An easy recipe for keto hazelnut spread. Sugar-free and made with just a few simple ingredients, it's creamy and delicious!
You make it in your food processor, and it's ready in about 30 minutes. It's absolutely wonderful on low-carb bread!
I adore this delicious spread! It's so wonderfully decadent. I find it quite irresistible in fact - perhaps too irresistible. 😀 It's rich, intensely chocolatey, and the hazelnut flavor really comes through.
I love having it for breakfast on some toasted almond flour bread. It goes so well with my morning coffee! ☕ (Another good one is this homemade walnut butter).
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Ingredients
You will only need six ingredients to make this keto hazelnut spread. The exact measurements are listed in the recipe card below. Here's an overview of what you'll need:
Hazelnuts: I buy them raw and skinless on Amazon, so all I have to do is lightly roast them.
Unsweetened cocoa powder: It's best to use Dutch-processed cocoa powder. It's milder and less acidic than natural cocoa.
Sweetener: I use stevia glycerite. You can possibly replace it with a powdered sweetener.
Avocado oil: a neutral-tasting oil. Sometimes I use macadamia oil. It's mild enough that it doesn't really affect the flavor.
Vanilla extract: Try to use the real thing - pure vanilla extract - and not the artificially flavored stuff. The difference is quite noticeable in uncooked recipes.
Sea salt: Just a little to balance out the sweetness.
Instructions
Making this keto hazelnut spread is easy! You won't be working hard at all - your food processor will. Scroll down to the recipe card for the details. The basic steps are simple:
- Roast the hazelnuts in your oven.
- Process them in your food processor into smooth, loose hazelnut butter.
- Add the remaining ingredients and process to combine.
You do need patience because it takes a while for the toasted hazelnuts to turn into smooth, loose butter. I saw several recipes that said five minutes. But in my KitchenAid food processor, on high speed, it takes a full ten minutes.
Getting smooth, loose hazelnut butter - as shown in the video below - is the key to this recipe's success and to preventing a grainy texture.
Expert tip
It's best to use Dutch-processed cocoa powder (cocoa processed with alkali) in this recipe because it is milder and not as acidic as regular unsweetened cocoa powder. However, if you prefer, it's OK to use regular unsweetened cocoa powder.
Frequently asked questions
It's a matter of taste. It's not as sweet, but its flavor profile is more complex. In a way, it's better than the spread that inspired it, which I find mild and very sweet, with just a hint of hazelnut flavor. This spread is darker, richer, and more complex.
I sweeten this spread with stevia glycerite. The glycerite formulation greatly minimizes the aftertaste typical of stevia products. A full tablespoon is needed here because of the large amount of cocoa powder used in this recipe.
If you wish, you can probably replace the stevia with one cup of a powdered sweetener. I haven't tried it myself, though.
Yes. I use avocado oil in this recipe because it's a neutral-tasting oil. Sometimes I use macadamia nut oil instead and that works equally well.
Variations
The best way to vary this recipe is to use different flavor extracts. So instead of a tablespoon of vanilla extract, you could use a teaspoon of almond extract, coconut extract, or orange extract.
Serving suggestions
This spread is wonderful on keto biscuits, keto English muffins, or keto banana bread, and I love dipping strawberries into it. It makes a great filling for crepes! But more often than not, I just eat it with a spoon. Yes, it's that good.
Storing leftovers
I keep this spread on the counter, in an airtight container. It keeps well for about a week. In my house, it never lasts longer than that!
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Recipe card
Keto Hazelnut Spread
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups raw, blanched, unsalted hazelnuts (10 oz)
- 6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder (1 oz)
- 1 tablespoon stevia glycerite (equals 1 cup sugar)
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet in a single layer. Roast for 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.
- Remove the hazelnuts from the oven and let cool for a couple of minutes.
- Add the still warm hazelnuts to your food processor. Process them on high until the nuts turn into loose, fairly liquid butter, about 10 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the food processor bowl a few times during this process.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the food processor. Process them on low for a few seconds, then process on high until very smooth, about 3 more minutes, scraping the sides and bottom twice.
- Transfer the spread to an airtight container. It should keep on the counter for about a week.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
NOTES
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NUTRITION PER SERVING
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Vered DeLeeuw, LL.M., CNC, has been following a low-carb real-food diet and blogging about it since 2011. She's a Certified Nutrition Coach (NASM-CNC), has taken courses at the Harvard School of Public Health, and has earned a Nutrition and Healthy Living Certificate from Cornell University. Her work has appeared in several major media outlets, including Healthline, HuffPost, Today, Women's Health, Shape, and Country Living. 