Chocolate Banana Bread with Ferrero Rocher
There has been a 300g gift box of Ferrero Rocher sitting in our solarium (it’s cold in there right now) since Christmas time. Shannon was asking me the other day if there was anything we could do with it (aside, you know, just eat them) and today I came up with a solution.
If you’ve ever sat down to eat a Nutella and banana sandwich and thought, “Why am I not just eating cake?” Well… here’s a solution to that dilemma: a wonderfully crisp-crusted, moist chocolate loaf with chunky banana puree, studded with Ferrero Rocher, which tend to crumble apart and leave behind whole hazelnuts, rice crisps and scattered balls of Nutella throughout. Aside the egg I accidentally cracked into the stove, this experiment was a resounding success.
- 1 3/4 (230g) cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (30g) cocoa powder
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/4 teaspoon table salt)
- 3 (about 450g) very ripe bananas
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 9 Ferrero Rocher or 85g roasted hazelnuts
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack positioned in the center.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Lightly grease a 9″ loaf pan or four 6″ loaf pans. Dust with the dried ingredients to coat, then shake the remainder back into the bowl. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mash the bananas, then mix with the eggs, butter and vanilla until cohesive.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, just until incorporated, then fold in the Ferrero Rocher or roasted hazelnuts.
- Transfer the batter to the loaf pan(s) and bake until a crust develops and a toothpick can be inserted into two places and come out clean (since you might hit Nutella, which will continue to be runny). This will be about an hour for a 9″ loaf and about 30-35 minutes for a 6″ loaf.
- After removing from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then run a knife around the edge to help separate it and turn out a cooling rack. Allow to cool to room temperature before slicing, as this will notably improve both texture and flavor.
The recipe is heavily adopted from The Joy of Baking because they’re basically infallible.