Healthy Nutella: Is It Possible?

In my weekly blogs, we're certainly no strangers to figuring out everything there is to know about healthy desserts. Healthy cake, healthy brownies, healthy smoothies…But what about healthy Nutella?

healthy nutella

Yes, it is possible to make healthy Nutella, and I also promise you it tastes just as good! After all, the part that really matters is that you have the hazelnuts. But first I feel like I should answer the question, is Nutella even all that unhealthy?

Unfortunately…yeah. sure, you may think, it's super popular in Europe and those people are usually pretty healthy, but unfortunately the delicious hazelnut cocoa spread made by the Italian company Ferrero has tons of sugar. 21 grams for just 2 tablespoons! Aah! In case that somehow doesn't sound like a lot, just know that Nutella has more sugar than Betty Crocker chocolate frosting, for example (that has 17 grams of sugar for the same amount).

Plus, according to the American Heart Association, you should be consuming no more than 30 g of added sugar per day. Probably don't want to spend it all in one place with Nutella!! And you probably also don't want to get diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, Alzheimer's, cancer, or the myriad of other issues associated with too much added sugar and its effects on insulin and the arteries…

Anyway, now that we've finished totally trashing your favorite hazelnut spread, how do you make healthy Nutella??

Or how do you make low sugar / sugar-free Nutella that doesn't totally taste like oh, well, poop rather than something that just looks a little poopy?

According to top healthy dessert gastronomist "Chocolate-Covered Katie," you'll need two cups of hazelnuts, 1/2 cup milk, and 1.5 tablespoons of vanilla extract, 1/4 a cup of are there maple syrup, unrefined sugar which I don't recommend because sugar is sugar, or Xylitol. (You can also use about a quarter of that amount as Stevia, instead), and then keep that one fourth a cup ready because you need a fourth a cup of cocoa powder. Last but not least, optionally put in a pinch of salt, and a bit of oil to add smoothness.

The first thing you're going to do is roast hazelnuts for 6 to 8 minutes. We'll keep the oven pretty high, at 400°! Then, kill all the hazelnut skins off, or at least most of them, and blend them into butter in a food processor. Blend everything together to the desired texture/creaminess, and you're done!

And hey, I hope you don't think I'm saying that you should never have Nutella again, or anything like that. As you probably know if you followed me for very long, I believe everything in moderation…Sure, you should mostly eat healthy, but if you really want to have a treat, I don't believe that turning down grandma's cookies at Christmas (especially if they're Grandma's Nutella cookies!!) is going to do anyone any good.

In fact, I recently wrote a Facebook post about how I think the trend of healthy desserts that are processed is kind of a bad trend, similar to the low-fat craze. Because these "healthy cookies" etc. are often filled with all kinds of artificial chemicals that make them even more unhealthy than just going ahead and having the desert. Of course, this is an exception because it's a homemade healthy dessert, so you're controlling what's going in it.

But I'm curious, what do you think about the "healthy cookies," etc. trend by manufacturers? Do you think this is PREYING on the health-conscious consumer? I certainly do!