This Chocolate Spread is so good, you’ll want to lick the knife clean! It’s easy to make, nut-free, and tastes great on everything from toast to waffles!
I first came up with this chocolate spread as a result of an email I got from a reader in Australia. This lovely reader asked if I knew how she could make Milky Way spread at home. This email made me sad for several reasons:
1) I’ve never been to Australia. Here I am with a serious kangaroo fetish and no way to indulge it. Hmph.
2) I’ve never tasted Milky Way spread, and had to do a google search to figure out what it is.
3) Apparently, Milky Way spread is a magical chocolatey spread with stripes of…white chocolate? marshmallow? the google machine was unclear…but it looks delicious!
4) Being a Milky Way spread ignoramus, I was unable to truly answer her question.
It was a sobering email day, indeed.
After I got over my disappointment at the lack of Australia-visiting and Milky Way spread-eating in my life, I started obsessing about making my own chocolate spread.
Think about it: Nutella hogs all of the glory! Sure, it has a little cocoa in it, but at heart it’s a hazelnut spread (or a hydrogenated palm oil spread, if we’re being brutally honest) with a little touch of chocolate flavor. The spread I wanted to make was deeply, intensely chocolately, without nuts or any other fillers getting in the way.
This recipe is built on two of my favorite ingredients: chocolate and butter. It has a small amount of vanilla, and a pinch of salt, but it’s really all chocolate, all the time. When it’s first made it has the consistency of hot fudge sauce (and I won’t stop you if you want to pour it all over ice cream, cake, your hands, etc…) but once it’s chilled it’s gorgeously rich and smooth, with a consistency that’s perfect for spreading on toast or using as a dip for fresh fruit.
Oh, and did I mention that it takes mighty well to a sprinkling of crunchy toasted coconut (or nuts) on top? Because it does. Yessir. I can also recommend it straight from the spreading knife. Ahem.
Ultimately some good did come from that email. I may not have recreated Milky Way spread, and I may not get to ride a kangaroo in the near future, but I have enough chocolate spread to last me at least a week, and that’s good enough for now.
💗More Sauces and Syrup Recipes
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Lick-The-Knife-Clean Chocolate Spread
Ingredients
- 2 fl oz water, (1/4 cup)
- 3.5 oz granulated sugar, (1/2 cup)
- 1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (about 2/3 cup)
- 5 oz unsalted butter, (1.25 sticks), softened and cubed
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine the water, granulated sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, and salt.
- Place the pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar and cocoa powder dissolve. Continue to heat the pan, stirring frequently, just until it reaches a simmer.
- Once simmering, remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla extract, chopped chocolate, and cubed butter.
- Whisk until the chocolate and butter melt and the mixture is completely smooth. When it is freshly made, this spread will have the consistency of hot fudge sauce.
- Pour the spread into a jar or other container with a lid. Press a layer of plastic wrap on top of the chocolate to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate it until it thickens.
- If it is too cold to spread easily, let it sit at room temperature for a short while before serving. Store it in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Video
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
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This is great! Im trying to find somewhat, healthy, but fun snacks for my VERY picky Kindergartner who has to bring a snack to school everyday! Of course, it is against policy to bring ANY nut products. My kids love rice cakes, with peanut butter and a sliced banana on top. For a split second, I thought, nutella would be a great substitute for the PB… Nope.. made with hazelNUTS. I am so excited to try a chocolate spread! Thank you so much!
Awesome, what a great idea! Please let me know what you think if you give it a try, Jennifer!
How long does this last for? I want to make it for my younger brothers and sisters 🙂
I’d say a couple of weeks, if you keep it in the refrigerator! The only limiting factor is the butter, so it should keep as long as your butter usually keeps in the fridge. Let me know what you think!
I was out of chocolate spread and my 4 yr old daughter eats bread with only chocolate spread(groan). Googled and saw this recipe. Made it in 20 mts and packed her lunch with this spread.
Thank q for this amazing, super easy recipe!!!
(Bonus tip: added a tablespoon of almond butter and the spread was of perfect spreadable consistency)
Haha, your daughter is a girl after my own heart! So glad that it worked well for you, and I *love* the addition of the almond butter– nutrition, flavor, AND texture? I’m sold!
Thank you so much for this recipe 🙂
Following 2 anaphylactic episodes I have just been diagnosed as having a nut allergy (after 60 years eating and loving them) – in particular hazel nuts and almonds – so this recipe will ‘save me’ in so many ways!
