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World Nutella Day: Spreading the Love Around (and on bread)

NUTELLA TARTINE

From Around My French Table, Dorie Greenspan

Makes 4 servings

It is impossible to overestimate the French love of Nutella, the chocolate and hazelnut spread invented in Italy about seventy years ago and eaten with gusto all over most of Europe. If you think about how attached we Americans are to peanut butter, you’ll have an idea of how much the French love Nutella. It’s a perennial at crepe stands all over the country, sometimes along with bananas. Spread on a slice of bread, it’s often the after-school snack of choice.

And just as American chefs have been known to use peanut butter to create grown-up desserts that recapture the pleasures of childhood, so French chefs are always finding surprising ways to make Nutella chic. Here’s Pierre Hermé’s reading of the after-school treat pain au chocolat: the bread is brioche (or challah), the chocolate is Nutella, and the surprise is orange marmalade. For another sophisticated use of Nutella, look at the ganache tart with a hidden layer of the chocolate and hazelnut spread.

1/4 cup Nutella

4 slices brioche or challah

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup bitter orange marmalade

Fleur de sel

Hazelnuts, toasted, loose skins rubbed off in a towel, and coarsely chopped, for topping

 

Preheat the broiler. Line a baking sheet (or the broiler pan) with aluminum foil.

Put the Nutella in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water and heat, stirring frequently, just until it is softened and warm.

Brush one side of each slice of bread with melted butter, and put the bread, buttered side up, on the baking sheet. Run the bread under the broiler; pull it out when the slices are golden. Spread the marmalade over the hot bread and then, using the tines of a fork, generously drizzle each tartine with some warm Nutella. Top with a few grains of fleur de sel and some chopped hazelnuts.

Serving

Although it’s a play on an after-school snack, this tartine is also made for a strong espresso.

Storing

No leftovers except the crumbs.