I’ll admit, I used to eat Nutella by the spoonfull. Then one day my dad called. He had watched a news report about Nutella and told me to stop eating it; it wasn’t good for me. I wasn’t the only Nutella lover. Some 365 million kilos are consumed all around the world every year. But Ferrero, the makers of Nutella, weren’t the first to mix chocolate and hazelnuts into something irresistible…

The story of Pietro Ferrero, waking up his wife in the middle of the night to have her taste spoonful’s of early versions of Nutella until he found the perfect batch is like a fairytale. At this stage in history, Turin was already celebrating chocolate and, most importantly, the predecessor of Nutella: Gianduja. The commonly told version of the story goes like this. In 1806, Napoleon closed the borders of his empire which meant that imports, most importantly cacao, were not allowed in. Something needed to be done to satisfy the demand that already existed for chocolate. In response, Turin’s chefs added something that was already readily available as a way of bulking up the chocolate that they did have: hazelnuts, and sometimes up to 70%! This chocolate was shaped into little cigar shapes soon became known as gianduiotto, the diminutive form of Gianduia. Gianduia was a character from the Commedia dell’Arte who had represented the symbol of the struggle for independence since the end of the eighteenth century. (and if you want to know everything about the subject, read through this).

Until this point, Giaduja was something you sipped or ate not spread. In 1946, Ferrero launched Pasta Gianduja the first spreadable version which was later revisited and relaunched as Nutella in 1964. As addictive as Nutella is, it isn’t really gianduja. Real gianduja is made with a minimum of 30% hazelnuts and chocolate (with milk and a bit of sugar). Nutella only has only 13% (main ingredients are sugar, palm oil, skim milk powder, cocoa powder, soy lecithins and vanillin flavouring). So gianduja and Nutella are not the same!

So if you love Nutella your best bet is to find the real deal. Today there are many chocolatiers and makers that put together a good gianduja (although of course if you can, go to Turin for the best!). I make Giaduja at home and below is my recipe. I will start though with a huge warning based on a mistake I made early on. If you are going to make anything using hazelnuts, make sure you have good quality, fresh hazelnuts. Hazelnuts have a lot of (good) fat in them which means they can go rancid quickly. The first patch I got was a bag of Turkish Hazelnuts that were no longer good but I didn’t realise that until after I had made numerous desserts and a few pots of gianduja to share. Needless to say, most of it went to waste. Rather than cover up the off flavours, adding chocolate and sugar just made the hazelnuts taste even worse. Chefs always say to choose the best and freshest ingredients. When it comes to hazelnuts, this is the rule. 

To make Gianduja you will need (to fill a small jar)

1 cup (100g) hazelnuts

50 g dark chocolate

½ cup icing sugar

½ cup full fat milk

  1. First, I spread the hazelnuts on a travel and put them in the over to roast for 10 minutes at 180C. Take out of the oven and cool slightly before rubbing the black skins off (they should come off easily)
  2. Take the hazelnuts with skins removed and place in a food processor. Mix until a homogenous and oily paste is obtained.This will take a couple of minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, carefully melt your chocolate either in a bowl in the microwave or in a saucepan. Once melted, add it the hazelnut mix in the food processor along with the rest of the ingredients. Continue mixing for a couple of minutes until smooth.
  4. The mixture will be quite liquid, but that’s ok. Pour it into a small glass jar (I used old jam jars) and place it in the fridge. It will set to the perfect consistency after a couple of hours. Keep it in the fridge in between eating spoonfuls.

To make a Gianduja hot chocolate, simply add a spoonful or two to your usual/favourite hot chocolate.

Unsurprisingly, different hazelnuts will have different flavours which means your Gianduja will taste different depending on the quality of the ingredients you use. What I make at home is good, but I still think Turin does it best.

Click here for more on Gianduja including options you can buy locally.