Gianduja Guide: Turin's Hazelnut Chocolate, From Wedge to Jar

Gianduja (pronounced jahn-DOO-yah) is chocolate blended with hazelnuts ground so fine they disappear into it. The result is softer than a plain bar, sweeter, and tastes of roasted nuts as much as cocoa. It comes from Turin, the capital of Piedmont in northwestern Italy, and it appears in three main forms: a small foil-wrapped chocolate called the gianduiotto, a layered square called the cremino, and the hazelnut chocolate spread. All three grew from the same idea, and that idea started with a shortage.

A few terms first. Cocoa mass (also called cocoa liquor) is roasted cocoa beans ground into a thick paste; cocoa butter is the fat pressed out of that paste. Hazelnut paste is roasted hazelnuts ground until their own oil turns them into a smooth, pourable cream. Tempering means heating and cooling melted chocolate through set temperatures so the cocoa butter sets into a stable, glossy, snappable form instead of a dull, crumbly one. A PGI (Protected Geographical Indication, IGP in Italian) is a European legal label that ties a food's name to a place and a written rulebook, called a specification.

1. A substitution born in a blockade

In 1806 Napoleon imposed the Continental Blockade, a ban on trade between Britain and the parts of Europe he controlled. The blockade cut the amount of cocoa reaching Turin. Gianduja is believed to have been born in that moment, according to the specification Italy published in 2025 for the proposed Giandujotto di Torino PGI: Turin's chocolatiers stretched scarce cocoa with something Piedmont grew itself, mixing hazelnut paste into cocoa mass.

The hazelnut they reached for still defines the product. The Tonda Gentile, a round hazelnut grown mainly in the Langhe hills of the Province of Cuneo, south of Turin, is valued for its fragrance when toasted and for shelling cleanly, according to the Province of Cuneo, and it keeps well in storage. The province dates its protection as Nocciola Piemonte PGI to a 1993 ministerial decree. For the autumn harvest on those hills and the dishes around it, see the Piedmont in autumn guide.

2. The name, the mask and the date

Gianduja is also a character: the carnival mask of Turin. In Italian carnival tradition a mask (maschera) is a fixed comic figure who returns, costume and all, year after year, and Gianduja is the one who belongs to Turin. The specification ties the chocolate's name to the mask, and its shape to his hat, which it describes as irregular. It also compares the finished piece to a wedge, or the upturned hull of a small boat.

Accounts differ on exactly when the chocolate got its name, with dates ranging from 1852 to 1867, and on who deserves the credit. The specification names Michele Prochet, a Turin chocolatier who made a chocolate called Givu from chocolate and hazelnut paste, and says it was put on sale under the name "Gianduja," presumably at Turin's Fiera fantastica of 1867. Other accounts, including one in the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, credit Paul Caffarel, founder of the chocolate house that still bears his name, with the invention in 1852. The little piece soon came to be called, popularly, the gianduiotto (also spelled giandujotto), the name it still carries.

3. What the law says gianduja is

In the European Union, gianduja is also a legal definition. The EU's 2000 directive on cocoa and chocolate products (Directive 2000/36/EC) sets out what may be sold as "gianduja" chocolate. The plain version must be made from chocolate with at least 32 percent cocoa solids, plus finely ground hazelnuts in a quantity of no less than 20 grams and no more than 40 grams per 100 grams of finished product. The milk version starts from milk chocolate and needs at least 15 grams and at most 40 grams of hazelnuts per 100 grams. Whole or broken nuts may also be added, up to a total nut content of 60 percent.

The proposed Giandujotto di Torino specification goes further and narrower. It requires 30 to 45 percent toasted Nocciola Piemonte PGI hazelnuts, 20 to 45 percent sugar and at least 25 percent cocoa (as beans, mass, butter or powder). Vanilla, lecithin (an emulsifier, an ingredient that helps fat and solids stay blended) and a pinch of salt are optional, and no other ingredients are allowed, which means no milk. Production may happen anywhere in Piedmont. On 23 March 2026 Italy's agriculture ministry sent the specification to the European Commission for recognition, and as of June 2026 the name was still awaiting registration.

What is being defined Hazelnut share Other key rules
EU "gianduja" chocolate 20 to 40 g per 100 g, finely ground Base chocolate at least 32% cocoa solids; up to 5% milk solids allowed
EU "gianduja" milk chocolate 15 to 40 g per 100 g, finely ground Base is milk chocolate with at least 10% milk solids
Proposed Giandujotto di Torino PGI 30 to 45%, toasted Nocciola Piemonte PGI only Sugar 20 to 45%; cocoa at least 25%; no milk; triangular prism with rounded edges
Venchi Original Recipe Gianduiotto At least 32% Piedmont PGI hazelnuts Upturned boat shape, per the maker

Read across the table and one point stands out: gianduja is a ratio before it is a shape. The same proportion of nut to cocoa can be molded into a gianduiotto, poured as a layer or loosened into a spread.

