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You are here: Home / Recipes / Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares -Tutorial

Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares -Tutorial

June 23, 2017 by Tiffany 17 Comments

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Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares

Welcome to chocolate heaven, with this post I invite you to learn how to make your own confections at home and become a master chocolatier.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Ok, not exactly. I got too excited, for a minute.

Down below I will show you how easy it is to temper your own chocolate without the need of a sophisticated machine. By learning that, you can make bonbons and beautiful shiny chocolate treats.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

In this case, I made amazing Hazelnut Gianduja Squares. They are little morsels of goodness that melt in your mouth. The taste is similar to the inside of a Ferrero Rocher. Hazelnut and chocolate make the best combination.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

You can serve them in paper cups or in a rectangular dessert tray. They will definitely be gone in minutes. They’re just so indulgent and rich.

Why did I cut them into squares? – It was easy, you can cut them in triangles, use silicone molds, etc.

Wanna make these Hazelnut Gianduja Squares better? < —– Dip them in melted chocolate and let them set. Now you’re ready to open up your own candy store!

Ok, so what exactly is Gianduja? See the answer below:

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Take the Hazelnut Praline Paste we made last week and combine it with Tempered Chocolate. That’s it. You can add some chopped nuts or dried fruits to give it some extra taste and texture.

Not a fan of hazelnuts? No worries! Substitute with peanut butter, almond butter or cashew butter.

Before we start with the tutorial, here are a few things to keep in mind.

  • Chocolate needs to be tempered, otherwise, your dessert will turn out cloudy, with white streaks around it. I am not going to get technical and bore you by technicalities and explaining the process of cocoa crystals, just know that this is the way to achieve a beautiful chocolate confection.
  • Tempered chocolate involves heating up the chocolate to a certain temperature and cooling it down quickly.
  • Use GOOD QUALITY chocolate with at least 55% cocoa butter. I like Lindt, Ghirardelli, Valrhona, and Guittard. I used the latter.
  • For this recipe, choose your favorite kind of chocolate: milk or dark. White works as well.
  • Make sure all your bowls, hands, and tools are completely dry. A single drop of water can ruin your melted chocolate <— I learned this the hard way, unfortunately.
  • Lastly, if you DO NOT WANT to go through all the trouble of tempering, substitute for candy melts or Ghirardelli Melting Chocolate. They do not have cocoa butter, instead, they have oil.
  • A thermometer will ensure that you get most accurate results when tempering. If you don’t have one, you can still make this recipe. I recommend this one.

Now that I’ve scared you with so much information, let’s get started:

HOW TO TEMPER CHOCOLATE USING THE MICROWAVE

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Chop your chocolate into pieces. For this recipe, we’re using 8 ounces. Place 2/3 of the chocolate in a big bowl, and reserve 1/3 in a smaller bowl. The latter is what we’ll use to quickly reduce the temperature of the chocolate once it’s melted. Chefs call it “the seed”.

Microwave your chocolate, the one in the big bowl, for 30-45 seconds. It’ll look like this, all shiny but not melted.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

But, as soon as you stir it you realize that it’s starting to melt. Still, it needs some more heating.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

We pop it in the microwave in 15 to 20-second intervals and stir until the chocolate has completely melted. If you have a thermometer: aim at 115-120°F for dark chocolate and milk/white chocolate at 105°F.

If you don’t have a thermometer, you may need to use your dry finger. When the melted chocolate feels very hot to the touch it’s ready.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Now we add “the seed” or the remaining 1/3 of chocolate that you reserved at the beginning.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Stir vigorously until the seed has completely melted. Mixing will help the chocolate cool faster. The chocolate will be warm, not cold.

If the seed didn’t melt completely, do not reheat the entire mixture. Simply take remove with a spoon.

Your chocolate mixture now should be around 86-88 °F.

Congratulations! You just tempered chocolate! 

Doesn’t it look amazing? Smooth, silky, and ready to be used.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

MAKING THE GIANDUJA

As I mentioned earlier, Gianduja is just a mixture of tempered chocolate and praline paste. Keep in mind that the hazelnut praline paste must be AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. If it’s hot or cold it’ll mess with the tempering process that you’ve worked so hard to achieve.

For this recipe, we’ll be using 1 cup of praline. Homemade or Store Bought.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Yum Yum

Remember, you can add chopped nuts or dried fruit to this mixture.

Line an 8×8″ square baking pan with plastic wrap and pour your mixture in. You can also use molds like this one to create different shapes.

Let this mixture set up at room temperature for a few hours. Then cut into squares. Do not refrigerate to speed the process. It’ll mess with the tempering.

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

If your mixture DOES NOT SET UP, it’s because there was a problem with the tempering process. Only in this case refrigerate, unmold, and eat them fast.

That’s it!

Phew! this was a long post… My fingers hurt.

I hope you can try this delicious Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares at home. If you do, please upload a pic on Instagram and tag me @Livingsweetmoments or use the hashtag #LivingSweet. I promise to repost it.

