Healthy Nutella with Nuts and Dates

Nutella is just fantastic and we both love it! However, Nutella, or chocolate spread in general, are real energy bombs - they are packed with sugar and many different artificial additives. This recipe for chocolate spread is a great, and way healthier, alternative to the processed products you can find at the grocery stores. A chocolate spread can be used for many things. We love to use it as spread on bread like these birthday buns or on a slice of this healthy Paleo bread. It is also a perfect spread for these healthy banana pancakes which are great for breakfast.

This chocolate spread is like a healthy sugar-free nutella - the consistency is very similar and the taste is wonderful. This fact that this recipe has a relatively high content of nuts and dark chocolate gives it a very rich and natural taste. This way you can actually taste that it is based on fresh and real ingredients. The recipe contains five basic ingredients; nuts, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, milk and dates. The dates brings sweetness to the spread and is in general a great substitute to sugar. We have several healthy and sugar-free recipes on our blog where dates are the substitute for sugar.

Healthy Nutella with Nuts and Dates

1 little jar
Preparation time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
200 g (7 oz) almonds or hazelnuts
100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate
2 semi-dried dates
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1.5 dl (2/3 cup) heavy-cream or milk

Instructions:
Step 1: Use a food processor or blender to blend the nuts (almonds or hazelnuts) until they are a smooth nut-butter. At first the nuts gets turned into powder, continue blending and the powder turns into a smooth butter.
Step 2: Remove the seeds from the dates and blend them together with the nut butter
Step 3: Melt the chocolate; break the chocolate into smaller pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl in a sauce pan with water, simmer and the chocolate will slowly melt. Pour the melted chocolate into the nut and date mixture and mix well.
Step 4: Add the cocoa powder and milk/cream to the mixture. Mix well.
Step 5: Clean a small jar using boiling water. Pour the healthy chocolate spread unto the jar and keep it refrigerated.