Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away....: December 2010

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Nutella Swirled Banana Bread

Mmm I love Nutella and I love banana bread, so this combo is pretty much perfect. I got the recipe from Recipe Girl's blog, and it turned out awesome! It's hard to make breads cause you have to let them cool for a while, and I just want to try it as soon as it's out of the oven! With cookies, you can try them warm, but not bread! So anyway, I waited a while and sliced it up, and it is pretty delish. It will be even better in the morning with a cup of coffee. Mmmm...

I had to divide the batter into 2 smaller pans than what her recipe says, which is 1 8x4 pan. So I've got myself 2 smaller loaves instead! Now I need to decide if I should make some Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip cookies for my work lunch on Wednesday. I bought these Toll House mixed chips, and so I want to make cookies with them, but if I've never used them and then they turn out to be not very tasty, I don't want to bring bad cookies into work! I'm sure they'll be okay. I actually got them at this store in my hometown called MC Sales. It's an itty bitty dirty little store where all of the damaged cans and boxes go to be sold for super super cheap. I got the bag of cho pb chips for 25 cents! What a steal! I stocked up on some other dry foods to bring back with me, like a soft taco dinner kit, life cereal, soups, gummi bears, and a few other things. You have to be careful though, cause they do have some expired stuff there, and that stuff can taste a little funky if you're not careful.

Ahh so this year, our roomie Amy bought a little tree! The silver one on the floor was our tree last year, so we've moved up a notch! I've never actually had a live tree, so this is my first! I was so clueless about it, cause you have to water it and stuff, and I just didn't think about that. Crazy! I need to wrap my presents and put them under the tree, but I couldn't find any tape tonite, and I wasn't about to go out in the snow/wind storm for tape! I can get some tomorrow when I'm at work anyway.

I haven't been outside today AT ALL, and I've definitely got cabin fever, and feel kinda lazy. I love resting up on the weekends, don't get me wrong, but I usually need to get out of the apartment to go somewhere, even if it's the store for like 10 minutes. Today though, it was crazy windy and snowy and I didn't really have to go anywhere, so I didn't! Sooo that's why I baked bread!

NUTELLA- SWIRLED BANANA BREAD

www.RecipeGirl.com

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup plain low fat yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup Nutella (chocolate-hazelnut spread)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 8×4-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda & salt.

3. In a separate large bowl, beat sugar and butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until flour is incorporated (don’t over mix).

4. Spoon Nutella into a medium dish and soften in the microwave for about 15 seconds. Add 1 cup of the banana bread batter to the Nutella and stir until blended well. Spoon Nutella batter alternately with plain banana bread batter into the prepared pan. Swirl batters together with a knife.

5. Bake 60 to 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Check the oven at 45 minutes to check the top of the bread for browning. If it’s browning too quickly, cover lightly with foil for the remainder of the baking. Cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield: 1 loaf (about 12 slices)