For the past eight years I've always baked cookies for Christmas. Without fail homemade cookies, chocolate covered nuts and truffles were always part of the holiday season. It comes as no surprise really that the one year I decide to blog about quintessential Christmas at our house, everything is anything but traditional.
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| melting chocolate |
For those who missed it my decorations this year can be seen
here and
here. And I blogged about gift wrapping
here.
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| roasting hazelnuts |
Due to time constraints cookies are out of the question but I still wanted to bake something. I stumbled upon this
home made nutella recipe by David Lebovitz while frantically searching the net to find some fuss free recipes.
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| milk and honey |
Homemade nutella is so easy to make. I followed the recipe to the letter. To simplify things further I bought ground hazelnuts to save myself the trouble of grinding them in the blender. And it totally worked.
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| pouring it together |
After pouring the ingredients together the mixture will look quite frothy and very liquidy as Mr. Lebovitz predicted. The trick is to pour smaller amounts into the blender and blend it furiously for a couple of minutes at high speed.
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| frothy liquid |
It comes out looking smooth and puddingy and oh so delicious!
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| creamy Nutella |
And a final word of warning: discouraged by the promise of only two small jars, I doubled the ingredients for a double batch...Mr. Lebovitz lied. I now have three small and three medium jars full of Nutella.
Girl, you ROCK!!!! You have no idea how much Nutella is adored in my house! And, I have a girlfriend that just made a Nutella cheesecake that is sinful!
ReplyDeleteOh, and if you want a very simple recipe, I made homemade peppermint patties last night. Hardest part is covering them in the chocolate, but anyone who has made peanut butter balls should be familiar with the process. Have a wonderful Christmas!!
The peppermint patties are here: www.savorysweetlife.com
This looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteBut honestly, I don´t spend much time cooking/ baking, not even at Xmas time ( my way of dieting ).
But, I promised Hostess to try her chocolates, so I´ll try her recipe first, and if I´ll fail, I might try your´s.
Thanks!
Shirley: I think Mr C. almost fainted when I told him over the phone ;-) And I did consider making some sort of peanut butter balls and peppermint balls but opted out because my kitchen table is all taken up with presents which leaves no space available.
ReplyDeleteMette: I bake on a weekly basis, part of my attempt to eat less processed food. The desserts are mainly for Mr C. who loves chocolate but I won't have him eating store bought cake. The stuff they put in there is ick.
But I always do really simple stuff in the mix it all up, pour in the pan and bake style :-)
This looks delicious. I love the idea of making your own so you know EXACTLY what is in what your are eating.
ReplyDeleteLiked the sound and ease of this till I noted the word 'blender' could I whip it up with a fork??
ReplyDeleteI am blushing with embarrassment no tools even a whip you can tell I am no cook. Think even Mette would be shocked psssst don't tell her! Ida
Kelly: I'm an organic, free range nut ;-P
ReplyDeleteida: You could whisk it with a fork, it will be less creamy. More crunchy and rustic but perfectly edible :-)
I lived without a blender and even without an oven for two years...we managed just fine!
Wow, that looks totally delicious! I have a feeling though that I cannot buy ground hazelnuts here. In fact it's really hard to find shelled hazelnuts and shelling them is such a pain. I wonder if it's possible to mail order shelled hazelnuts?
ReplyDeleteSusan: What a curious tidbit of cultural divide. In Slovenia you can get walnuts, hazelnuts, poppy seed and coconut flakes in just about any convenience store. If it's a slightly larger store, then the selection is astounding: macadamia, cashews, dried apricots and raisins,... If you want some ground hazelnuts, I could mail them to you :-)
ReplyDeleteGuess what's sitting in my fridge right now? 3 cars of homemade Nutella. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny - I follow David but it was your posting that made me try it. Plus the wish to have a gift for Mr Paula which he would never refuse to accept. (not so sure about the drill)
I guess I needed you to go ahead with the ground nuts. It totally worked!
The biggest task was finding jars - I recently brought all empty jars to the glass-recycling-container.
ooops,not cars! but jars! :-D
ReplyDeletePaula: Wow, you're fast :-)
ReplyDeleteyes finding jars! in the summer the stores are full of them but now, nothing! so mine are all different which annoys me because I wanted identical jars shaped like amphorae. I guess next year
Yum!!! It looks absolutely delicious. You are so talented. Love the idea for finding jars. Fabulous!
ReplyDeleteHope you have a wonderful Christmas,
Heather
Heather: Thanks :-) The nutella was a great success, I'm actually seriously considering ditching the baking in favour of making nutella again next year. Happy Christmas!
ReplyDelete