Nutella Porridge (with no added sugar)

Nutella porridge is the perfect combination of chocolate, hazelnuts and healthy porridge oats to help you start your day! Great chocolate praline taste made with hazelnut spread (Nutella) and no added sugar.

Why make this recipe?

• Quick & easy to make
• Real chocolate – praline taste
• Perfect for your afternoon chocolate craving (but still pretty healthy)

What exactly is nutella porridge?

My take on the nutella porridge or oatmeal is to make the oats with the actual hazelnut spread, rather than making it with cocoa powder or other substitutes, milk chocolate and hazelnuts. It makes this recipe super easy and you can make it both on the hob or in a microwave.

This recipe and me

I regularly make chocolate praline to make layered chocolates and also for my students for my chocolate courses as the shop-bought hazelnut spread don’t have a high enough percentage of hazelnuts in them.

But I sometimes like to experiment, so I often buy different hazelnut spreads to taste them and to make chocolates with. One day I had some leftovers and thought it would be a great idea to mix it with plain porridge for my afternoon energy lul. Since then it become a staple in my breakfast recipe rotation, which is why I though I’d share it with you on my blog too.

My top tips on making nutella porridge recipe successfully the first time round

Don’t let the porridge overboil, whether it’s in the microwave or on the hob, by stirring it gently and constantly once it starts to boil.

Add the hazelnut chocolate spread right at the end of the cooking process (it doesn’t need to be cooked).

How can I make the Nutella Porridge Recipe?

On the hob

Simply use a smaller saucepan to heat up your porridge and then gently boil until the oats soften and some of the milk evaporates and your porridge thickens. Make sure you stir the oats all the time (slowly, but from the bottom of the saucepan is best)

In the microwave

Use a microwave suitable bowl, bring to the boil and check every 30 seconds or so by taking it out, stirring and putting the porridge back to the microwave.

Time saving tip

To save time in the morning, measure out the oats and milk the night before and place in an airtight container in the fridge. Boiling your porridge will be a lot quicker and the oats will become softer much sooner (they will be soft already by being soaked in the milk overnight).

Pro tip

Ingredients & Possible Substitutions

Oats

You can use any coarser oats you have, including gluten free oats. Your nutella porridge final consistency will depend on what type of oats you use, but I prefer to use regular oats as they have slightly thicker texture and don’t end up being too runny.

Milk

I’ve used hazelnut milk for this recipe as it works brilliantly with the chocolate hazelnut spread flavour, but I appreciate that you might not have this kind of milk readily at home or your local supermarket.

You are welcome to use any milk you have at hand – full-fat, semi-skimmed, skimmed, dairy free or any plant based milks. Hazelnut, almonds or cashew nut milks will work really well with this recipe.

Depending on how sensitive your taste buds are, you might find coconut or soya milks too strong in flavour and they might overpower the nutella flavour.

You can even make this porridge with just water and add extra tablespoon or two of butter to make the porridge still creamy and tasting like a milk.

The taste will change slightly depending on what type of milk you use.

Salt

Add a tiny pinch of salt to bring all the flavours together and make the porridge less bland.

Butter

This could be dairy or plant based butter, although traditional dairy butter will give this porridge a great flavour.

Nutella

You can use any kind of chocolate hazelnut spread such as Nutella or other brands. You will need some to be mixed inside the porridge mix and then some for the top (this is optional if you don’t want to add too much sugar).

Vanilla extract

This is completely optional, but a little bit of vanilla will add a hint of flavour to your porridge.

Hazelnuts

Chopped up hazelnuts are optional, but they make a great topping for the porridge.

What to do if you don’t have Nutella at hand (Nutella substitutions for porridge or oatmeal)

If you don’t have any suitable hazenut chocolate spread, here is what you can replace it with:

Option 1 – with cocoa powder

• Cocoa Powder
• Butter
• Icing sugar
• Ground hazelnuts (they are not going to be as finely grounded as in the praline, but they will add the right flavour)
• or homemade praline

Option 2 – with milk chocolate

• Milk chocolate bar
• Ground hazelnuts (or homemade praline)

Option 3 – with dark chocolate

• Dark chocolate bar
• Icing or white caster sugar
• Ground hazelnuts (or homemade praline)

The method – Instructions

Measure the milk with oats and place them in a medium-size saucepan.

