white chocolate and pistachio nutella for world wide nutella day

All week long my friend Michelle has been twittering and facebooking about World Wide Nutella Day.
She and her friend Sara started this ‘holiday’ five years ago. But, somehow, I just couldn’t get into it. I just thought, “Eh , another excuse to celebrate some industrial product.” Not that I don’t eat my fair share. If there is a jar in the house, it’s gone within days, if not hours. Yes, I eat it out of the jar with a spoon.

But celebrate World Wide Nutella Day? It just wasn’t on my radar. Until this morning. National Nutella Day. I started reading about things like Nutella and Bacon, Peanut Butter Nutella, and Nutella Fritters. And then I read David Lebovitz’s post about making homemade Nutella. I knew he had been up to something this week, hunting down hazelnuts in Paris. But I didn’t realize people actually made Nutella. At home. And my friend Judy? She’s the one who wrote about nutella fritters.

After that there was no going back. I had to make Nutella too. I decided to just go with David’s recipe, since I figured he had done enough recipe research for the both of us. But then I had a vision. I was always fascinated by those jars of Nutella that were variegated, with layers of white and chocolate cream filling the jars. I’d never actually bought one, since I thought that whatever that white stuff was, it couldn’t be anything good. Hydrogenated fats anyone? But what if I made my own?

Rather than waste time looking up recipes, I decided to stay within the outline of David’s, but fill it in with whiteness. Out with the dark and milk chocolate, in with the white. No hazelnut-colored hazelnuts, I was going to use pistachios. Ok, I know they’re not white, but I wanted a more delicate nut, and pistachio was it. And just for fun, some grated orange zest.

I ended up with enough Nutella to last a long long time. Some jars are traditional, some white chocolate/pistachio and, the holy grail: two jars of variegated heaven. While I will be giving a lot of this away, I may have to keep the variegated jars to myself. Because only I know how it’s best eaten. With a spoon, straight out of the jar, digging deep in so you get a bit of both in every bite. 
Happy Nutella Day everyone!




Traditional Nutella
(from David Lebovitz, who in turn got it from the Encyclopedie du Chocolat.)

David’s recipe originally called for a bit of almonds, but I just used all hazelnuts. His also used honey, which I think would have gone way overboard on the sweetness in this one.


1 2/3 cup (200 gr. ) toasted hazelnuts
1 3/4 cup whole milk
7/8 cup (60 gr.) powdered whole milk
pinch of salt
170 gr. (6 oz) bittersweet chocolate
140 gr. (5 oz.) milk chocolate.

Warm milk on stove, and add powdered milk and salt. Heat until dissolved.
Melt chocolate carefully in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

In a food processor, grind nuts until as fine as possible.

Add melted chocolate, and mix until well blended.

Once it is smooth, add warm milk and mix well.

Transfer to jars.


White Chocolate Pistachio Nutella


1 2/3 cup (200 gr. ) pistacchios
1 3/4 cup whole milk
7/8 cup (60 gr.) powdered whole milk
1 tablespoon of honey
pinch of salt
310 gr. (11 oz) good quality white chocolate
1 tablespoon grated orange zest

Spread pistachios on a baking sheet and roast at 180C (350F) for 5 minutes.

Warm milk on stove, and add powdered milk, honey and salt. Heat until dissolved.

Melt chocolate carefully in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.

In a food processor, grind nuts until as fine as possible.

Add melted chocolate, and mix until well blended.

Once it is smooth, add warm milk and mix well.

Transfer to jars.

Note on variegated jars: At first the nutella is very liquid. As it cools, it firms up pretty quickly. To make a variegated jar carefully spoon a layer of the white chocolate nutella into a jar. Place in freezer for 15 minutes. Then spoon in a layer of chocolate nutella, and put back in fridge for 15 minutes. Fill up jar with white chocolate nutella.

Since this is fresh, with no preservatives, you probably should eat it pretty fast. As if you weren’t going to do that already.