Banana bread with swirls of Nutella takes a classic quick bread up a notch. A sweet and salty Nutella ribbon makes a welcome surprise in your snack cake.
How do I tell when my banana bread is done?
It’s incredibly disappointing to spend all that time baking a banana bread and waiting for it to cool, just to slice into it and find a doughy, gluey, raw middle. Using a toothpick or skewer might work but it’s not the most accurate way to go. If you’ve added any kind of “texture” to your bread (like zucchini or, in this case, Nutella) you’re not going to get an accurate idea of doneness. A digital thermometer is going to give you the most reliable reading. When the center of your bread is baked through, it should register between 200°F to 205°F degrees.
Banana Bread with Nutella
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Generously butter two 8 by 4-inch (20 by 10-cm) or 9 by 5-inch (23 by 13-cm) loaf pans, then line them with buttered parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the bananas, brown sugar, butter, milk, eggs, and vanilla, and mix well with a wooden spoon.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir just until smooth.
Scoop the Nutella into a small bowl and heat in the microwave until softened enough to drizzle, 20 to 30 seconds.
Divide half of the banana batter between the prepared pans. Drizzle half of the Nutella over the two pans and run a small, thin knife through the batter in a zigzag or swirl pattern to distribute.
Add the remaining batter to the pans, top with the remaining Nutella, and swirl into the batter with the knife again.
Bake until a tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and set on a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
Plain Banana Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting
Although we’re big fans of the chocolate and banana partnership going on here, if you are a banana-bread purest, feel free to leave the Nutella out of the bread and instead slather it with Cream Cheese Frosting. You do you. We won’t judge.
Recipe Testers' Reviews
The banana is a fruit that can be used even when it's very ripe, you just have to freeze it. Often, I have bananas in the freezer, not because of a careless consumption of fruit that leads to waste, but because I know that a banana cake is always welcome here at home. If the classic recipe is already a sweet that comforts us, the addition of Nutella in this recipe creates a cake with a rich mixture of flavors, sweet and nutty, which is irresistible.
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Nadine Bonda
This banana bread with swirls of Nutella is moist, light for a banana bread, and very tasty, particularly hot out of the oven. Who can control themselves to not eat banana bread right out of the oven! And the swirled Nutella (what a great idea!) adds to its wonderful flavors. The Nutella is a background taste that complements the banana bread but does not overpower it. I did find that on day 2, it lost some of its moistness, but was still very good.