Toni, that’s rough! So glad you finally got a diagnosis, and so happy to help find some nut butter alternatives! Good luck navigating your new nut-free world. 🙂
You save my life today. My sister is a chocolate vampire but she’s also a vegan so its not easy for her to find vegan chocolate spread for her so I decide to made her life easier by trying to make it my own. I switch the butter on your recipe to vegan margarine but I cut the amount of it to half of the amount of semisweet chocolate blocks and it turns out I don’t even need to refrigerate it (and I life in Indonesia,the country that sits right on the equator) but the spread I made stay firm! Its perfect my chocolate-vampire sister. Thanks!
Haha, “chocolate vampire”! I love it, and am so stealing that to describe myself! So glad to know that it worked out for you, and also that it works with vegan margarine! I’m sure other folks will find that info really useful–thanks for sharing! Cheers!
I can’t include nut-containing items in my kids’ school lunches and the nut-free chocolate spread I’d used previously has vanished from the shops. Your recipe turned up in my google search and will be trying it shortly! Do you think coconut oil could work in place of some of the butter?
Hi Melanie! I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure, but I do think coconut oil would work for some of the butter, especially during the winter. (I know my coconut oil tends to liquefy during the hot summer months, which might make it less than idea as a sandwich spread ingredients.) I’d love to hear how it goes if you give it a try! Also, I’m not sure if you saw this previous comment, but another person made this with vegan margarine and said it worked well–so that might be another option if you’re trying to avoid butter. She used only 2 oz and says it stays firm at room temp.
Not so much trying to avoid butter (I avoid margarine!) as that I really love coconut 🙂 I did it with butter this time, and it is delicious! Next time I’ll sub some coconut oil and report back.
Do you happen to know how this would bake up? I ask because I came across a “Red Velvet Nutella “Cinnamon” Roll Hearts” recipe today, but would rather use a chocolate spread instead of Nutella. You make and roll out the “Red Velvet” bread dough, spread Nutella on, slice into strips, roll from the outsides to the middle and pinch the center to form the heart, then bake. Do you think the chocolate spread would work or melt away? I’m dying to try it!
Hi Kami! I’ve seen that pin–it’s gorgeous! Unfortunately I think this particular chocolate spread would melt away. I did make a pinwheel cookie with a chocolate filling that might work for the rolls:
https://www.sugarhero.com/recipes/?recipe_id=6035789
You could also try to track down the plain chocolate Hershey’s spread. It’s probably made with palm oil or similar (like Nutella) so my guess is it would behave the same way when baking. Here’s a link so you know what I’m talking about:
http://www.hersheys.com/spreads/default.cshtml
Good luck! I’d love to hear how it goes when you give it a try!
Thank you for the ideas! I will let you know how it goes when I try it, maybe this weekend.
I used this sauce for a bread recipe. (I wanted a cinnamon bread loaf with a jelly-roll style swirl of chocolate.) In my opinion, it worked perfectly. I need to make it again, just to make sure…. Well, to share. 🙂 I was wondering if it would work adjusting the amount of sugar. I described my original batch as semisweet in favor, but I wonder since I have family that loves dark chocolate and to minimize sugar.
I think you can safely reduce the sugar! I’d try 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 and see how you like that. Alternately, you can try using 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate and 2 oz unsweetened (instead of 4 oz semi-sweet) to get at deeper chocolate flavor. I think either option would work well, I probably wouldn’t try both variations at once unless you’re sure you like really dark chocolate!
Do you think this would work with white chocolate?
Thanks ever so much for sharing this recipe. I live in Australia & all the primary schools here(kids aged 4-12) are nut free. Nobody is allowed to take nut products to school due to other children having allergies. My local stores used to stock nut free spread but for the past 3 weeks I’ve been unable to find any & my daughter won’t eat anything for lunch but a chocolate spread sandwich. I’m now going to make this & hope that she will eat it. Again, thank you for making my life a little easier…LOL
Hi Alyssa, You’re so welcome! Thanks for the comment. My son’s school is the same way so I know that it can be challenging! I hope your daughter enjoys it–please let me know how it goes!
Thanks for the advice. I’m going to make some (both for in-bread and to just share as a spread) for family for Christmas. I hope you enjoy the holidays! And thanks for this wonderful recipe.
I am so happy to find a Chocolate spread you can make yourself that seems so easy. Thank you for sharing it with us. I have a fibroid and have been trying to eliminate Soy’s and Lecithin’s from my diet as much as possible. The problem is almost everything has one or the other, or both in it, including a lot of chocolate. And I simply cannot do without chocolate. I have a brand of Organic 65% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (no soy, lecithin’s, palm oils and such) that I’d like to try with this. Do you think it would work or does it have to be a baking chocolate? I’m so excited to try it.
Hi Julie, So sorry for the belated reply! Somehow this comment slipped by me. I think the 65% chocolate chips would absolutely work! I don’t see any reason why you’d need a specific baking chocolate for the recipe. Let me know what you think if you give it a try!