Roasted Hazelnut Butter

This easy roasted hazelnut butter is coziness in a jar. Roasting the nuts with maple or date syrup allows for the flavour and sweetness to come into the hazelnut butter without causing it to seize, which means sweet, dreamy nut butter without any refined sugars.

Scroll to the bottom of the post or click “skip to recipe” above to see the recipe card with full ingredient measurements and instructions.

Ingredients

• Raw hazelnuts
• Maple syrup or date syrup (pictured – see substitutions)
• Cinnamon
• Sea salt

Method

Place the hazelnuts, syrup, cinnamon, and salt onto a high-sided baking sheet. It can be lined if you prefer, but doesn’t need to be. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon to coat the nuts, then bake for about 20 minutes.

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Cool the hazelnuts for a few minutes, then blend in a food processor (keep the small lid attachment open to let steam escape). This takes about 10 minutes with my admittedly bad food processor. If you think it’s blended, go a minute longer! Store in a jar and cool fully before refrigerating.

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Tips and Notes

If your food processor is a bit iffy, like mine, you can add a touch of coconut oil to speed things along a bit and encourage the butter to form. It’ll melt when it’s added because the hazelnuts are warm, and incorporates nicely during blending.

Make sure you’re using raw hazelnuts for this recipe, as roasting twice isn’t going to do you any favours. Blanched is good too and will have a much lighter colour than using hazelnuts with the skin on.

Keep an eye on the oven when the nuts are roasting. If your oven runs rather hot, they may burn or over-cook before the allotted time (this happened to me once – my oven was 50C too hot, disaster).

I usually keep nut butter on the counter, but I understand that this is uncomfortable for some people (I also have a cold Dutch house). You can refrigerate it if you prefer, or if you won’t be eating the whole batch within a few days.

Substitutions

You can use any number of spices here – nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves are all nice additions depending on what you’re going for.

I’ve used date syrup for the pictures, because I usually have it in the house from a brand I do photography for. The original recipe called for maple syrup and both are excellent choices. You can also use a runny honey in a pinch, or another liquid sweetener you like.

If you want a chocolate hazelnut butter, add a tablespoon or two of cocoa (to your taste) when it’s almost finished mixing. You may need to add a bit of oil to make up for the added powder as it will make the end result slightly less smooth.

Recipes with Hazelnut Butter

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart (V, GF)
Hazelnut Apple Crumble (V, GF)
Puffed Quinoa Bars (V, GF – actually peanut butter but particularly good with hazelnut!)
Pumpkin Breakfast Cookies

Let’s connect! If you liked this recipe, make sure to leave a comment below, I love hearing from you! Tag me on instagram @occasionallyeggs and #occasionallyeggs so I can see what you’re making, and stay in touch via email, facebook, and pinterest.

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This post was originally published in February 2015. It has been updated with new photographs and information, and some very slight adjustments to the recipe, as of October 2020.