Nutella® was invented after World War 2 by the son of Pietro Ferrero, he of the Piedmont-based Ferrero Company also known for Ferrero Rocher and Kinder confectionery.
Nutella started out life as Pietro Ferrero’s SuperCrema, which, in turn, was a creamed version of his solid preparation called ‘Giandujot’ made from hazelnuts and a little bit of cocoa – cocoa was very rare during the war, so it was cut with Piedmont-grown hazelnuts to make it go further.
In 1963, Pietro’s son, Michele, revamped SuperCrema Giandujot and was set to market it under the same name, until he hit on the idea of calling it Nutella. The first jar of Nutella was produced in Alba, Cueno, on 20 April 1964.
While Italian in origin many would be forgiven for thinking that Nutella is German,. The Germans are completely crazy for it, and have even been known to ask about Nutella supplies when relocating for a job.
The recipe given here is for a baked Nutella snowflake, and it does the rounds every Christmas time on Instagram. It is very easy to make and is a lovely dessert for a winter evening, or a tasty treat with a cup of tea.
Nutella snowflake
Ingredients
- 2x 350g packs of ready-rolled puff pastry, rolled out further and cut into 2x 25cm diameter circles
- 400g Nutella
- Zest of 1 orange
- 1 egg, beaten
- Icing sugar
Instructions
Heat an oven to 200˚C.
Dust any excess flour off the upper surface of both pastry circles.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place one of the circles on the parchment. Spread over with the Nutella, leaving half a centimetre of exposed pastry all around. Scatter the citric zest over. Brush the expose pastry edge with some of the egg and place the other circle on top. Press down all around to seal.
Leaving the centre once or so of the pastry circle intact, use a knife to cut the circle into quarter, eighths and then sixteenths to make sixteen petals joined at the centre.
Take two adjacent petals and twist them away from each other three times, and press together to crimp. Repeat all around the circle.
Brush off any excess flour and brush over with the remaining egg.
Place in the oven and bake for 35 mins until golden. Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar to serve.
1 Comment
Karl Stolpstedt
18/04/2022 at 11:30 am