How to Make Gianduja

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Last Updated: April 19, 2026

Gianduja is a type of confectionery made from chocolate, powdered sugar, and at least 30% hazelnuts (this recipe contains exactly a third, or 33.33%, hazelnuts) blended together into a paste and filled into molds. It was invented in Italy in the early 19th century during a cacao shortage caused by trade restrictions.^{[1]
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Research source} This wikiHow shows how to make the gianduja recipe.

Ingredients

2½ cups (300 g) hazelnuts
2½ cups (300 g) powdered sugar
300 g (10.5 oz) milk chocolate, preferably with high cocoa content, optionally plus extra for dipping
Cooking oil spray for greasing

Steps

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1
Preheat the oven to 150 °C (302 °F). Line a baking sheet with baking paper.^{[2]
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Roast the hazelnuts. Pour the hazelnuts on the prepared baking sheet, spreading evenly, and roast them in the oven for 20 minutes. Take the roasted hazelnuts out of the oven and leave them to cool.^{[2]
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3
Remove the hazelnut skins. Use a paper towel to rub the hazelnuts to remove their skins.^{[2]
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- It's okay if a few of the hazelnuts still have skins in these.
4
Blend the hazelnuts with the sugar. Put the hazelnuts with the powdered sugar in a food processor and blend until the mixture turns into a smooth paste that is almost liquid-like. This may take around 15 minutes.^{[2]
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- Be sure to pause between intervals so that the food processor doesn't overheat.
- At first, the mixture will turn into a powder in the first few minutes; however, as the hazelnuts release their oil as you blend, the mixture will clump together into a paste, which gets runnier to a liquid-like consistency as you continue blending.^{[3]
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5
Melt the chocolate. Fill the pot halfway with water, and put the heatproof bowl on the pot. Add the chocolate to the bowl, then stir until the chocolate is melted.^{[2]
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- Make sure that the temperature of melted chocolate doesn't exceed 35 °C (95 °F).
6
Combine the melted chocolate with the hazelnut paste. Pour the melted chocolate into the hazelnut paste and blend or stir to combine.^{[2]
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7
Pour the mixture into molds. Grease the molds so once the gianduja pieces set, you can easily pop the pieces out. Then, pour the hazelnut-chocolate mixture into the greased molds.^{[2]
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- You can use a prepared baking sheet to pour into, and after setting, you can cut into freeform shapes, such as rectangles.
8
Leave them to set. Because the chocolate turns to solid form as it sets at room temperature, the gianduja pieces harden as they set.^{[2]
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- You can put the gianduja pieces into the refrigerator for quicker setting.
9
Dip the gianduja pieces in chocolate. This is optional; this is up to personal preferences. Melt the chocolate, as described in step 5, then dip the gianduja pieces in the melted chocolate. Leave them to set.^{[2]
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