I usually have a couple sad, old bananas lying around. Their fate is almost always the freezer for smoothies. But last night, I was overcome with the urge to bake and my eyes landed on the spotty brown bananas on my shelf. Next thing I knew, I was throwing every yummy morsel I could find into the mixing bowl for this banana bread with peanut butter and nutella swirl.
Chocolate chips. Chopped pecans. A streak of peanut butter. A handful of cacao nibs for crunch. A swirl of Nutella. All inside this perfect banana bread.
I had never made banana bread before, but I figured The Kitchn would be a great place to find a recipe. When I searched the site, the first article to appear was “5 Easy Ways to Make Banana Bread More Awesome“. Of course I read the article because I was not going to take my first banana bread experience lightly. I wanted awesome banana bread. I am pretty sure the article was written to suggest “hey, try one of these tips for better banana bread!”, but like I said, I was not messing around. I did 4 out of the 5 tips. That included 1) roasting the bananas, 2) using chocolate chips, 3) adding peanut butter, and 4) mixing in Nutella. The only tip I did not heed was to make tropical banana bread with dried fruit – that will be for a different time.
But I did not stop with those tips. They got the gears going. I also threw in pecans and cacao nibs for a little crunch in the bread. Perfection.
I have precious little Nutella left in my jar and not much peanut butter around, so I did not want to mix them into the batter and lose their good flavor and texture get lost. Instead, when I was pouring the batter into the pan, I stopped 2/3 of the way through and spread a streak of Nutella beside a streak of peanut butter down the middle of the pan and ever so gently swirled it in. It used less peanut butter and Nutella, but highlights them as you get to the swirl in each slice!
Not only does this banana bread with peanut butter and Nutella swirl taste great, I am pretty convinced it also has magical powers. This morning, I did not even snooze my alarm because I was so excited to get out of bed, brew a cup of coffee, and enjoy a slice of banana bread. If you know me, that is not my typical morning behavior. I’m pretty sure this loaded banana bread just tipped the universe a little bit.
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 bananas, very ripe
- 1/4 cup milk or almond milk
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
- 1/8 cup cacao nibs (optional)
- 1/4 chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)
- 2 Tbsp. peanut butter
- 2 Tbsp. Nutella
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- (Optional) While the oven is preheating, roast the bananas with a drizzle of honey or brown sugar. I put the bananas in the oven while it was heating up and I was working on the rest of the batter. Roast no longer than 20 minutes.
- Line a 8in x 5in baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly coat with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In a medium or large mixing bowl, whisk melted butter with granulated and brown sugar.
- Add eggs and whisk until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, mash bananas with the end of the whisk or with a fork. It's choose your own adventure here to decide how chunky or smooth you want your bananas.
- Add mashed bananas, milk, and vanilla to the large mixing bowl and combine.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt to the wet ingredients in the mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon just until the flour dissolves (careful to not overmix).
- Gently fold in chocolate chips, cacao nibs, and nuts to the batter.
- Pour or spoon 2/3 of the batter into the prepared baking pan. Drizzle/scoop a line of peanut butter lengthwise down the pan. Drizzle a line of Nutella next to it. With a knife, gently swirl peanut butter and Nutella into the batter. Cover with the remaining batter.
- Bake for 55-65 minutes until the edges of the loaf are brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- After letting the bread rest in the pan for 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven, grab the overhanging parchment paper and lift the bread out of the pan and onto a cutting board or rack. Let rest for 10 more minutes before cutting into it (I promise it'll still be warm for your first bite!)