Homemade Chocolate Spread Recipes

Last updated: June 2026

A good chocolate spread recipe should take less time than the school run and leave you with a jar you can actually read the back of. That is the whole point of making it yourself. You skip the palm oil, you decide how much sugar goes in, and you swap a 13% hazelnut content for something closer to half nuts. The shop version is built for a two-year shelf life. Yours is built for toast on Saturday.

This is our pillar guide to making chocolate spread at home — five recipes covering classic hazelnut, a nut-free seed version for school lunchboxes, a three-ingredient cheat using nut butter you already own, a palm-oil-free method, and a higher-protein blend for hungry teenagers. None of them need special kit beyond a food processor or a decent blender. All of them beat the jar on ingredients.

[IMAGE: Overhead shot of a glass jar of homemade chocolate spread on a wooden board, knife mid-swipe across sourdough toast, scattered hazelnuts and a small bowl of cacao powder in soft morning light.]

Why make your own chocolate spread

The maths is the main reason. Market-leading Nutella is around 56g of sugar per 100g and built on palm oil, with hazelnuts making up roughly 13% of the jar. When you make it yourself, nuts or seeds become the bulk of the recipe and you control the sweetener entirely.

That matters more for kids than adults. The NHS says children aged four to six should have no more than 19g of free sugars a day, rising to 24g for ages seven to 10, and just 10g at age one. The NHS guidance on sugar counts the sugar in chocolate spread as free sugar, so a couple of heaped teaspoons of the shop stuff can eat a big chunk of a small child's daily allowance before breakfast is over.

Homemade does not mean sugar-free, and we are not going to pretend a chocolate spread is a health food. But moving from 56g per 100g down to something in the 20s, while doubling the nut content, is a real upgrade. You also lose the emulsifiers and flavourings that push the jarred versions into ultra-processed territory — more on that in our breakdown of what's really in your kids' chocolate spread.

The base method that every recipe shares

Once you understand the base method, all five recipes are variations on it. Get this right and the rest is seasoning.

Toast the nuts or seeds first

Toasting is the step people skip and then wonder why their spread tastes flat. Spread your hazelnuts (or seeds) on a baking tray and roast at 180°C for eight to 10 minutes, until they smell nutty and the skins start to crack. This deepens the flavour and, crucially, releases the natural oils that make the spread go smooth.

Rub off the skins

For hazelnuts, tip the warm nuts into a clean tea towel and rub them together for 30 seconds. Most of the bitter skins will flake off. You will not get every last bit, and that is fine. Seeds do not need this step.

Blend longer than feels sensible

This is where patience pays. Put the cooled nuts in a food processor and run it for eight to 10 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides. It goes from crumbs, to a dry paste, to a stiff ball, and then — suddenly — to a glossy, pourable butter as the oils release. Do not add liquid to rush it. Wait for the butter.

Add the chocolate and sweetener last

Only once you have smooth nut or seed butter do you add cacao or cocoa, your sweetener, a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla. Blend again until combined. Add any oil or milk a teaspoon at a time, only if you need to loosen it.

Choosing your chocolate, sweetener and base

Three decisions shape how every chocolate spread recipe below turns out, so it is worth a quick word on each before you start.

Cacao or cocoa

Both work. Raw cacao powder is less processed and has a sharper, more bitter, more grown-up flavour. Standard unsweetened cocoa powder is mellower and is the one most kids prefer. Avoid drinking-chocolate powders — they are mostly sugar and will throw the whole balance off. Whichever you use, sieve it in if it looks lumpy.

The sweetener

Maple syrup and honey both dissolve cleanly and add a rounded sweetness. Honey is off the menu for under-ones, so use maple syrup for the youngest in the house. If you prefer a firmer set, a little sifted icing sugar works and keeps the spread thick, though it nudges the free-sugar count back up. Start with less than you think — you can always blend in more, but you cannot take it out.

The nut or seed base

Hazelnuts give you the classic flavour, almonds make a milder spread, peanuts make a bolder one, and sunflower seeds keep it school-safe. You can mix them too — a handful of pumpkin seeds among sunflower seeds adds depth. For a steer on which nuts and seeds bring the most to the table nutritionally, see our comparison of sunflower seed butter versus peanut butter.

Recipe 1: Classic hazelnut chocolate spread

This is the proper homemade Nutella — the one that tastes like the jar but with a grown-up depth and half the sugar. It makes about one medium jar and keeps in the fridge for two weeks.

Ingredients

• 200g blanched or skin-on hazelnuts
• 3 tbsp cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3–4 tbsp maple syrup or honey, to taste
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• A pinch of fine sea salt
• 1–2 tbsp light olive oil or melted coconut oil, only if needed

Method

1. Toast the hazelnuts at 180°C for eight to 10 minutes, then rub off the skins in a tea towel.
2. Blend the cooled nuts for eight to 10 minutes until you have smooth, glossy hazelnut butter.
3. Add the cacao, maple syrup, vanilla and salt. Blend again until silky.
4. Loosen with a little oil if you want a more spreadable texture. Spoon into a clean jar.

