I’ve been meaning to post this recipe since before Christmas, as this was one of my Christmas treat ideas – homemade Ferrero Rochers that are gluten free and dairy free! But in the holiday rush, they never actually got made. Well… I got a few made, but I ate them as quick as I made them, so there never were enough to put in the kid’s Christmas stockings, or to take to the parties I intended to take them to! *grins sheepishly*
I think I should warn you that these are very dangerous, and should only be made when you are really full and don’t feel like eating any chocolate. Unless you have super-human self control – then just go ahead and make them anytime.
At least they’re pretty healthy. That’s my excuse anyway.
My recipe is simply a homemade nutella type chocolate mixture (based on my hazelnut chocolate spread recipe), molded around a roasted hazelnut and coated in crushed, roasted hazelnuts. I didn’t bother with the biscuit layer – too tricky, and besides, I wanted them to be gluten free. And I never got around to coating them with chocolate – maybe next time. I thought they were chocolatey enough without the extra chocolate coating, and besides, I wanted to hurry up and eat them so I didn’t want to take the time for an extra step! But if you’re feeling industrious, and you have the self-control to not eat them all before you actually get the chocolate ready to dip them in, here’s my recipe for homemade chocolate, which I think would work best because it’s quite thin before it’s set, so it would be easy to coat the balls with.
You will need about 3 cups roasted hazelnuts for this recipe. If you have raw hazelnuts with skins on, spread them on a baking tray (in a single layer) and roast at 180 degrees C for about 10-15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until slightly browned.
Once they’re cool, rub the skins off as best you can, either with your hands, or in a tea towel. Discard skins.
Homemade ‘Ferrero Rocher’ Style Chocolates
Ingredients
- 220g hazelnuts (blanched if possible)
- 80g Rapadura or coconut sugar
- 80g good quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces (70-85% cocoa dairy free)
- 15g Dutch-processed cocoa powder (or 20g cacao powder)
- 50g pure cream or coconut cream
- 70g butter or coconut oil
- pinch of salt if using unsalted butter, or coconut oil
Instructions
Method
- Heat oven to 180C, place hazelnuts on baking tray and roast for about 15 mins or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool. (If you are using nuts with skins on, you’ll need to rub them briskly with a tea towel to remove most of the skins after roasting – see description above.)
- Mill sugar in Thermomix (10 sec/speed 9) or a blender (top speed) until finely ground.
- Add 60g of the roasted hazelnuts and mill until finely ground (10 sec/speed 9 in Thermomix or in blender).
- Add dark chocolate and mill until ground (10 sec/speed 9 in Thermomix or in blender).
- If using Thermomix: Add cocoa or cacao powder, cream and butter or coconut oil and salt and cook 6 mins/60C/speed 3. If using stovetop: Remove mixture from blender into a saucepan, add cocoa/cacao, butter/coconut oil and salt, and heat gently while stirring until mixture is melted and well combined, about 5-6 minutes.
- Scrape the chocolate mixture into a flat dish and freeze until firm.
- Set aside 25 roasted hazelnuts in a bowl (for inside the filling). Place remaining hazelnuts into Thermomix or food processor and chop with the turbo function, pulsing a few times until nuts are roughly chopped. Pour into a bowl.
- Once the filling has set, scoop a thin layer with a teaspoon and put a roasted hazelnut on top. Mold the chocolate around the hazelnut to form a rough ball.
- Roll the balls in the crushed hazelnuts, shaping them into balls.
- Wrap each ball in a square of foil if desired.
Notes
Store in the fridge or freezer – I prefer freezer because they’re delicious cold and chewy, and they’re more likely to stay hidden! 😀
Warning: They do melt pretty quickly at room temp, so keep them chilled!
