Nutella Delice for World Nutella Day

This year's humble offering (better late than never) is based on a idea from visiting Pasteleria Kruss in Cartagena. It's about layers. Nutella sponge, creme patisserie, Nutella chocolate ganache and hazelnut buttercream finished with hazelnut praline on top.

Here's an interesting thing - Ferrero use 25% of the world's supply of hazelnuts. There was that time a few years ago when the hazelnut harvest went down due to the frost. A little fluctuation in the price of hazelnuts must cost multi millions. It made the stock of Nutella go down for sure - that's never a good thing!  

If you can't find ground hazelnuts for the sponge you can grind your own in the Vitamix like I did - comes out with a great texture! 

This would ideally be fridged for a few hours to set before slicing. I gave up waiting - it's been a long day, so the creme pat was a bit soft. Patience eh?

Hazelnut sponge

3 Egg whites

150g Icing sugar

3 eggs

150g Ground hazelnuts 

50g Plain flour

25g Unsalted butter

• Whisk the egg whites and 50g icing sugar to stiff peaks. 
• In a separate bowl mix 100g icing sugar and 3 eggs till thick and creamy
• Fold in ground hazelnuts, flour and butter
• Fold the hazelnut flour mix and egg white mix together. 

I forgot and added all the icing sugar to the egg whites, then whisked the whole eggs on their own. Still turned out fine. 

Line a large baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Spread the sponge mix on to the paper lined tray so it is a thin layer. I made 2 baking trays worth.
Bake at 160 oC for about 6 - 8  minutes till just set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.   

Chocolate and Nutella Ganache

50g Plain chocolate

125ml Double cream

75g Nutella

Heat cream and chocolate, then pour over nutella and blend together. 

Vanilla Creme Patisserie

250ml Milk

3 Egg yolks

Vanilla

50g Sugar

1 1/2 tbsp Plain flour

Heat the milk till just off the boil. 

In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks, flour, vanilla and sugar. 

Add a little of the milk to the egg yolk and sugar mix and whisk in.

Return to the pan and allow to thicken, stirring frequently. 

Place a greaseproof cartouche on top of the creme pat to stop a skin forming. Allow to cool. 

Hazelnut Cream

75g Unsalted butter, softened

Vanilla 

150g Icing sugar

50g Nutella

50g Hazelnuts blitzed down to a paste

Cream the softened butter and icing sugar till thick. Fold in the hazelnut paste and Nutella. You may need a little warm water to loosen it. 

Candied hazelnuts - whole/ praline and pulled sugar spikes

The candied hazelnuts really finish this off well.

150g Caster sugar
2 tbsp Water
Hazelnuts

Hard core chefs just use sugar, no water. I like to make life easy and add water.

1. Caramel likes medium heat. Brush around the edges of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water every so often - this stops the sugar crystallising. Caramel doesn't like being stirred - that makes it crystallise too. Sugar needs a bit of respect.
2. When you're at caramel colour drop the hazelnuts in. Make sure they are evenly coated. Keep them moving in the caramel for 1 minute, then take them out with a fork on to a tray with greaseproof paper to cool. 
3. Now take the caramel pan off the heat and dip it in cold water to stop it cooking. Wait till it cools and thickens just enough so it's like the consistency of golden syrup. 
4. Make a clear piece of work surface where you can hang the hazelnuts. Put newspaper or tin foil on the floor below so the caramel drips on to that rather than the floor. Then you can fold it up afterwards and bin it - nice easy clear up. 
5. Stick the hazelnuts onto cocktail sticks, through the side, not the middle or they fall apart. Dip into the caramel and hang over the edge of the work surface using jars, tins or mugs as weights to hold the skewer in place.
6. If it cools down too much you can put the caramel back on the heat, then go back to stage 3. 

Once they are set they are delicate and best left in position until needed.


Layering up

Line a 1 lb/ 500g loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Now have fun layering them up!

Trim the sponge using a ruler so it fits the size of the loaf tin. Divide the hazelnut cream, creme pat and ganache in half. Make 2 layers of each with a layer of sponge in between each. A spoon dipped in hot water is most useful in smoothing the hazelnut cream, creme pat and ganache layers. 

Alternatively, you could consider making it a single layer of each so it's more of a tea cake style thing.  

Cover and refrigerate to help set it before slicing. 

