All You Need Are 2 Ingredients For Your Own Nutella Copycat

Think of Nutella as peanut butter's sweeter, even more indulgent best friend. It's a blend of hazelnuts and chocolate that creates a perfectly smooth, creamy spread that can go atop anything from plain toast to pizza dough — it's even a delicious ice cream topping when it's a little bit warm. But if you have a desire to make this sweet spread yourself, then you don't have to try very hard. All you need are those two main ingredients and less than 10 minutes of your time.

Traditional Nutella was born in Italy out of three ingredients: Hazelnuts, sugar, and cocoa. It was first crafted in Italy after World War II when cocoa was hard to find; the recipe used only a small amount of cocoa, keeping it fairly easy to produce despite the cocoa shortage. It's changed a bit over the years, going from what was first a hard, butter-like loaf shape to now a creamy spread. And the latter version is so easy to make on your own.

There is one step here that you won't want to miss: Roasting the hazelnuts. While it's safe to eat them raw, if you want to get a milder, slightly sweeter flavor, you'll want to roast them for a little bit to bring out those notes — five minutes in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit is all you need. Then, shell the hazelnuts and they're ready to use.

Once the hazelnuts are roasted, they can be quickly ground in a food processor, which will get that smooth, creamy texture you see in store-bought Nutella. If you're a chunky peanut butter person, then you might want to build that same consistency with your Nutella; just use your best judgment to determine how much time they need in the processor. And once that's done, it's just a matter of combining them with some melted chocolate. Dark chocolate is typically used here, but if you prefer an even sweeter mixture, you can use milk chocolate too.

Storage is important. There's no need to refrigerate the hazelnut spread, but you should store it in an airtight container to keep it fresh for as long as possible. Since the two main ingredients are generally nonperishable, your homemade spread will last about one month when sealed and stored in the pantry.

The pantry is the best spot to ensure the chocolate doesn't harden, but you can keep it in the refrigerator to get even more time out of it. It will last about three months in the fridge but will also become rock solid, so you'll have to microwave the spread whenever you want to use it. Hazelnuts last up to nine months when shelled, so you won't have to worry about those going bad. You can use the copycat Nutella as a spread, or you can get creative with it by rolling it up into pie dough or croissant dough, spreading it on cupcakes in place of frosting, or using it in place of syrup on your chicken and waffles (a surprisingly tasty combination).