This probably comes as no surprise to a lot of you, but did you know that a jar of Nutella is sold somewhere in the world every 2.5 seconds? I mean, what's not to love? Who doesn't like smearing chocolate all over their pancakes, toast, muffins, and anything else that needs a bit of sweetness? Although it definitely tastes good, Nutella doesn't contain the healthiest of ingredients. In fact, I'm appalled at how much sugar it contains. This homemade Nutella recipe taste better, and is much healthier than the store-bought stuff.

To make this you are definitely going to need a high-powered food processor. It is still not going to be as smooth as the store-bought version, but the more you process it, the smoother it will get. If you look closely at the above photo, you will see tiny little specks and lumps. That's just bits of hazelnut. I processed my hazelnuts for about 10 minutes, and this was a smooth as it was going to get.

What you need:
2 cups hazelnuts
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

How to make it:
1: Preheat the oven to 375°. Spread all of the hazelnuts onto a large baking sheet and roast for roughly 15 minutes, gently shaking the baking sheet every 3 to 4 minutes. The hazelnuts will be fragrant when they are ready.

2: Pour the hot hazelnuts into a large glass jar and screw on the lid. Shake the jar, and the skins will fall off of the nuts pretty easily. Remove the nuts that do not have any skin, and continue shaking the remaining ones until all the skins have fallen off.

3: Put the skinned hazelnuts into your food processor, and process for 5 to 10 minutes, until it turns into a creamy butter.

4: Add all of the remaining ingredients and process for another 1 to 2 minutes.

5: Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator. If the lid is tightly closed, your homemade chocolate hazelnut spread will last for several weeks (if you can stop yourself from eating it all in a day or so).

Classic banana pudding is probably one of my very favorite desserts, but there is a marked difference between the kind made from cardboard-like boxed wafers and powdered pudding mix. This recipe takes a little bit more time than just throwing a bunch of premade stuff into a bowl, but believe me... it's worth it!

Wafers
What You Need:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

How To Make It:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Do NOT make these cookies on a buttered or greased pan.

2. Cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy and pale. (About 5 minutes.)

3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and stir in the vanilla and milk.

4. GENTLY stir in the flour and salt. Be careful to not over mix your dough.

5. Drop the dough onto the baking sheet in 1 inch circles. If you want a more uniform shape, use a pastry bag with a 1A tip, like I did.

6. Bake for roughly 20 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.

Whipped Cream
What You Need:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

How To Make It:
1. Add all ingredients to a chilled bowl, and beat with a hand mixer just until stiff peaks form. Do not over beat.

Now, let's put it all together! I do not like a LOT of bananas in my banana pudding, so I only use 2, but you can use as many as you like. Simply place a layer of slices of banana and wafers in a casserole dish or large bowl, and pour a bit of the pudding over it. Continue layering your ingredients, ending with the pudding. Chill for an hour, then top with your whipped cream.

This is it! The Mother lode of all pumpkin dessert, pie, cobbler..... things. PUMPKIN PECAN LAVA CAKE! We all know what  chocolate lava cake is, but can you imagine a sweet, sticky, lava-y (is that a word?) pumpkin dessert covered in vanilla ice cream? As much as I dearly love chocolate, this lava cake may just be my favorite. 

The instructions are going to sound a little weird, but trust me: it all works out in the end.

What you need:

Cake:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling. Learn how to make it HERE)
1/3 cup evaporated milk
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp vanilla

Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Extras:
1 1/2 cups boiling or very hot water

How to make it:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and spices.

3. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the melted butter, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla.

4. Slowly add the pumpkin mixture to the flour, stirring until just blended. Pour this mixture into a lightly greased 9x9 inch baking dish.

5. In a small bowl, stir together the topping ingredients. Sprinkle evenly over the pumpkin mixture.

6. This is where it sounds strange: pour the boiling (or very hot) water evenly over the entire top of the dry sugar topping, but DO NOT STIR!!! Just leave it alone, no matter how watery and weird it looks.

7. Bake this for around 45 minutes, until the middle is solid and doesn't jiggle. Let it cool for 10 minutes, then serve in a bowl with whipped cream or ice cream.