…the WINNER of our Le Creuset Grill Pan is……

ERICA IWAMURA

Congratulations to you! Look for an e-mail from us so we can ship you your pan!

We’ll announce this week’s contest tomorrow, so stay tuned!

If you have not reserved your copy of Paleo Comfort Foods on Amazon as of yet, please do so! The way Amazon works is a little odd, but they look at how many pre-orders there are to then stock up on the books. If we have any hopes of becoming a bestseller, we need everyone to pre-order their books prior to Sept. 12! So please don’t delay and order those books! We’ll thank you with fabulous prize giveaways!

And now, because you are all winners in our book, the recipe you’ve been asking for:

NUTELLA!

Chocolate hazelnut yumminess with coconut as the dipping agent

There has been a resounding sentiment that chocolate is one of those favorite comfort foods. Thanks to Twitter and the blogosphere, our homemade nutella has gotten a bit of a reputation. And now I’m about to let you all in on our very simple, very tasty, homemade-without-added-sugars-nutella recipe.

Let’s first start with what this is NOT:
- This is NOT your store-bought Nutella or variations on hazelnut chocolate spreads. If you expect this to taste that way, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. The first ingredient on our list is not sugar, organic cane sugar, or any sweetener.  You won’t find any refined vegetable oils, malt extracts, milk powders, etc.
- Aside from the sugars in the chocolate bars we use, there are NO added sugars to this mixture.
- This is not a health food recipe. As Dallas and Melissa at Whole 9 say, this recipe will not (sad to say) make you healthier. However, for times when you want a treat, or you’re on a tropical island with super fresh coconuts and you want to dip pieces of coconut into this mixture, by all means do it! This is a treat, and we want you to enjoy! (just don’t eat it every day, mkay?).

In addition to giving you the hard-copy recipe, Phoenix and I did a little video to help show you how we go about making our Nutella. If you want more of a hazelnut flavor, up the hazelnuts. If you want more chocolate, up the chocolate. I will say that once this mixture set up (cooled down to room temperature) it had a consistency like the Justin’s brand of chocolate hazelnut butter. Mmm mmm good.

Ingredients:

2 cups hazelnuts, skins removed (blanched)
approximately 11-12 ounces dark chocolate (we used a combination of dark chocolates from Trader Joes)
2 tablespoons coconut manna (or coconut butter if you don’t have manna)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Place hazelnuts onto a large sheet pan and roast for about 10 minutes or until slightly browned (being careful not to burn).
3. Pour hazelnuts into a food processor, and blend until you’ve created hazelnut butter (about 5-7 minutes).
4. Meanwhile, in a glass bowl, add the pieces of chocolate and place in microwave for 30 seconds (or you can use the double boiler method to melt the chocolate if preferred).
5. Stir well after 30 seconds and let the chocolate sit for a moment (the heat in the glass will help start the melting process).
6. Repeat for another 30 seconds, and stir well.
7. Add in the coconut manna, and melt all for another 15-20 seconds. Stir.
8. Pour the melted chocolate/coconut mixture into the hazelnut butter, and blend in processor until well combined.
9. Pour into a glass bowl to refrigerate, or simply allow the mixture to cool to room temperature, at which point it will harden up.
Tinker with the ratio of chocolate to hazelnuts to see what you love most. Most of all, enjoy!