Nutella.......mmmm, Nutella

[Mjx]

This discussion deserves a bump, as I had Nutella on white bread as a snack a few minutes ago and it occurred to me that there might be other ways of eating the stuff. What else do you guys do with it?

Spooned straight from the jar, while staring vacantly out the kitchen window, usually. Probably because I don't so much like it, as occasionally crave it, HARD. I wonder how common this is.

There's the Nutella on crepes/in croissants thing, but honestly, it usuallyneeds a tweak of some sort (sprinkle of smoked salt, some instant coffee granules, pinch of cardmom) to make it worthwhile, and various knockoffs often taste better, since the often incorporate somthing that relieves the flatness of the original.

[baroness]

Add another to the NON-Nutella fans.

It tastes like bad/cheap frosting to me.

[Allura]

What I'd really like to find is the European version in the US. Does anyone sell it other than the importers? Trader Joe's house-brand seemed to be significantly different at one time, which I suspect was due to it being the Eurorpean version of Nutella under their own brand, but they stopped carrying it.

[Darienne]

What I'd really like to find is the European version in the US. Does anyone sell it other than the importers? Trader Joe's house-brand seemed to be significantly different at one time, which I suspect was due to it being the Eurorpean version of Nutella under their own brand, but they stopped carrying it.

We did one spread made by Peanut Butter & Co, http://ilovepeanutbutter.com/ called Dark Chocolate Dreams which I really liked. Really, really liked. We don't buy it...because I would simply eat it. You might try that...considering that DH and I don't like Nutella but love Gianduja.

[annabelle]

Darienne, I'm thinking about making some kind of peanutbutter/nutella cookies with the jar of Nutella I'm stuck with. (My son was supposed to take it back to his place, but he double-crossed me.) I hate to throw out cookies that no one likes, though. I think if I can disguise it enough, no one will notice it.

[Darienne]

Darienne, I'm thinking about making some kind of peanutbutter/nutella cookies with the jar of Nutella I'm stuck with. (My son was supposed to take it back to his place, but he double-crossed me.) I hate to throw out cookies that no one likes, though. I think if I can disguise it enough, no one will notice it.

You could do what we did. We were staying at a motel at the time and the next morning I went to the housekeeping center and asked would anyone like this jar of Nutella? Just one clean spoon dipped into it. And sure enough, one of the cleaning staff was glad to get it for her kids.

ps. The staff did know us. We stayed there every year.

Edited May 27, 2012 by Darienne (log)

[annabelle]

Several of my younger son's female friends rave about it all the time to him, which is how I ended up buying it in the first place. I think I'll send it home with one of them.

[ChrisZ]

Nutella mixed with whipped cream makes an easy cake filling, and I also use it in a similar manner to flavour buttercream. It actually goes really well with carrot cakes, and apple/cinnamon cakes, where it is a complimentary flavour. When you pair it with chocolate it can become a bit of a sweetness overload.

I don't like eating nutella straight or as a spread though. I used to live by a market that had a chocolate stall that sold slabs of Callebaut gianduja by weight. My guilty pleasure was buying a block of a few hundred grams and biting it off in chunks...

Who makes "high-end" gianduja - is there an Amadei or Valrhona for gianduja? I ate a lot of the stuff in Perugia and thought it was delicious but I'm not sure who the manufacturer was.

[annabelle]

ChrisZ, I actually had that same thought about using it in a filling/frosting for a crrot cake. Thanks for reminding me!

[Ed P]

Add another to the NON-Nutella fans.

It tastes like bad/cheap frosting to me.

You say that like eating frosting out of a can (preferably with my finger as the utensil) is bad

Edited May 28, 2012 by Ed P (log)

[DianaM]

Who makes "high-end" gianduja - is there an Amadei or Valrhona for gianduja? I ate a lot of the stuff in Perugia and thought it was delicious but I'm not sure who the manufacturer was.

I can't speak for Valrhona, but last fall, when I visited the Amedei plant, I tasted their Crema Toscana Alla Nocciola (tuscan cream with hazelnuts). They use hazelnuts of the Tonda Gentile variety, which they consider the very best of Italian hazelnuts. The Crema is fantastic, but then again, I adore hazelnuts.

