Nutella Banana Bread

I was at the hairdresser's the other day. I don't visit her very often, only when my hair is overgrown and my fringe starts poking my eyes. There is one thing I look forwards to when I visit the hair salon.

It is browsing the back issues of women's magazines. I have stopped reading these magazines for a very long time because the content does not do anything for me. Topics like fashion, make-up, celebrities and whatnots do not interest me.

There is however one magazine that I do read. And it's a men's magazine. No, not that one. This one, Esquire. Of course I skip the non-relevant sections (as mentioned above) and still there is more than enough content to keep me amused. Anyway.

What I like in the women's magazine is one thing and one thing only. Recipes! And while my head was being assaulted by the shampoo girl (she attempted a massage which was too rough for me), I snapped this recipe :

So on one public holiday, I attempted the recipe because I had some bananas in the fridge. Look.

Don't freak. The banana skin turns black in the fridge but the inside was still in good condition. These black bananas were perfect for baking as they were very ripe and sweet. Sure there were a few brown spots which I removed.

Before.

I made a few small adjustments in the recipe and baked up a very fragrant and delicious banana bread/cake.

After

This banana bread is very good. Very moist with tender crumbs. And of course, the combination of banana and Nutella is oohh...la...la...

This recipe is a keeper. And you bet I will collect some more recipes when I next visit the hair salon. That will have to wait until my fringe pokes my eyes again.

Nutella Banana Bread

Recipe source : Adapted from The Malaysian Women's Weekly

Ingredients :

- 250g self-raising flour

- 1 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/4 cup brown sugar (see note)

- 3 very ripe bananas, mashed

- 130g butter, melted and cooled

- 125g sour cream

- 2 eggs, lightly beaten

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 8 tsp Nutella

Method :

1. Sift flour and ground cinnamon into a large mixing bowl.

2. Add sugar and use a whisk to mix everything together. Make a well in the centre.

3. In another mixing bowl, combine mashed bananas, melted butter, eggs, vanilla extract and sour cream.

4. Pour this wet mixture into the flour mixture.

5. Gently fold to combine until batter is evenly mixed.

6. Pour half of the batter into a loaf pan.

7. Dollop 4 teaspoons of Nutella onto the batter and using a skewer or butter knife, swirl the Nutella.

8. Pour the remaining batter on top and dollop with 4 teaspoons of Nutella and swirl as above.

9. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

10. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes :

- You need to adjust the sugar according to the sweetness of the bananas and your own taste, bearing in mind that Nutella is very sweet. With 1/4 cup brown sugar, this cake was barely sweet, the way I like it.

- I baked this cake for 50 minutes, tenting the cake at the 40 minute mark to prevent over browning.

This post is also linked to Cook-Your-Books #27 hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.