Swirled Nutella Banana Bread Recipe - Little Spice Jar (2024)

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Tender homemade banana bread with swirls of Nutella in the center. Nutella banana bread is the perfect thing to make if you’ve got ripe bananas that need to be used up! It comes together effortlessly and will be gone in a flash!

NUTELLA BANANA BREAD!

Ultra tender, perfectly sweet banana bread swirled with layers of Nutella in the center. Each bite is perfection. It is sweetened to that sweet spot where you keep wanting to go back for more and more. The first batch of this bread was gone in two days. Considering there are only two people in the house, that’s a lot of banana bread to consume that amount of time.

To be completely honest with you, I wasn’t planning on even sharing this recipe this month! But when I’m recipe testing, I love sharing what I’m making over on Instagram, and this recipe received so much love from y’all (and countless messages for an early release of the recipe) that I decided to cancel what I had planned and share this with you right away!

Nutella banana bread is the ultimate comfort food, isn’t it? We almost always have bananas that become too ripe for us to eat in the house. It’s becoming more of an issue as we’re doing grocery pickup rather than shopping ourselves. I’m usually the person that looks for stray bananas that someone has separated from the batch so I can buy 2-3, which is plenty for us. But lately, I’ve been opening our delivery/pick up order to find double that.

Banana bread is a sure-fire way to polish off those less-loved bananas.

What do You Need to Make Homemade Nutella Banana Bread?

All-purpose flour: both bleached or unbleached flour will work here.
Baking soda: is used as a leavening agent, so the bread isn’t super dense.
Kosher salt/ cinnamon/vanilla: all used to help flavor the batter
Melted butter: I prefer to use melted butter in this recipe but have successfully used oil in the past as well. You can use canola, vegetable, coconut, or even corn oil for this recipe. However, I do find the butter adds a nice flavor to this bread.
Plain yogurt: Yogurt helps moisten (I know, I’m sorry!) the bread further. You could swap plain yogurt for greek or even sour cream if that’s what you happen to have on hand.
Ripe bananas: The ripe bananas play a few rolls here. The obvious: they flavor the banana bread. But they also moisten and add texture to the overall recipe.
Eggs: eggs play a critical role as well. They add structure and stability in the banana bread batter as well as adding moisture.
Sugar: I suggest using granulated sugar for this recipe. I’ve tested it with both brown sugar and white sugar, and I found that the white sugar actually allows for more of the banana and nutty flavor to carry through. Brown sugar masked the other flavors a bit. However, both would work for this recipe.
Chopped pecans: the chopped nuts in this recipe are optional. So if you prefer a smooth texture to banana bread, you can feel free to omit them from the recipe entirely. We like the added crunch, so I like to add in a handful of toasted chopped pecans. You could also use chopped walnuts or toasted chopped hazelnuts as well.
Nutella:chocolate hazelnut spread that’s easily available in most grocery stores. I also have a homemade recipe for it if you’d like to make your own. In recent years, I’ve started using this brandas a replacement. Not only is it not as sweet as the traditional chocolate hazelnut spread, but it also has a more pronounced hazelnut flavor.

How to Make the Best Nutella Banana Bread:

Prepare the basics. You want to start by preheating your oven and giving it at least 20-30 minutes to heat up to 350ºF. Spray a nonstick loaf pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper, so it’s easy to remove the loaf afterward.
Make the Batter:In a small bowl, combine all the dry ingredients; the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon (optional) and whisk. Then, in a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugar, mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla. When combined, add the dry ingredients and fold using a silicone spatula. Tip: add the pecans before all the flour is incorporated into the batter so that it all comes together without the mixture being over-mixed.
Add Those Swirls:Transfer roughly half of the prepared banana bread mixture to the loaf pan. Then, add half of the Nutella on top in dollops. Using a butter knife, make swirls in the Nutella, so it’s nicely incorporated in the bread. Then, repeat with the remaining banana bread mixture and Nutella.
Bake the Bread:Bake the bread until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs. Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for at least 30 minutes before trying to transfer it to a wire cooling rack.

