Many years ago, back when I was selling muesli out the back of a sharehouse like a health store drug dealer, I made my own Nutella – sorry, choc-hazelnut spread. I used organic hazelnuts (roasted myself), fancy single-origin cocoa and either demerara sugar or maple syrup. I blended it all in my barely functioning dollar-store blender, causing it to overheat and cook the mixture. I was left with a goopy cake batter that looked like the excrement of a cosmic reptile. But I’ve never been one for beauty over substance, so I ate it. It was phenomenal.
I spent the rest of the day sourcing (I was a student, so I wasn’t about to buy one) a better blender to give it another go. The spread I made that afternoon was, to this day, one of the best things I have ever made.
