Roasted Hazelnut Butter

Hazelnut butter is the best of the butters (sorry, peanut butter) and this version is sweetened with maple syrup using a special method to keep things smooth and silky. The nuts are roasted with maple syrup and cinnamon before blending, which serves three purposes: it’s a natural sweetener, which is nice, roasted nuts are easier to blend, and it lends a good toasted flavour.

All you need to make your own nut butter is a food processor and, in this case, an oven. It is slightly more involved than buying a jar at the store, but you get to completely control the add-ins – think spices, cocoa, and more.

Use your hazelnut butter to make a chocolate hazelnut tart, vegan apple crumble with hazelnut topping, or puffed quinoa bars (with peanut in the recipe, but so good with hazelnut).

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Raw hazelnuts: I imagine you could use blanched, but I find that blanched nuts tend to take longer to blend and don’t have as nice of an end texture. To make this a little less expensive, use half sunflower seeds.
• Maple syrup: 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.
• Spices: you can use any number of spices here – nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves are all nice additions depending on what you’re going for.

Step by Step

1. Mix: add all ingredients to a baking sheet with high sides and mix to coat.
2. Bake: roast the nuts for about 20 minutes, until golden.
3. Cool: set aside to cool for a few minutes before adding to a food processor.
4. Blend: start mixing. It will turn into hazelnut meal first.

5. Keep mixing: blend the butter until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.
6. Finish: when ready, it will be very smooth.

Recipe 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.

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).

How to Store

Storage: 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.

Freezing: this can be frozen for up to three months in airtight containers.

Expert Tips

• Make a chocolate version: 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.
• Keep a steam opening: when blending, keep the secondary opening for the food processor lid open so that steam can escape.
• Keep blending: when you think the nut butter is ready, blend for another minute. It always needs a bit longer than thought, and you want it very smooth and runny.

More Hazelnut Recipes

Hazelnut Pear Crisp with chocolate
Hazelnut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Cinnamon Hazelnut Granola
Hazelnut Fig Cake

If you make this Hazelnut Butter or any other vegetarian staple recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.

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.