Things to Remember When Making Homemade Banana Bread:

I suggest using a good quality loaf pan. I purchased the one I’m using from Home Goods, but here’sa set of two that are very affordable!
One thing that I highly encourage everyone to invest in is this simple oven thermometer. It’s very inexpensive but will take your baking to the next level. Not all ovens actually heat up to the desired temperature when they say they do. Some run hotter, while others run cooler. This little tool allows you to adjust your oven temperature should it read something other than what is desired.

How to Store Leftover Banana Bread:

Banana bread can be covered tightly and stored in an airtight container for two to three days if it’s not too warm where you live. After that, you’ll want to freeze it. If I know we won’t be able to finish it off, I usually make slices and pop half of the bread into a zip-top bag and freeze it once it’s cooled down.

Overall, Nutella Banana Bread is:

a great baking project with the kids. They’ll love having a chance to swirl the Nutella in the center of the bread
Makes the house smell amazing. Seriously, chocolate and banana wafting from the oven is quite possibly the best kind of air freshener!
Shareable! You can keep a few slices for yourself and share the rest with a friend or family member
The perfect companion to a cup of Joe

If you like Nutella banana bread, you might also like these recipes:

Maple Pecan Banana Bread
Healthy Maple Banana Nut Muffins
Lighter Double Chocolate Banana Muffins
Chai Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
Zucchini Muffins
Healthy Carrot Cake Muffins
Lemon Olive Oil Pound Cake
One Bowl Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake
The Best Blueberry Muffins

Yield: 8-10 servings

Swirled Nutella Banana Bread

Prep Time10 minutes

Cook Time55 minutes

Total Time1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon EACH: kosher salt AND ground cinnamon(optional)
½ cup salted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
1 1/2 cups (~3 medium) ripe bananas, mashed
⅓ cup plain yogurt (or greek yogurt/sour cream, see notes)
2 large eggs, room temperature
⅔ cup granulated sugar (light brown sugar will work too)
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup chopped toasted pecans, optional
⅔ cup Nutella spread

Instructions

PREP: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF.S Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with cooking spray, set aside.
BATTER: In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, bananas, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix. When the batter still has some dry pockets, add the walnuts and fold the batter until just combined.
SWIRL: Transfer half of the prepared mixture to the loaf pan, follow that up with ⅓ cup of Nutella. Then add the remaining bread batter, followed by the remaining ⅓ cup of Nutella. Using a butter knife, swirl the Nutella around going almost all the way to the bottom of the pan.
BAKE: for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs. Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for at least 30 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

Notes

Both Greek yogurt and sour cream will also work for this recipe. The only thing I suggest is measuring them out into a bowl first, and using a small whisk or a fork to whip them before adding them to the bread. I find doing so gives this bread a better texture. You don’t have to do this if you use traditional yogurt though!
If you have unsalted butter, you can still use it for this recipe! Just up the kosher salt by 1/4 teaspoon.

Have you made this recipe?

If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and a comment below. You can also share a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #LITTLESPICEJAR, I'd love to see what you made!

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originally published on Apr 27, 2020 (last updated Nov 4, 2020)

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FAQs

What are the black squiggly things in banana bread? ›

The little black squiggles you see in banana breads are the veins in the banana. You can see them clearly when you slice a banana in half. These veins transport nutrients throughout the fruit during the growing process – they are perfectly harmless and a natural part of the fruit.

Why is my banana bread gummy inside? ›

The more you stir, the more gluten will develop. The result will be a tough, rubbery banana bread. Simply stir until moist, and then do no more.

Learn More Now ›

Are slimy bananas OK for banana bread? ›

While it's okay if the banana peel is dark brown or even black, if the inside is too, then the fruit is beyond ripe and now on its way to rotten. Another sign that bananas have gone bad is if they start leaking any fluids. When in doubt, just toss the bananas out.