Gianduja, a chocolate hazelnut confection on which Nutella is based, has about 30% hazelnut to chocolate ratio. That could be a good start. For instance, 1# ground hazelnuts, 3# chocolate might be a good ratio.

As for recipes--I like a good old nutella and jelly sandwich.

Do any of those recipes go by weight? If they do, you could use weight to figure out how much hazelnut butter to buy. If they don't, you might be able to go online and figure out that X number of hazelnuts weighs Y pounds.

How in the world do you make pesto in a coffee grinder, a tablespoon at a time?

Or you could weigh a cup of hazelnuts and use and equivalent weight of hazelnut butter.

My husband and I did the homemade nutella recipe last year and while time consuming (the most laborsome part was getting the skins off of the warm hazelnuts), it was v. good. However, as much as I/we are a DIY-type of cooks, we'd just as soon buy this stuff already prepared. Despite the fact that it has partially hydrogenated fats.

why not just grind up the hazelnuts in your coffee grinder? if you manage to make pesto in it, i don't see why it wouldn't work for nuts.

Why bother? Hazelnuts are expensive enough as it is and I'd guess making it yourself wouldn't be any cheaper. With the work involved (as rosebud said), it would cost you much more and I doubt it would be any better. I'd rather spend my already long days making something that *does* benefit from being made at home.

Why not just stir the hazelnut butter into melted chocolate until it tastes right to you? Sounds incredibly simple to me, and requires no machinery at all.

I tried making my own last year with Bazzini's roasted hazelnut butter. I mixed it up to taste, no measurements. I found it wasn't chocolately enough just using melted chocolate, so I also added cocoa powder. If I do it again I will use powdered sugar, as regular sugar was grainy.
I may never make it again, as I was happy to learn this weekend that Nutella is now made without hydrogenated oils. They reformulated with palm oil... not the healthiest, and certainly more calorically dense, but it's a treat, not a staple of the diet, right?

Thanks for your help, everyone! I'll be sure to let The Kitchn know how my DIY Nutella turns out.

@Tiamat_the_Red and Bobolink: Thank you! That's exactly the solution I was looking for, I can't believe I didn't think of it. The internet tells me 150g of raw hazelnuts is about a cup, and 200g of pure hazelnut butter is 7 tablespoons. So, 150g hazelnut butter is 5.25 tablespoons, and half a cup of hazelnuts yields about a third a cup of hazelnut butter.

@Charlotte: Yep, basically. :(

@cookingthehardway: I don't mind chunky pesto, but I want my Nutella to be smooth.

@storyscribe: It's not about the cost! Nutella isn't chocolatey or hazelnutty enough for me, it's more like sugar paste. I want something super rich and not that sweet.

@andym: I'm worried the chocolate will solidify and make the whole thing unspreadable. Maybe adding a little oil will fix this?

I recommend tempering your chocolate before adding it to whatever nut product you use; it will ensure that your spread stays emulsified; just add it in all at once and stir quickly!

No oil is necessary to prevent solidifcation, assuming a reasonable ratio of nut to chocolate. The natural oil in the hazelnuts will be more than sufficient to keep the spread...spreadable! However, I do add a bit of softenend fresh butter to make the texture even more luscious.

(I make a Chocolate Hazelnut Spread at my chocolate shop :))

The Los Angeles Times' Food section had a whole issue about hazelnuts. Here's their recipe for homemade hazelnut paste: http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/food/la-fo-nutellarec11a-2009feb11,0,5713208.story

Just search for hazelnuts on the newspaper website for other hazelnut recipes and stories. Hope that helps!

I found a healthier verison of nutella a while ago, I've never had the time to try it.

http://stephchows.blogspot.com/2009/05/homemade-nutella-and-giveaway-teaser.html

My grandmother used to make it for me when I was a little girl.

there are a lot of different brands of this choco cream from other european companies in European supermarkets. This choco cream has been around even before the Nutella brand.

Suzy,

Now you've got me craving Nutella! You said you don't have a food processor, but I have to recommend getting a mini food processor, at the very least. I have the Cuisinart DLC-2 Mini Prep Plus, and it's fantastic. I use it for making single bowls of salsa, quarter batches of pie dough (for mini chicken pot pies!), pesto, everything you can imagine wanting to make in smaller amounts. It's obviously much cheaper than a full-sized processor (I think around $30), and while its skills aren't quite what you'll get with a big kid processor, they're good enough for basic tasks around the kitchen. AND it takes up barely any space, which is my major qualm about getting more kitchen appliances.

Good luck! I hope the Nutella turns out well...time to go find me some...

It's almost impossible to recreate perfection...try dipping these http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.quakeroats.com/Libraries/Products/Quakes-AppleCinnamon-Detail.sflb.ashx&imgrefurl=http://www.quakeroats.com/products/more-products-from-quaker/content/rice-snacks/quakes/apple-cinnamon.aspx&usg=__cJOt8TOowpn4Lf7jeYbsgFyLVOU=&h=517&w=535&sz=78&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=zvSlfpFVA5b4SM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dquaker%2Bapple%2Bcinnamon%2Bmini%2Brice%2Bcakes%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GFRD_enUS308%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

It's under $5.00 a jar! Use it sparingly and it lasts quite a while. try dipping these...
http://www.quakeroats.com/Libraries/Products/Quakes-AppleCinnamon-Detail.sflb.ashx