I don't usually buy Nutella, but a choc hazelnut spread by President's Choice brand. It says "Product of Belgium" on the jar, and I think it's really good.

[Quesmoy]

I have not tried Nutella, because it just seems so rich to me. While I was in China I tried a hazelnut and cream spread that was to die for (and I think adding chocolate would make it too sweet for my taste), and I have not been able to find anything like it around here (and I finished all the jars I brought back with me). I wonder if I use these recipes for homemade Nutella and just left out the chocolate it would be similar to what I had in China.

[Mjx]

I have not tried Nutella, because it just seems so rich to me. While I was in China I tried a hazelnut and cream spread that was to die for (and I think adding chocolate would make it too sweet for my taste), and I have not been able to find anything like it around here (and I finished all the jars I brought back with me). I wonder if I use these recipes for homemade Nutella and just left out the chocolate it would be similar to what I had in China.

The presence of chocolate should make the spread less sweet, since chocolate is naturally bitter (the sweetsweetsweet character of Nutella and similar spreads is down to the fact that children (still) comprise the primary market for these, and they're capable of appreciating sweetness levels that make most adults' teeth itch/the average adult pancreas to throb). The nutella analogues I've liked best actually have a higher chocolate/cacao content, but less sugar, and also contain a little salt, which keeps the stuff from tasting flat and insipid.

[Jenni]

It's very slightly off topic, but has anyone else here heard of penotti, and their other product duo penotti? The first is chocolate-hazelnut, and the second has ribbons of vanilla flavoured spread through it too. I think we mostly got the original penotti, the other was a bit too sweet. My Mum used to buy it and carefully ration it out to us for a treat. Then when the jar was finished, she would clean it up and it would become a drinking glass! Don't mock, the glasses were nicely ribbed and rather attractive, they didn't look like jam jars or anything. I think it's the only reason Mum let use eat the spread! In later years, she used to occasionally buy us a small jar of nutella, and we would do the same with the jar. It wasn't as nice a glass - smooth and plain - but it still did the job. I think almost all of our ordinary drinking glasses were old chocolate spread jars for several years. Then my Mum treated us to some "fancy" shop bought ones because my brother and I had broken too many of the jar-glasses.

Edited May 31, 2012 by Jenni (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Nutella 'chip' icecream.

[Quesmoy]

If the chocolate will help with the sweetness, then I think I'm going to have to buy me a jar to try.

[Mjx]

If the chocolate will help with the sweetness, then I think I'm going to have to buy me a jar to try.

Wait! With regard to chocolate tempering the overall sweetness, I was referring back to the what you said previously, about attempting one of the home made chocolate-hazelnut spreads, but omitting the chocolate (in which case, you would not be cutting back on the sweetness).

Nutella itself is crazy sweet (even the European versions, which are the only ones I generally have access to).

[naguere]

Not being one for throwing food away I scraped the last vestiges of Nutella from the jar in my cupboard this spring.

Spread on a rye roll, it did taste pretty funky, but hey, waste not want not.

Reading the 'Best Before' on the label it said 2006.

I will call in at my local Lidl tomorrow to stock up

(It's true I tell ya)

[Kouign Aman]

I blame the rye roll, not the nutella, for the funkiness!

I have marmite of a similar age, but nutella does not last in this house.

[ChrisOC]

I see that Jiff came out with a chocolate hazelnut spread. Has anyone tried it?

[jmolinari]

Serious eats didn't love them: http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2012/06/new-jif-chocolate-hazelnut-spreads.html

[annabelle]

I have half a jar of Nutella languishing in my cupboard. Do. Not. Like.

[Shel_B]

There is nothing better in this galaxy than Nutella spread on a halved warm, plain buttery croissant.

NOTHING.

I gotta admit, I just don't get it ... Nutella just doesn't do anything for me. Now, a warm (not microwaved) buttery croissant with good

dulce de leche, that's somethin' else.

[orangeong2]

i dip virtually ANYTHING into my nutella.. ahh seeing your posts makes me drool over my laptop..

[Cadbury]

I prefer my Nutella with peanut butter on bread. The peanut butter helps with the sickly sweetness of the Nutella. Also not bad in a sandwich with a slab of vanilla ice-cream inside :0