(article, Liz Crain)
For years Nutella, created in Italy in the 1940s, was available only in Europe, where locals spread the thick chocolate-hazelnut spread on baguettes, crêpes, and anything else deemed worthy of its velvety sweetness. Until Nutella production expanded overseas, international travelers stashed jars of the thick goo in their carry-ons, along with smuggled wedges of cheese and hard-to-find bottles of European wine. Some food bloggers love Nutella so much that, in 2007, they joined forces to declare February 5 World Nutella Day. But Nutella's inclusion of trans fats led Nicole Weston, of the food blog Baking Bites, to whip up some homemade chocolate-hazelnut spread earlier this month. Weston's version has significantly less sugar and fat than the commercial brand, and although she says that she won't completely give up the latter, she's been happy slathering her nutty spread on toast, spreading it on bananas, and spooning it into oatmeal. Looking for other Nutella knockoffs? Try Rapunzel's Choconut spread, or the Spanish version called Nocilla.