Nutella-phile: Hanuta – Recreating a childhood favourite

I was at high school when Nutella finally arrived in Australia.  The tuckshop stocked these little portion packs which they served with a spoon.  A spoon?  For Nutella?  What was the world coming to?

You see I was raised with Nutella as a breakfast or snack food to be spread on gorgeously fresh bread – white, sourdough, rye, crisp, any type of bread.  Oh and it still had unsalted butter underneath, because it was obviously not fatty enough.  So you can imagine my surprise that there was an entire population that had never heard of this gift from the Gods.  I tried my best to educate my poor, ignorant peers but they thought that putting Nutella on bread was just weird.  *sigh* Philistines!

Moving on……

A little while ago I came across an entire blog dedicated to Nutella – BELLA nutella.  YAY!  Reading all the wonderful recipes, I was inspired to recreate a childhood favourite (which is also not available in Australia) called Hanuta   which is a yummy chocolate, hazelnut slice.

Ingredients

200 gr. whole hazelnuts
375 gr. Nutella jar
2/3 cup (80 gr.) unsweetened cocoa powder
wafer sheets

Method

• Toast hazelnuts in a dry, hot pan. Keep them moving so they don’t cook.
• Bundle up the hot nuts to rub off as much of the skins as possible.
• Chop hazelnuts into small pieces.
• Add most of the nuts to a bowl with the Nutella and cocoa, keeping some aside for decoration.
•  Mix well until combined. Bear with it, it will form a smooth(ish), firm dough.
• Spread mix evenly onto one wafer sheet. It’s really rich so don’t make it to thick.
• Place second sheet on top and press gently.
• Cut into serving sizes.
• Dip cut edges into chopped nuts.

My Observations

Number 1 observation:  I ate way too much homemade Hanuta.

This is easy to make. I know I keep saying this but I happen to like recipes that are uncomplicated.  There is no cooking involved, just chuck everything together, spread, cover, cut, dip, fridge.

I cut a few into the traditional square shapes and the rest of the big wafer sheet I cut into smaller bite sized pieces which I served at Little Professor’s 6th birthday party.

Speaking of wafer sheets, you’ll probably want to know where to get those.  I googled for you and can’t find a definite search term.  People seem to call them different things, and I have no idea why I didnt take a picture of the packet before I started.  I have seen them only in delicatessens that stock Russian/Eastern European foods.  However, they also may well be available at baking supply stores.

It’s a lot of Nutella and the added unsweetened cocoa makes it even richer, so dont make the chocolate layer thick.  Even if you are a chocoholic, you will not need it thick.

I wrapped the big squares individually in aluminium foil and put them in the fridge.  The little ones didnt last long enough to worry about packaging.

A lovely ‘sometimes’ snack.