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Belgium boasts many famous chocolate factories and manufacturors like Godiva, Neuhaus, Leonidas, Corné, Marcolini and many many more. And often you will find their chocolates and sweets containing “Gianduja". But what is this foreign-sounding ingredient?

Gianduja (or, more commonly, gianduia) is a sweet chocolate containing about 30% hazelnut paste, invented in Turin by Caffarel and Prochet in 1852. It takes its name from Gianduja, a Carnival and marionette character who represents the archetypal Piedmontese, the Italian region where hazelnut confectionery is common.

Some related product are:

-Gianduiotti, a speciality of Turin, are chocolates shaped like an upturned boat, again made with a mixture of cocoa and hazelnut paste: invented by Caffarel in 1865, it is still a trade mark for the company

-Ferrero Nutella, which was originally called Pasta Gianduja, as a marketing ploy to appeal to children.

In addition to the classic interpretation of gianduja, modern confectioners often term any combination of nut, chocolate and sugar as a gianduja, such as almonds, dark chocolate and sugar or walnuts, milk chocolate and sugar.

Source: Wikipedia.org