Homemade chocolate hazelnut praline spread: Juliette's recipe

Few smells transform a kitchen quite like hazelnuts roasting in the oven. It's the smell of a kitchen about to make something very, very good. And when that kitchen is making a homemade chocolate hazelnut praline spread, you'll need patience, because half of it disappears off a spoon before any of it makes it onto toast.

The recipe we're sharing today is Juliette Brun's, taken from her book Mon Année Chocolat. It produces a spread that's rich, silky and deeply chocolatey. A real homemade alternative to store-bought jars. And it keeps for two weeks in the fridge, assuming it doesn't vanish first.

The great praline question: milk or dark?

Ask Juliette which chocolate goes best with hazelnut, and her answer is unequivocal: milk chocolate. In her post on the Rocher Praliné, she puts it better than anyone: the soft, sweet, milky side of milk chocolate is what brings out all the flavour of the hazelnut. Purists will tell you the opposite and go straight for dark. Not her.

In this spread, though, she takes the diplomatic route and uses both: 55% dark chocolate for depth, milk chocolate for roundness. The result is a spread with a perfectly balanced intensity, neither too sweet nor too austere.

(What is praline, exactly, and where does the tradition come from? We'll devote a whole post to it very soon.)

The deliciously chocolatey praline spread

Yield: about 1 kg (5 cups) Prep: 30 minutes Cook: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 80 g (⅔ cup) whole hazelnuts
• 130 g (1 ¼ cups) almond flour
• 160 g (1 cup) 55% dark chocolate, chopped
• 160 g (1 cup) milk chocolate, chopped
• 125 ml (½ cup) milk
• 310 ml (1 ¼ cups) sweetened condensed milk
• 2 heaping tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons margarine

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Spread the hazelnuts on a baking sheet and roast for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the skins by rolling the hazelnuts in a clean tea towel. Separate the hazelnuts from the skins.
3. In the still-warm oven, toast the almond flour for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden.
4. In a blender, grind the hazelnuts and toasted almond flour together. Set aside.
5. In a small saucepan, combine the dark chocolate, milk chocolate, milk and sweetened condensed milk. Over very low heat, melt the chocolate, stirring with a spatula. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and margarine.
6. Pour the chocolate mixture over the ground nuts and blend until smooth.
7. Transfer the spread to a small airtight jar. Enjoy on toast, on crêpes, or simply straight off the spoon!

A note on the margarine: it keeps the spread soft and supple, especially once refrigerated (butter hardens in the fridge). You can swap it for a neutral vegetable oil.

Storage: up to 2 weeks in the fridge in a tightly sealed jar. If the spread hardens, just warm it for 10 to 15 seconds in the microwave before using.

The secrets of a great spread

Four small things separate a decent spread from one you hide in the back of the fridge for yourself.

Roast the hazelnuts properly. This is the move that changes everything. The more roasted the hazelnuts, the deeper the praline flavour. Stay close to the oven toward the end: the line between "deep golden" and "burnt" is thin.

Don't skip the almond flour. It's what brings the roundness and the silky body. Toasting it, like the recipe calls for, is one extra step that pays off massively in flavour.

Get the skins off. Once the hazelnuts are roasted, roll them vigorously in a clean tea towel. A few stray skins won't ruin anything, but a spread without them feels smoother on the palate.

Blend for a long time. A real spread is smooth, almost pourable. Don't be afraid to let the blender run until you get a truly silky texture. The heat from the blades actually helps loosen the mixture.

Adjusting the intensity

Juliette mentions this in her introduction: you can dial the praline intensity up or down by roasting the hazelnuts and almond flour more or less deeply. A light roast gives a soft, almost childlike spread. A deep roast, almost dark, gives a bolder result with real character.

The salted butter plays its part too: it lifts every flavour and keeps the spread from sliding into pure sweetness. If you like it really intense, don't hesitate to add a pinch of fleur de sel just before serving.

How to use it

Juliette sums it up nicely: on toast, on crêpes, or straight off the spoon. But you can go further:

• Sandwiched between two shortbread cookies or two meringues
• Drizzled over a scoop of vanilla ice cream
• At the heart of a chocolate cake or a warm brownie
• In a milkshake (really)
• As the base for a homemade Rocher Praliné, like in Juliette's favourite dessert

Going further

• Mon Année Chocolat, Juliette's cookbook where this recipe comes from, and Les Brownies de Juliette, both in the Recipe Books by Juliette collection.
• Our 55% dark chocolate drops and 34% milk chocolate drops, the two chocolates doing the work in this recipe.
• Our guide How to melt chocolate (without ruining it), to nail step 5 on the first try.

Short on time this weekend?

Understandable. If you want the praline-spread experience without spending an hour in the kitchen, we've done the work for you too:

• Our crunchy praline spread, ready to open and slather on, made at our Workshop.
• Our new Praline Hazelnut Fondant, with its molten praline centre and crunchy caramelized hazelnut bits.
• All our chocolate spreads, for more ways to indulge.

Everything is available online (free shipping on orders of $99 and up, across Canada), in our restaurants, and at the boutique of our Chocolate Workshop in Greenfield Park, on Montreal's South Shore.

And if you give the recipe a try, show us your jars on Instagram. We love seeing them.