4. How a gianduiotto is made

The specification lays out the steps. The hazelnuts, sugar and cocoa are weighed and mixed, then refined, meaning ground until no particle is larger than 25 microns (25 thousandths of a millimeter). The mass is tempered, shaped, cooled and wrapped in foil within twelve hours of cooling.

Shaping is where the craft shows. The traditional method is by hand with coltelle, flat spatulas used to work the soft paste into its wedge. The other permitted methods are extrusion (pushing the paste through a shaped nozzle, like toothpaste from a tube, and cutting it into pieces) and molding. A hand-shaped piece may weigh 8 to 16 grams; a machine-made one, 4 to 12 grams.

The specification describes the eating experience too: an intense, lasting sweetness with a light bitter finish, and a texture that is very soft, melting and clinging in the mouth.

The gianduiotto's shape also works with other nuts. Venchi's Pistachio Gianduiotto (shop Venchi Pistachio Gianduiotto) keeps the classic shape but fills it with white chocolate and 25 percent pistachio paste, with a touch of salt, according to its product page. It sits outside the traditional hazelnut definition and shows how far the format travels. The house that makes it, founded in Turin in 1878, has its own story in the Venchi producer guide.

5. The cremino: gianduja in layers

A cremino is a small square built in stripes. Venchi's classic Cremino, which the maker dates to an 1878 recipe, places a layer of white chocolate and almond paste between two layers of milk chocolate gianduja made with Piedmont hazelnuts. Each bite crosses all three layers at once.

Layering became a point of competition in Piedmont. The Majani company says that when Fiat held a contest to celebrate the launch of its Tipo 4 car, Majani won with a four-layer cremino, beating Turin's chocolatiers.

Venchi's Cremino Pistachio (shop Venchi Cremino Pistachio) swaps the nut throughout: according to its product page, a layer of white chocolate with pistachio paste sits between two layers of milk chocolate pistachio gianduia.

6. Nougatine: the crunchy cousin

Not every Piedmont hazelnut chocolate is smooth. Venchi's Nougatine (shop Venchi Nougatine) takes the same nut in the opposite direction: chopped Piedmont PGI hazelnuts are bound with caramelized sugar (sugar heated until it melts and browns) and covered in 60 percent dark chocolate, to a recipe its product page says has not changed since 1905. Where gianduja grinds the hazelnut until it vanishes into the chocolate, nougatine keeps it in crunchy pieces. Tasting the two side by side is a direct way to compare one nut in two textures.

7. From slab to spread

The spread came out of a second shortage. In Alba, in the Langhe, the Ferrero company was founded in 1946 as a family pastry business. After the Second World War cocoa was extremely scarce, and according to Ferrero its first answer was Giandujot, a sweet paste of hazelnuts, sugar and a little cocoa, shaped into a loaf that could be sliced and spread on bread. Like the chocolate, it was named after the carnival character. In the early 1950s that loaf became SuperCrema, a creamier product easier to spread, and in 1964 the recipe became the first jar of Nutella.

Seen this way, a hazelnut chocolate spread is the same pairing of hazelnut and cocoa that made gianduja, loosened until it spreads. Il Colle del Gusto, from Lazio in central Italy, makes its spreads with extra virgin olive oil, which its product pages say lends the spreads smoothness and shine.

Its Granellona Brut (shop Il Colle del Gusto Granellona Brut) leaves crushed hazelnuts in a silken chocolate cream, which puts the crunch of nougatine inside the softness of gianduja. Cioccoarancia (shop Il Colle del Gusto Cioccoarancia) adds candied orange peel and orange extract to bittersweet chocolate and hazelnuts, and its product page suggests it on warm toast, pancakes, waffles or French toast. Noccioliva (shop Il Colle del Gusto Noccioliva) is the smooth version, and its product page suggests swirling it into bread pudding or using it to fill cookies or a crostata (an Italian open-faced tart). How extra virgin olive oil is graded and what it tastes like is covered in the olive oil buying guide.

8. How to taste gianduja

Let a gianduiotto sit at room temperature for a few minutes, then put the whole piece on the tongue and let it melt rather than chewing. With a cremino, bite straight down through all the layers so each stripe registers in turn. With a spread, taste a spoonful alone before putting it on bread; the toasted-nut aroma is clearest before anything else competes with it. For a wider view of how cocoa percentages and bean origins shape flavor, the craft chocolate guide covers chocolate bars.

9. Twice from scarcity

Piedmont's hazelnut chocolate was invented twice, both times because cocoa ran short. Around 1806, by the account in Turin's own rulebook, the city's chocolatiers stretched cocoa with hazelnuts and found a softer, nuttier chocolate. In 1946 a pastry shop in Alba did the same, and its sliceable hazelnut loaf became a spread. Neither was a compromise for long. What began as a way to make less cocoa go further became a flavor written into law: the EU sets a minimum share of hazelnut for anything sold as gianduja, and Turin's proposed rulebook lists the only ingredients allowed. The shortage is gone. The hazelnut stayed because it was never a stand-in. Explore the truffles and bonbons collection and the sauces and dessert spreads collection.

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