Stephanie created this recipe to give people an easy, luscious treat that still follows the Plan. While it doesn’t taste exactly like Nutella, it’s pretty darn close—even though she skipped the sugar, hazelnuts, chocolate, vegetable oil, soy lecithin, and milk powder. Spread it on gluten-free toast or apples when you want a sweet snack. Perfect for stashing in your desk at work along with an apple. A huge hit with her recipe testers, who called it creamy, dreamy, and addictive. And it is!
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Put the sunflower seeds on baking sheets lined with fresh parchment paper
Toast the sunflower seeds for 10 minutes, then stir and return to the oven. Turn off the oven and toast the seeds another 5 to 10 minutes. You want them just golden brown but not dark brown or burnt. Taste a few if you aren’t sure.
Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the toasted seeds cool for 15 minutes.
Put the toasted seeds in a food processor fitted with the S-blade or a high-speed blender and blend into a fine powder, about 1 minute.
Add the hemp hearts and stevia and blend for about 4 more minutes, stopping every minute to scrape down the sides. Eventually it will form a ball and become nut butter. Use the tamper if you have a Vitamix.
In a separate bowl, blend the carob powder with the oil, then add the mixture to the nut butter. (If you add the carob powder and oil directly to a food processor, you will have a powdery carob explosion that is not fun to clean up.) Continue blending until you get the smooth consistency you want.
Serve right away or transfer to a glass jar and store in the refrigerator. It will be spreadable when refrigerated, and just a little thicker than Nutella at room temperature. Eat within a month.
Notes
If you cannot get hemp hearts, you can use all sunflower seeds. Do not use whole, shell-on hemp seeds for this recipe. For the stevia, I use 1 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon granular stevia.