Add a tiny pinch of salt.

Bring everything to a slow boil, reduce the heat and carry on simmering until the porridge thickens a little. You can add more milk if needed. This step can also be done easily in the microwave (just boil for 2-4 minutes, stiring and checking every minute or so to make sure the porridge doesn’t boil over).

Carry on stirring carefully for 5 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed into the oats.

Add the vanilla extract if using and stir gently in.

Add the 2-3 tablespoons of Nutella or other hazelnut chocolate spread.

Adjust the amount of tablespoons by tasting your porridge and check that the oats have been softened enough.

Serve straight away, topped with hazelnuts, more Nutella or chocolate pieces (grated or chopped).

Allergies & dietary requirements

My original hazelnut spread recipe is not suitable for vegans and it contains nuts, dairy and gluten.

Gluen free Nutella Porridge – use gluten free oats and double check that your chocolate hazelnut spread doesn’t contain any gluten (it shouldn’t but you never know)

Dairy Free Nutella Porridge – you can lower the amount of dairy in the porridge by using plant based milk and using either plant based butter or skipping it out. The problem is that Nutella is made with milk chocolate, which does contain dairy milk. As it is a very small amount, some people who are only sensitive to milk might be O.K with this, but people with severe allergies will need to find an alternative.

This recipe contains nuts – Nutella or any other praline spread is hazelnut based, so if you are alergic to nuts, you won’t be able to eat this porridge. If you are sensitive to nuts you need to be careful and double check if the amount of hazelnuts is still at acceptable level for you.

Serving size

This recipe quantity serves 2 people with smaller size portions or one person with large portion.

Can I scale up this recipe?

Yes, totally – just double or triple this recipe to make it for a bigger crowd.

How to serve this recipe

Perfect as it is, just sprinkle some chopped up hazelnuts on top or add extra pieces of mik or dark chocolate. For a special treat, you can also add some pralines on the top and let them to melt in. Drizzling the nutella porridge or oatmeal with homemade chocolate syrup is a total luxury!

Other toppings can include:

• Bananas

Can this recipe be made in advance?

Yes and no.

You can easily make this Nutella porridge or oatmeal in advance, but you’d need to re-heat it when you want to eat it. The porridge thickens quite a bit when it sets (which is a great example of how a traditional flummery recipe works), so you will need to add more milk and then re-heat it.

How to store porridge if you have any leftovers

Your nutella porridge will be perfectly fine for 1-2 days in the fridge. It can be eaten cold or hot, but I prefer to eat it at least at a room temperature.

You could also freeze the porridge (once it’s cold) and then eat it within 3 months. Whilst freezing porridge sounds like a strange thing to do, it’s actually pretty smart! You can double/tripple this recipe to make more porridge and then portion it to individual Nutella porridge portions. Any time you want to have a chocolate hazelnut spread porridge snack, just take one portion from your freezer, defrost or heat up straightaway in the microwave.

How to re-heat this recipe

This nutella porridge is best eaten straightaway, but if you need to re-heat it, it’s best to do that in a microwave. Porridge usually thickens as it sets, so you will need to add more milk, butter or cream to the porridge, mix it in and then reheat it in short burst of 30 seconds or so.

You can also re-heat the porridge in a saucepan, just make sure you add more milk at the beginning and steer it all the time. You don’t need to boil or simmer the porridge only to gently re-heat it, so hopefully you shouldn’t have any problems with burning your porridge.

Questions & Answers

Why not stay in touch…

I hope you enjoy making this recipe and if you do, I’d love to know what you think! Let me know in the comments below or find me on Instagram or Facebook and add the hashtag #cocoaandheart so that I can see your post.

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Magdalena