Nutella Hot Chocolate for World Nutella Day

Espresso enhances the chocolate flavor in Nutella.

At our house we love Nutella the chocolate hazelnut spread.  To celebrate World Nutella Day, I tried to find a recipe for something different using Nutella, and I found this simple recipe on and then I do the dishes blog. 

Nutella Hot Chocolate
1 cup milk*
1 tbsp Nutella
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder. 

The ingredients.

In a small saucepan, over medium heat, whisk all three ingredients together until well combined, warm and frothy.  If it's too sweet, add a little more milk.  This is good even without the espresso powder, but I happened to have some and it adds a nice flavor.

I actually used two tablespoons for this because I was making a 12 oz mug of hot chocolate.

Add 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder.

Stir while heating over medium heat until warm and frothy.

*At our house we usually drink skim milk, but I did use whole milk for this.  Nice and rich. Or you could add a little half and half to skim milk.  We keep half and half around as cream for our hot tea.  

Ready to enjoy.

If you like banana sandwiches, you might try using Nutella instead of mayo or peanut butter.  That makes a nice sandwich.  I like to toast the bread a bit before spreading the Nutella. Good for a quick breakfast.

An open faced sandwich.

Or a regular sandwich.

A nice hot cup of Nutella chocolate with a banana/nutella sandwich makes a nice breakfast for Nutella Day or any day for that matter.  Yum!

Have a happy World Nutella Day. 

Capri Flavors, Morrisville, NC

When we were in Nova Scotia this summer, I made manicotti several times using a recipe I got from Lynn Zimmerman.  Back in NC I decided yesterday to make manicotti with yet another recipe I found in one of my new cookbooks.  After checking with several local grocers---Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Harris Teeter-- I could find no dry manicotti pasta.  After finding manicotti pasta in Sobeys in the small town of Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, I was exasperated that here in a big city I could find no dry manicotti.  Do Raleighites not make stuffed manicotti from scratch?

And then I remembered the Italian food market over in nearby Morrisville,  CapriFlavors.  Costanzo and Titina Vuotto are the proprietors of CapriFlavors.

Costanzo and Titina Vuotto are the proprietors (Photo from their website.)

A really, really big jar of Nutella.

I scurried over and it was like being in Italy again---so many good Italian products. They even have the really big jar of Nutella that I saw in many stores in Italy.  I found lots of goodies in addition to the manicotti.

Lots of different cheeses.

Cookies and other sweets.

Titina teaches cooking classes, and I intend to sign up for one this fall.  I can't wait.

Titina in the kitchen. 

The next time I'm looking for ingredients for an Italian recipe, I will head right over to CapriFlavors.

Happy World Nutella Day

This is the fifth year that World Nutella Day has been celebrated.  For those who perhaps have not tried this delicious spread, Nutella is a delicious hazelnut spread that contains roasted hazelnuts, milk, and a hint of cocoa. It has the consistency of peanut butter. It is found in larger grocery stores, usually with the peanut butter. Trader Joe’s and some import stores also carry it.

We like Nutella as a spread on toast, but in honor of World Nutella Day I made Nutella brownies (recipe from my cookbook desserts 4 today) and the Flourless Nutella Chocolate Cake (recipe from Ms Adventures in Italy )

Nutella on toast.

Batter for flourless Nutella cake.

Nutella cake with hazelnut ice cream and sprinkles of hazelnut.

Nutella brownies in desserts 4 today.

My Nutella brownies garnished with toasted hazelnuts.

This flourless cake is absolutely delicious and it is so easy to make.  I'm going to use Nutella in baking from now on.

Nutella Cake (Photo from MsAdventuresinItaly website)