengeance, but the Joker just raises hell because he's bored. And it's amazing. (It also doesn't hurt that the Joker often sounded/acted like Tom Waits)