Years back, I was sitting with my husband one evening after the kids went to bed complaining that I’ve put on weight. He politely didn’t say anything, just listened to me. The conversation changed to something that was lost, I can’t remember what exactly. So we both got up to start looking for it. After about 5 minutes of looking, I got bored. My husband came to look for me and found me in the kitchen with a jar of Nutella and a spoon. No matter how polite or sweet a husband can be…but you can’t complain about putting on weight one minute and then end up stuffing your face with Nutella the next without a ‘comment’.

Anyway, thankfully I have been able to stop my late-night binging on Nutella, and in fact, I find it to be too sweet. Now the recipe below, adapted from Deliciously Ella, is less sweet and a lot more satisfying. My preferred method of enjoying it remains out of the jar, however, I also suggest you try it slathered on a slice of Marbled Banana Cake.

You do need a good food processor to turn the hazelnuts into butter, I have the Panasonic brand which does a good job. I also buy hazelnuts from International Mill in Kuwait, and they are already toasted. But if you are starting out with raw hazelnuts, make sure to toast them in the oven at 350F or 160C for 10 minutes.

I have written 2 methods for making this recipe. Sometimes the full food processor method works perfectly. And other times it doesn’t. The oil from the hazelnuts starts to come out and you get a clumpy blob (which works great for making date balls). I find the more creamy the hazelnut butter is, the less likely the full food processor method will work. It’s safest to do the hazelnut butter in the processor and then mix the rest of the ingredients by hand.