4.41 from 10 votes
Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe
Print
Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
40 mins
 

Melt in your mouth Homemade Hazelnut Gianduja Squares are made w/ tempered chocolate & praline paste. Enjoy these confections at home with this easy recipe

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Servings: 50 pieces
Author: Tiffany Bendayan
Ingredients
  • 8 oz Tempered Chocolate
  • 1 cup Hazelnut Praline Paste at room temperature
US Customary - Metric
Instructions
  1. Line an 8x8" square baking pan with plastic wrap

  2. Mix the tempered chocolate with the hazelnut praline paste until completely combined

  3. Pour this mixture into the prepared pan. Leave it on the counter for a few hours until it sets up and becomes firm. Do not refrigerate

  4. When Gianduja is set up cut into squares or your desired shape

  5. Optional: Dip the squares in tempered chocolate, shake off the excess and place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper to set up

  6. Enjoy! 

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Filed Under: Desserts, Fudge, Recipes Tagged With: chocolate candy, chocolate tempering, easy chocolate candies, ferrero rocher, gianduja, hazelnut chocolate candy, hazelnut praline paste, how to temper chocolate

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Comments

  1. Janel says

    July 20, 2017 at 4:07 pm

    Oh. My. Goodness!!! This looks utterly amazing. Like eat a whole recipe by myself kind of amazing!

    Reply
    • Tiffany says

      July 20, 2017 at 4:11 pm

      Thank you, Janel! They are so sweet and have such a deep hazelnut flavor.

      Reply
  2. Kim Strobel says

    July 21, 2017 at 3:11 pm

    5 stars
    I’ve always wanted to know how to make this! Thank you for sharing your expertise!

    Reply
    • Tiffany says

      July 22, 2017 at 8:08 pm

      Thank you Kim! Glad you liked this recipe!

      Reply
  3. Naz says

    November 7, 2018 at 3:49 am

    5 stars
    Hey, do you have measurements in metric for praline paste?

    Reply
    • Tiffany says

      November 8, 2018 at 10:49 am

      About 120 grams

      Reply
      • Werner says

        October 17, 2020 at 9:57 pm

        Sorry, this is incorrect – 1 cup is 240 ml, so it’s about 240 grams, maybe even more because of the sugar in the praline, which makes it heaver than water, On the other hand the fat in the nuts is lighter than water, so that might compensate for the sugar.

        Reply
        • Tiffany says

          October 18, 2020 at 11:56 am

          How Werner. I used 8 oz of chocolate and 1 cup of praline paste – not in ml.

          Reply
          • Matthew says

            November 2, 2020 at 9:25 am

            5 stars
            Hi Tiffany,

            Thanks for the recipe, hoping to make it tomorrow.

            Can I please confirm the weight of the praline paste in grams? I looked at 1 cup of water at 227g, and 1 cup of corn syrup at 328g.

            So thought the recipe would be –

            227 grams – Chocolate (8 oz)
            285 grams – Praline Paste (Rough guess on weights above)

            Many thanks
            Matthew

          • Tiffany says

            November 2, 2020 at 10:34 am

            Hi Matthew. Honestly, the recipe converter sometimes is not very reliable. Both the chocolate and praline paste should weigh the same amount.You can do 225 g chocolate and 225 g praline paste

  4. Seema says

    June 22, 2019 at 2:29 pm

    5 stars
    Thank you so much for a great recipe and for making this exotic thing so accessible. I have two questions and would love to get your help with this.

    1) If store bought almond butter is used, and these are dipped in tempered chocolate; how long these will last outside refrigerator and also inside refrigerator?

    2) Since the almond butter does not have any added sugar (has only roasted almonds), do you recommend adding powder sugar in the mixture?

    Thank you once again.

    Reply
    • Tiffany says

      June 23, 2019 at 9:49 am

      Hi Seema. To answer your questions:
      1) They should last about a week. If you enrobe them in tempered chocolate they will last for months as long as you store in an airtight container
      2) Depending on the chocolate. If you use milk or white chocolate they will be sweet enough and no sugar will be needed.

      Reply
  5. vanessa says

    June 5, 2020 at 7:22 am

    hola que marca de chocolate y praline usastes

    Reply
    • Tiffany says

      June 7, 2020 at 3:36 pm

      Chocolate El Rey, Ghirardelli, Vahlrona, Cacao Barry etc y las avellanas las compre en el Publix

      Reply
  6. Shabana Syed says

    August 22, 2020 at 10:19 am

    How to make hazelnut praline paste

    Reply
    • Tiffany says

      August 24, 2020 at 9:33 am

      Recipe in this post: https://livingsweetmoments.com/how-to-make-praline-paste-tutorial/

      Reply
  7. Matthew says

    November 3, 2020 at 1:37 pm

    Hi again Tiffany,

    1 cup of praline paste was 245 grams if it helps.

    What temperature do you take the caramel to?

    Thanks
    Matthew

    Reply

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Living Sweet Moments

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Hello! I am Tiffany, the blogger, cook and photographer of Living Sweet Moments.
I a married and have 2 little girls. We currently live in Miami, Fl
I spend my days cooking and baking delicious recipes that you will surely love. So sit back and enjoy! Read More…

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