Everyone knows the chocolate hazelnut spread in the jar. Far fewer people know the thing it came from, which is better. Here is what gianduja is.
What is gianduja? It is a smooth blend of chocolate and finely ground roasted hazelnuts, invented in Turin, Italy, in the 1800s when chocolate was scarce and hazelnuts were plentiful. Done properly, it is silkier than chocolate alone and nuttier than any spread, because a real gianduja is mostly actual hazelnuts rather than sugar.
That last part is the difference between the real thing and the jar. The famous spread is a descendant of gianduja, but most commercial versions run heavy on sugar and palm oil and light on the nut. When you taste a proper gianduja, the hazelnut leads.
What does gianduja taste like?
Toasted hazelnut first, then chocolate, with a texture that sits somewhere between a truffle and a very dense mousse. It melts faster than a chocolate bar because the nut oils soften the cocoa butter. That fast, silky melt is the signature. If it feels waxy or tastes mostly of sugar, it was not made with enough hazelnuts.
How we make ours
Our Gianduja Blocks start with a rich hazelnut praline, which we blend with crunchy feuilletine (crispy, sweet crepe flakes) and our dark milk chocolate, then coat in rich bittersweet chocolate. The feuilletine is my favorite detail. Classic gianduja is all smoothness, and the little shards of crepe give each bite something to push against. Smooth center, crisp flecks, snap of bittersweet on the outside.
If you love the hazelnut and chocolate combination in bar form, our Salty-Sweet Hazelnut Bar takes the same Oregon hazelnuts in a saltier, crunchier direction.
If you grew up on the jar, try a real gianduja once. It is the same idea with the proportions put right, and I think you will recognize immediately what the original got famous for.
Enjoy,
Chuck Siegel
Founder, Charles Chocolates
Chuck Siegel
Founder, Charles Chocolates
Chuck has been making chocolate in San Francisco since 1987. Self-taught, he founded his first chocolate company, Attivo Confections, sold it in 1995, and started Charles Chocolates in 2004 on one uncommon idea: chocolate should be treated like fresh food.
Everything is made in small batches with all-natural ingredients (real cream, real butter, real fruit) and no shortcuts. His work has earned a Good Food Award, Sunset Magazine's Best of the West, and recognition from San Francisco Magazine, and has been covered by KQED and the San Francisco food press.
