Hello everyone!  I hope your week is off to a most wonderful start.  🙂  Last night, after I had finished my daily emails, I felt the sudden urge to bake.  Who am I to question these sugar-craving whims, right?  I had a few overripe bananas on the counter and knew I wanted to make something with them.  A peek into my pantry and a quick Google search led me to an inspired idea: banana + Nutella muffins!  (It is a well-known fact that I am both a banana and Nutella fiend.)  I like my baked goods to have some texture (e.g. I can’t stomach a brownie that isn’t chock full of walnuts), so of course I had to add a healthy dose of walnuts. The result was incredible: sweet but not cloying, and perfectly comforting.  I enjoyed one right out of the oven with an icy glass of milk — a perfect midnight snack.  I also had one for breakfast this morning. Apparently there isn’t a wrong time to eat one of these!

It wouldn’t be nice of me to tease you with photos and not offer up the recipe, so here it is!  (It is a combination of recipes I found elsewhere.)

Banana Walnut Muffins with Nutella Swirl – Yield: 1 dozen + a little ramekin 🙂

{You’ll Need…}

• 1.5 cups of all-purpose flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill unbleached flour)
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 3/4 cup of sugar (I use 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/4 cup of light brown sugar — I’m partial to Hain Foods sugars)
• 1/2 cup of butter (unsalted) – softened
• 2 large eggs
• 3 overripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tsp of vanilla (optional)
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• Nutella (how much you use is up to you; see directions below)

{Directions}

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, sugar) in a large bowl.
3. In a separate, smaller bowl, mix 2 large eggs, butter, and mashed bananas.  Add 1 tsp vanilla if desired.
4. In four or five small batches, slowly add some of your banana mix to the dry ingredients.  Stir only until incorporated and the dry ingredients are moistened — do not over-mix!
5. Add in your walnuts and stir again just to distribute them in the batter.
6. Prepare your muffin tin with cooking spray or cupcake liners.
7. Fill tins or liners halfway with batter.
8. Using a tablespoon, drop a dollop of Nutella on top of each half-full tin/liner.  It does not need to be perfect… you just want Nutella goodness swirling throughout the entire muffin!
9. Go back and fill up the liners (almost to the top — unlike other cupcakes, these muffins will not rise too much.  They have denser texture so it’s safe to go 90% full on them.) with the remaining batter.
10. Using your tablespoon again, add another dollop of Nutella on top of each portion of batter.
11. Take a chopstick and gently swirl the Nutella into the muffin, so you don’t just have a glob of it on the top.  One or two gentle swirls is enough — you don’t want to blend it too much.
12. Pop into the preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes.  (Mine were perfect in 16 minutes!)
13. Test for doneness with your finger — when the muffins are ready, a little “dent” pressed into the top of it will spring back into position… the dent won’t remain.  The fork/toothpick trick won’t really work here since the moist batter and Nutella make it hard to pull out a clean fork!
14. Enjoy any time of day!

Let me know if you end up making these muffins; I’d love to hear what you think! Also, let me know if you have a favorite way you like to cook with Nutella and/or bananas.  I love reading recipes and experimenting in the kitchen!

I hope the rest of your week is very, very sweet.  <3

xoxo, Angel