Nutella Banana Bread
This banana bread is a comfort for our household! We are all about using as much of the food we can in our pantry and fridge, and bananas are always first to ripe, so banana bread is good, but we want to always be excited to eat it. As if it's a dessert we're excited to grab. Originally based off a Tasty recipe, we've been modifying it to make it work with Nutella too—because sometimes, banana bread is better when it's warm out of the oven and every bite is mixed with oozing warm chocolate.
My favorite way to enjoy banana bread!
Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
⅓ cup melted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp, salt
1 ½ cup flour
½ cup chocolate chips
⅓ cup Nutella
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350°F
In a large bowl, mash the ripe bananas until smooth. Stir in the melted butter until well combined.
Add sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, salt, flour and stir until batter is smooth and runny.
Mix in the chocolate chips.
In a well greased loaf pan, add half the batter, then dollop half Nutella into corners and center. Using a butter knife, carefully make swirls around the loaf pan. (Do not over mix). Repeat with remaining batter and remaining Nutella.
Bake the banana bread for 50 minutes in the oven.
Cool for 10 minutes and serve while hot, or wait to cool completely. Enjoy!
Classic Gingerbread
Every year, I am obsessed with gingerbread! So as a tradition, I make it for friends, loved ones, parties, etc! And this recipe specifically is a special one. Martha Stewart gingerbread was a staple in our household as kids. This gingerbread is super stable and flavourable at the same time, and over the years I’ve made a couple adjustments along the way so they come out absolutely perfect each time! So I’ll be enjoying my Christmas cookies this year, how bout you?
A gingerbread mug made from this recipe.
Ingredients:
Gingerbread Cookies:
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup dark brown sugar (packed)
4 tsp ground ginger
4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground pepper
1 ½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses
Icing:
2 egg whites
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp lemon juice
Directions:
In an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat unsalted butter with sugar until fully combined, add in eggs one at a time on low and all the spices: ginger, cinnamon, cloves, pepper & salt. Continue to mix until fully incorporated, occasionally scraping down the sides with a spatula.
Add in the molasses and mix on medium speed. The texture should be liquidy. With a sifter, sift in baking soda, baking powder and 1 cup of flour. Mix until it’s combined, and slowly sift in one cup at a time while mixing. The dough should start to become thick with more flour added.
Place the dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350 degreesF and roll out the dough on a clean, floured surface. Make sure the dough is flat enough to be between ⅛ inches to ¼ inches in height. Cut with fun christmas themed cookie cutter shapes, and carefully move the cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet for the oven. Repeat the dough rolling with the excess dough until there is nothing left.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes rotating halfway through. Place them on a cooling rack.
Once the cookies are completely cooled you can decorate them using royal icing. The royal icing takes 2 hours to fully dry.
In an electric mixer with the beater attachment, whip egg whites until bubbles form. Slowly add in powdered sugar little bits at a time as well as lemon juice.
To create a more droopy texture, add in more lemon juice, and for a more stiff texture (like for gingerbread houses) add more powdered sugar.
Place icing in a piping bag with the tip cut off.