Best served at room temperature. I let it set, then sliced it, then let it come up to room temperature. 

Previous Nutella Day recipes:

Pear and Almond Tart with Nutella Ice Cream

Espresso, Nutella and Hazelnut Brioche Crown

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Nutella in toast - Espresso, nutella and hazelnut brioche crown

Coffee then toast or toast then coffee - so which do you make first in the morning?
So last year I was mixing up the bread dough while Adam poured the coffee on the other side of the work bench..... and I thought why not add the coffee to the bread. One year or more later here it is - AIGT (all in good time).

I was considering a caffe latte bread - 2 parts milk to 1 part espresso, but changed to an espresso brioche - who can pass up making brioche, after all calories don't count on a Friday - especially when it's Nutella Day.

Based on brioche recipe from Bread by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno. An egg is c. 55ml so I swapped 2 eggs for the espresso and the 2tsp water they used - hence 140ml.

375g Strong white flour
2 1/2 tsp dried yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
140 ml espresso
175g softened unsalted butter
Nutella
Flaked hazelnuts (I used whole ones cut on the slicing side of the grater)


Because it was quick action yeast I combined all the dry ingredients and mixed in the egg and espresso. 10 minutes kneading - because it's quite a wet mix it's easier to do this with the pastry scraper - as seen here.
Grease a large bowl with 15g melted butter. Place dough in the bowl and turn to coat it. Cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 1 - 1 1/2 hours till doubled in size.
Then knock back and incorporate the softened butter (fun part). Knead again till butter is evenly distributed and brioche is silky smooth.Roll out on a floured surface.Spread on nutella and hazelnuts on top. Then you roll it like a swiss roll.

At this point I was hoping to leave it in one long line and fold some pieces left and some pieces right.... but..... well it wasn't quite working, so I ended up turning it into another bread crown - which is no bad thing after all. Just means I'll have to try again.





But that's not all.....



The best chocolate digestives are made with plain digestives spread with nutella. It gets you through a late night in the kitchen - tried and tested. Andrea who I once worked alongside, came from the area of Italy where Nutella originate from - needless to say he was a fan.... and soon we were too. He'd make these normally around 10:30pm.

Find out more about Nutella Day here:
World Nutella Day
Ms Adventures in Italy,
Bleeding Espresso


Related posts

BNT brioche crown - homecured bacon, nettle and tomato
Cinnamon, raisin and candied orange bread crown

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Hazelnut shortbread

When I was young, my Grandmother's friend made the best shortbread in the whole of Devon. It would always be the first thing to sell out at their WI sales and coffee mornings - what better sign can you have of a good recipe?

The secret was in the rice flour (which gives you extra flavour and a fine texture), and, so she said, using the food proccessor, which by it's nature cuts through the shortbread - giving you a more crumbly texture than when you use a normal food mixer, although I still prefer to make it by hand.

It's been bookmarked for anyone else who wants to try it on the virtual recipe drawer that is Bookmarked Recipes - your one-stop shop for tried and tested recipes from the food blogger community updated every Monday, which I'm also hosting this week.

Since the original recipe was lost during a couple of moves, when I started making shortbread again - for our second ever assiette of desserts last July - I consulted my college text book - Practical Cookery by Ceserani, Kinton & Foskett. If you need the basics - basic techniques, basic recipes etc. you can always rely on finding them in there. My 8th edition is now so well used the spine and back cover have become detached. There's a heap of splatters and a bookmark however on page 715 - shortbread method II:

100g (4 oz) Plain flour
100g (4 oz) Rice flour
100g (4 oz) Butter or margarine
100g (4 oz) Caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
[I also added a handful of roasted chopped hazelnuts]

Sieve the flour and rice flour into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the texture of fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the sugar. Bind together to a stiff paste using the beaten egg. Roll out [on a floured surface] to 3mm (1/8 inch). Sprinkle with caster sugar, prick well with a fork [I didn't] and cut into shapes using a cutter. Place biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet [I used a baking mat - guaranteed non-stick easy baking]. Bake at 180 - 200 oC/ Gas mk 4 - 6/ 350 - 400 oF, for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove with a palette knife on to a cooling rack.

I cooked them at 180 oC for 14 minutes.

Made during the afternoon, I served these last Saturday night at Wellacres as part of a bistro meal dessert of coffee crème brûlée as seen above.

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