Zero Effort Healthy Chocolate Spread In Under a Minute
A healthier low sugar take on a classic hazelnut chocolate spread, this recipe is made from just 5 ingredients (6 if you want to include some unnoticeable veg!) in 1 minute. Yep, you read that right.
Hands up if you love chocolate spread!
Let’s face it, we all have our hands up right now, right?
Growing up in France and Belgium, Nutella was everywhere. They put it on toast, pancakes, waffles, ice cream sundaes, and even in sweet pizzas. It’s a bestseller there. And it’s not exactly easy to avoid here.
Chocolate-stained grins are a familiar memory for me, and I still find the taste of Nutella nostalgic!
It’s a great treat. But when you read the list of ingredients, it’s slightly alarming:
Sugar (first ingredient listed, meaning the one there is most of), palm oil (uh-oh), hazelnuts (alright, this is better), skim milk, cocoa, soy lecithin as emulsifier (hmm…), vanillin: an artificial flavour (oh joy! what’s wrong with vanilla?!).
It’s over 50% sugar – 21g in each 2 tbsp portion, which is just under an adult’s daily recommended sugar intake, and almost twice a child’s.
It’s delicious, but it’s not exactly something we want to be eating regularly.
So is there a way to eat chocolate spread that is at least a little healthier? Well, there are a number of “sugar free” options these days, including: Diablo, Jim Jams, Nuttvia, GoodGood Belgian Choco Hazel, and CarbZone Belgian Hazelnut Spread. However, all except CarbZone’s are sweetened using maltitol, which can cause gas and stomach pains and indigestion, as well as copious amounts of vegetable oils. Not exactly ideal. Even CarbZone’s (which is sweetened with erythritol and stevia) contains vegetable oils, soy lecithin, and costs £5 a jar!
So I set about trying to make my own. I love love LOVE I Quit Sugar’s one, but it felt like a lot of faff to roast and peel the hazelnuts and then spend ages at a mixer scraping down and waiting for it to finally become smooth. Well worth the effort, but I figured there must be an easier way.
There is, my friends. There is.
With the joy of pre-ground hazelnuts (which cost the same as the hazelnuts themselves)!
5 real food ingredients:
- ground hazelnuts
- milk (dairy/non-dairy/coconut milk)
- coconut oil
- rice syrup or stevia
- cocoa (or cacao) powder
…and one minute – yes, ONE minute! – and you are spreading delicious sweet-but-not-sickly low sugar chocolate spread on your toast, pancakes, croissants and more.
And, AND, as if that’s not enough already, I have tested this recipe with almost a whole ripe avocado blended in at the end to make an even creamier and not-in-any-way-avocado-y spread for all. I recommend starting with just half of one and tasting as you go though, as it does start to come through as a flavour eventually!
So why not whip up some 1-minute low sugar healthier chocolate spread for the kids and reclaim the chocolate-stained grins in the best possible way!
A healthier low sugar take on a classic hazelnut chocolate spread, this healthy chocolate spread recipe is made from just 5 ingredients (6 if you want to include some unnoticeable veg!) in 1 minute. Yep, you read that right.
- 100 g (1 cup) ground hazelnuts*
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) milk (dairy or unsweetened non-dairy – I've made this successfully with both oat milk and full-fat coconut milk from a can)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1-2 tablespoons rice syrup or a couple of drops liquid stevia to taste**
- 25 g (1/4 cup) cacao or cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
-
Heat the ground hazelnuts in a microwave for 30 seconds on High. Blitz all the ingredients together until smooth, then thin out with up to another 60ml (1/4 cumilk to desired consistency.
Want to add a little veg? Add in 1/2 a ripe avocado, you won’t notice it!
*Can’t find ground hazelnuts (I get mine in the baking aisle at Sainsburys)? Grab some roasted chopped ones and blitz for a few extra minutes.
**We like to keep ours as low in sugar as possible and are used to things not tasting supersweet, but if your tastebuds are still adjusting, maybe try using both rice syrup and a few drops of stevia to sweeten to taste without adding a lot of sugar (remember that while rice syrup is fructose-free and releases more slowly and steadily into the bloodstream, it is still classed as a “free sugar” by the World Healthy Organisation).
Looking for more healthier, low sugar versions of your favourite desserts? Why not check out our dessert page and have a browse?
Hi. Could you use other ground nuts instead of Hazelnut? (allergy).
Thanks