So I’ve been told that today is National Banana Bread Day. This is the first time I’ve heard of this “holiday”, but I’m more than happy to celebrate. I love banana bread! It was one of the first things I learned how to bake as a kid — I still remember cutting the recipe out of my Sunday comics one day and taping it into my “recipe book”. I’m pretty sure I made that recipe a billion times between the ages of 10 and 18, but it’s still one of my mom’s favorite things to eat for breakfast. Who can blame her? Banana bread is delicious.
I’ve said this before, but Dan and I always seem to have overripe bananas lying around. We buy really green bananas over the weekend to eat for breakfast during the week but they always ripen so quickly and we just can’t keep up! Maybe we should start buying smaller bunches? Anyway, as soon as I heard about National Banana Bread Day, I ran into my kitchen to investigate, and ‘lo and behold: 3 spotty, mushy bananas happily percolating on top of the fridge. The gods have spoken, it’s time to make banana bread.
As it turns out, I missed National Nutella Day a few weeks back. That’s a cryin’ shame, because I adore Nutella, and I just happened to have a brand new jar of it sitting on top of the fridge (next to the bananas, actually) tempting me. Luckily bananas taste great with chocolate so I decided to kill a million birds with one stone and make my banana bread with Nutella mixed into the batter. That way I got to use up all my old bananas, properly celebrate National Banana Bread Day, and get rid of most of the Nutella before it finds its way onto a large spoon headed toward my mouth.
The nutty, chocolate-y, banana-y batter was goooooood, y’all! But for some reason once the bread was baked, the Nutella flavor wasn’t as strong. Every moist, nutty mouthful was full of banana-y good flavor, but there was only a faint hint of chocolate. The chocolate flavor was more pronounced on day 2 after the bread had a chance to sit and settle, but I can’t help but wish it were a little stronger. Sad, but hey…now I have an excuse to buy/eat more Nutella. You know, for experimental purposes. Obviously.
Nutty Nutella Banana Bread (Adapted from the Savory Sweet Life’s recipe)
Ingredients:
– 1 stick of butter or margarine, softened to room temp
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 1 egg
– 3 medium ripened bananas mashed
– 1 tsp. vanilla
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 cup flour
– 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
– 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
– 1/3 cup Nutella (use more if you want a stronger chocolate flavor)
– 1 cup chopped pecans
(1) Preheat over to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan.
(2) In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together.
(3) Stir in egg, mashed bananas, greek yogurt, Nutella and vanilla until well blended.
(4) Add dry ingredients, and mix until the batter is smooth.
(5) Stir in nuts.
(6) Pour batter into your loaf pan.
(7) Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hr, or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
(8) Remove from heat and allow bread to rest in the loaf pan for at least 10 minutes.
(9) Invert the loaf pans onto a cooling rack.
(10) Enjoy warm or cold, with milk, coffee, or tea.
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