Jeff Epler's blog

28 February 2015, 21:32 UTC

Hazelnut Coffee and Hazelnut-Sunflower-Chocolate Butter

Update, 2024: These days my homemade chocolate spread is chocolate sun butter!

This weekend I made good on my threats to try my hand at a homemade hazelnut butter and hazelnut coffee. I've only had one cup of coffee and a few spoonfuls of the butter, but I like how both turned out.

Toast 1½ cups hazelnuts in a cast iron skillet. Roll in a pillowcase or dishtowel to remove most of the dark skin (if the skin is stubborn, you didn't roast enough—return to the skillet). Place in food processor.

Process until hazelnut pieces are coffee-ground sized but still powdery. Remove ½ cup or so for hazelnut coffee; store in airtight container in refrigerator.

Add 1½ cups toasted sunflower seeds, 1 cup dark chocolate chips and ½ tsp salt to food processor. Process until it forms into a ball. Store in airtight container. I expect this to keep as long as any other preservative-free nut butter. Originally I stored my nut butter in the fridge, but the next morning it was too stiff to spread well. It's clearly much better to store it at room temperature, as long as it's used up quickly.

This butter is not as smooth, oily, or sweet as the commercial product you may be thinking of; it's more like Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter.

Hazelnut coffee

Combine 1 part hazelnut powder with 5 parts coffee grounds and then follow normal coffee-making process (I use an aeropress and then add a liberal splash of heavy cream). I assume that it will work to store this combined with ground coffee for at least a few days depending how picky you are about the freshness of your coffee beans.

Both recipes will benefit from some tweaking to your own personal preference, but as a proof of concept both of these ideas are obvious winners.

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