Tuesday 8 December 2015

Vegan nutella with coconut condensed milk

So it seems that the end of year festive craziness has hit me with a resounding wallop!  Hence my slow posting of late.  Since my last post a few days ago, I have been baking gingerbread houses, had our end of year book club celebrations, made grubs for a cake stall, Sylvia had gymnastics display day, we attended a carol service and the house is desperately in need of a good clean.  So I bring you a simple vegan nutella recipe today that would make a good present or just be on hand for some stress relief!

I made this sauce really because I wanted a recipe to feature some coconut condensed milk that I bought.  I liked the condensed milk.  It was a different sort of creamy to the regular one.  But pleasing all the same!  Despite loving the "nutella" spread, I thought it more like a good ganache rather than nutella.  I think the problem is that regular nutella is made with very little nuts and lots of milkiness.  And who wants that sort of spread. 

I suspect a more milky spread might make my blender happier.  I blended the nuts, condensed milk and chocolate into a thick mixture.  Suddenly my blender stopped.  It wasn't overheated.  I had fixed a keyboard that didn't work a few days before by turning it off and turning it on again but this didn't help the blender.  So I put in a support ticket with Froothie and they told me there was an override switch on the bottom of the blender.  Oh!

However by the time I had fixed the blender the nutella was in a jar and a tub.  It was thick like fudge once it set and needed milk to be spreadable.  Next time I would add the milk after the nuts had become butter or even with the nuts.  If I had a better food processor I might use that instead or I think I could just mix the nut butter with chocolate and condensed milk.  I found that if I heated up the nutella it was easy to add milk and make it a warm sauce for pancakes

But before thinning down the nutella I spread some on white chocolate and raspberry biscuits to make great sandwich cookies.  Sadly the biscuits went too quickly to make many sandwiches.  The nutella also went rather quickly.  We loved it on a plain rice cake.  I liked the idea of packaging it as a gift but I can't give any information about how long it lasted as I didn't like to count the days it took us to plough through it.

I am sending this nutella to We Should Cocoa hosted by Munchies and Munchkins this month, to Cindy for Gluten Free Fridays, and to Lucy and Lauren for Fabulous Foodie Fridays.

Recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe to feature this nutella/sauce:
Chocolate pancakes with berries and chocolate sauce
Nutella blondies
Nutella fudge (gf,v)
Nutella rice bubble slice
Strawberry sushi with chocolate sauce (gf, v)
Zucchini brownie with smoked walnuts (v)

Vegan "Nutella" with coconut condensed milk
Adapted from The Eccentric Cook

200g roasted hazelnuts
400ml coconut condensed milk
200g dark chocolate (70%)
1/2 cup milk or more

Blend hazelnuts to make a butter.  It can take some time.  Add in remaining ingredients to make it smooth and spreadable.  Bear in mind that the melted chocolate will thicken as it cools so make it more runny than you want it.  If it is too thick when it cools, warm it up and stir in more milk.

VARIATIONS: 
No milk will make it into a fudge if you keep it in the fridge.  More milk will make it into a luscious sauce.  It can also be used to frost cakes. 

NOTES:
If you don't have a powerful blender, you could do it in a good food processor (mine is pretty hopeless at such things) or you could buy hazelnut butter and mix the rest of the ingredients by hand.  To make this vegan you should check the chocolate, condensed milk and milk is vegan.  I used soy milk.  If you cannot find coconut condensed milk you could simmer milk and sugar together until you have the right consistency.

On the stereo:
White Christmas: Bing Crosby

24 comments:

  1. I saw another recipe recently using coconut condensed milk, but I've never seen it before - but I'm guessing you just buy it from the supermarket? Otherwise I'm definitely going to try making my own condensed milk so I can make this nutella, OMG yum! I was actually never a fan of nutella in my pre-vegan youth, but I do love chocolate and hazelnuts, so I imagine this wouldn't last long in my house either...:)

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    1. Thanks Kyra. I just bought the coconut condensed milk in the supermarket (woollies). I also found it easy to make my own coconut condensed milk a few months back and think you could try it with a less refined sugar if you make your own. If you are a fan of chocolate and hazelnuts I think you would like it - actually I realised after I posted it what the sauce reminded me of - baci (the little chocolates with hazelnut filling)

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  2. I'm definitely feeling the effects of Christmas. Yesterday was manic, thankfully today was better. I love coconut in everything really :D

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - it is a little better for me this week - but only slightly - and I am with you on Coconut!

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  3. What a lovely recipe.. Have never used coconut condensed milk before or noticed it in the stores. I'll be definitely looking for it soon.

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  4. I want to play with coconut condensed milk. How cool. I love everything you've done with it too!

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  5. Hi Johanna:)
    Sounds the the Holiday season is really heating up on your end. I can definitely see this chocolate yumminess lifting one's spirits to keep you going.

    I've never seen coconut condensed milk in the store either but, I sure will be on the look out. It must add a depth of flavor to the nuts and chocolate. (not that they really need any more, lol)

    Thanks for sharing, Johanna...remember to take a breathe every now and again...

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  6. This is brilliant! I tried making nutella a few years ago and it didnt really work out, so I can't wait to try your version. Looks amazing! Thanks for linking up with our Fabulous Foodie Fridays party xx

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    1. Thanks Lucy - this is the best I have tried so far

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  7. That does look good - I'd be very happy if Santa left me a jar of that in my Christmas stocking. I wouldn't keep it around long enough to worry about how long it would last in the fridge. The sandwich cookies idea would see that jar empty very quickly!

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    1. Thanks Joey - it was a race between the nutella and cookies and the cookies won out so we had to eat nutella alone - such hardship :-)

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  8. Yum! I actually just bought some sweetened condensed coconut milk the other day and was wondering what to do with it! Thanks for the idea :)

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    1. Thanks Lisa - I had mine a while before I stumbled across this

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  9. that's too dangerous for me to make, I love anything nutella-esque but also that coconut condensed milk. It looks great though and one for my recipe bookmarks :)

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    1. Thanks Faye - I think it is a good one to keep in mind for when there is a great recipe using nutella as I can imagine it would be good in many recipes - perhaps a fancy tart!

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  10. I understand about time disappearing!

    This looks absolutely amazing. I can see why Veganopoulos thinks it may be dangerous!

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    1. Thanks Kari - time is very precious right now

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  11. This sounds so good! I am with you on the end of year craziness. Yikes. I get some downtime starting next week for a bit and am really looking forward to it.
    I'll have to make some of this to help de-stress ;p
    First I'll have to track down some condensed coconut milk - I'm not sure I've seen that yet where I live.

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    1. Thanks Kimmy - enjoy your downtime - and you can always make your own coconut condensed milk - it is quite easy

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  12. Fab recipe Johanna. Love that you can make vegan 'nutella'. I have never come across coconut condensed milk though! Sounds lush!

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    1. Thanks Kate - I have tried making condensed milk but was excited I could buy it (a lot less junk than in the soy condensed milk on sale)

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  13. I remember when I shut off my blender by mistake, too. I was so worried I had broke the indestructable blender.. the next morning it worked fine once it had cooled off. :) Glad yours worked out in the end as well... the nutella spread sounds delicious.

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    1. Thanks Janet - it is a terrible feeling when the blender stops and refuses to go - I have overheated my blender but this was not too hot so I couldn't work it out

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  14. This looks delicious. Thanks for joining in with We Should Cocoa

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