It firms up in the fridge, so take it out 10 minutes before you want to spread it. If your child is under five, remember the NHS advice that whole nuts are a choking risk — a smooth spread on toast is fine from around six months, but never give it by the spoonful on its own.

Recipe 2: Nut-free seed chocolate spread (school-safe)

If your child's school has a nut ban, this is the recipe that solves your toast problem. Swapping hazelnuts for sunflower seeds gives you a sunflower seed chocolate spread that is creamy, school-compliant and surprisingly close to the real thing. Sunflower seeds are cheaper than hazelnuts too.

Ingredients

• 200g sunflower seeds (and 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, optional, for depth)
• 3 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder
• 3–4 tbsp maple syrup, to taste
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt
• 1–2 tbsp sunflower or light olive oil, only if needed

Method

1. Toast the seeds at 170°C for eight minutes — they catch faster than nuts, so keep an eye on them.
2. Blend the cooled seeds for six to eight minutes into a smooth seed butter.
3. Add cacao, maple syrup, vanilla and salt. Blend until combined, loosening with oil if needed.

One honest note: sunflower seeds contain chlorophyll, which can react with raising agents and turn baked goods green. On toast you will never see it, but if you bake with this spread, do not panic if a muffin goes a bit emerald. It is harmless. For more on why seeds are having a moment, see our piece on why sunflower is the new peanut, and for the full school-safe version, our five-ingredient nut-free chocolate spread recipe.

Recipe 3: The three-ingredient cheat

No food processor, no time, no patience? This chocolate spread recipe uses a jar of nut or seed butter you have already got, so there is no toasting or 10-minute blending. It is the one to make with the kids on a wet afternoon.

Ingredients

• 250g smooth hazelnut, peanut, almond or sunflower seed butter
• 3 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder
• 3–4 tbsp maple syrup or honey
• A pinch of salt and a splash of milk of choice, to loosen

Method

1. Tip everything into a bowl and stir hard with a spoon until glossy and smooth.
2. Add a splash of milk or oil until it reaches the texture you want.
3. Taste and adjust the sweetness. Done in five minutes.

Use a nut butter with no added sugar or palm oil as your base and you are most of the way to a clean-label spread already. We go deeper on this method in our three-ingredient chocolate spread guide.

Recipe 4: Palm-oil-free chocolate spread

Every recipe here is already palm-oil-free, but this version is built specifically to mimic the texture commercial brands use palm oil to achieve — that thick, scoopable, never-separating consistency. The trick is a small amount of cocoa butter or coconut oil, which sets firm at fridge temperature.

Ingredients

• 200g hazelnut or sunflower seed butter
• 30g cocoa butter or coconut oil, melted
• 3 tbsp cacao powder
• 3–4 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla and a pinch of salt

Method

1. Melt the cocoa butter or coconut oil gently.
2. Blend or whisk everything together until smooth and glossy.
3. Pour into a jar and chill. It firms up beautifully and stays scoopable.

Palm oil is the ingredient most parents want to lose, both for health and for the deforestation footprint. Our full walkthrough on making chocolate spread without palm oil covers the swaps in detail.

Recipe 5: Higher-protein chocolate spread for teens

Hungry teenagers will get through a jar in a week, so it may as well work harder. Nuts and seeds already bring protein, and a spoon of cocoa and a little unflavoured or chocolate protein powder pushes it further without turning it into a supplement.

Ingredients

• 200g hazelnut or peanut butter
• 2 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 tbsp chocolate or unflavoured protein powder
• 3 tbsp maple syrup, plus milk to loosen
• A pinch of salt

Method

1. Blend everything together, adding milk a tablespoon at a time until smooth.
2. The protein powder thickens it, so you will likely need more liquid than the other recipes.

Keep an eye on the sweetener — protein powders are often pre-sweetened, so taste before adding all the maple syrup.

Storage, troubleshooting and getting it right

Homemade chocolate spread has no preservatives, so treat it like fresh food. Keep it in a clean, sealed jar in the fridge and use it within two weeks. It will firm up cold and soften at room temperature, which is normal — a homemade spread that stays identically soft in the fridge probably has more oil than it needs.

A few common fixes:

Whichever recipe you start with, the principle is the same: nuts or seeds first, chocolate and sweetener last, and blend for longer than feels reasonable. Once you have made it once, you will stop reaching for the jar.

Related reading:

• The best healthy chocolate spreads for kids in the UK
• Homemade nut-free chocolate spread (5 ingredients, school-safe)
• How to make chocolate spread without palm oil
• 3-ingredient healthy chocolate spread kids will love