Gianduja

You know my passion for hazelnuts, so it was pretty surprising that I don't have a gianduja recipe around here. It's not for lack of making some from time to time, but I had never taken the time to take the steps in pictures and write the recipe. It's a great gourmet gift for the holidays, so this time here's the illustrated recipe! Gianduja is very simple, it's a mix of hazelnuts, powdered sugar and milk chocolate. Of course, if you wish, you can replace the milk chocolate by dark chocolate, it will be very good too! And you can also halve the quantities without any problem.

The mold I used :
Moule silikomart

Prep time : 20 minutes + 20 minutes toasting fot the hazelnuts
For 9 pieces of gianduja to share :

Ingredients :

300g milk chocolate with high percentage of cocoa (I used Valrhona’s Bahibé 46%)

300g hazelnuts

300g powdered sugar

Recipe :

Start by toasting the hazelnuts at 150°C for about 20 minutes. Let them cool down, then rub them to remove the hazelnut peels (no need to insist, if there are any left it's okay).

Then put them in a blender with the powdered sugar and mix until a smooth, homogeneous, almost liquid paste is obtained.

It can take quite a long time, if your robot is not very powerful, think of making pauses so that the motor does not overheat. Without interruption, it still easily takes 15 minutes to get a good result.

Then gently melt the chocolate in a double boiler, making sure that it does not exceed the temperature of 35°C. You can either pour it into the blender and blend again, or mix it with the maryse.

Pour the gianduja immediately into molds, or in a frame to cut small squares/rectangles afterwards. Let crystallize.

I covered my gianduja pieces with tempered chocolate because it has to travel so it will hold better this way, but it is not mandatory at all; however if you want to keep them several days/weeks, I advise you to keep them in the refrigerator.

Here, the gianduja is ready, enjoy!