Nutella Swirled Hot Chocolate Banana Bread

Sometimes I think you shouldn't have to bake batter.

Batter is always good.  Always sweet, always gooey, always finger lickin' good.  Yet I can't tell you how many times my quick breads have turned out plain Jane, nothin' stands out, run of the mill because they weren't very sweet.  Batter, oh wow.  Bread.  Uh, wow, you really tried too hard on this one, didn't you.

I'm learning baking on the fly with just an idea in your mind (poetry points, anyone?) doesn't always work.  My main problem is I like to combine flavors, so I think, just combine the recipes right?  Nice try, one calls for 3 eggs and another calls for 1.  They have the same amount of flour, but different amounts of oil.  So how do I combine?  Well, I fail first and try to improve.  Always write down your experiments.  Then you can adjust and try again.  I almost cry any time I waste a banana.  There is just too much you can do with them.  I thought I had wasted three of them on this bread.  But when I feel like crying over ripe bananas (I don't ever cry over spilled milk . . . I'm not that emotional) I go look at this website and realize people have done a lot worse than incorrectly guestimate how much cocoa, sugar, and eggs a quick bread is going to need. 

Moving on from the quick bread turned quick disaster . . . I let this bread sit a couple days (after testing it after dinner one night and deciding it was the ho hum, run of the mill type bread) coming up with a way to rescue it so it would be eaten.  I tried it again to discover it was not that bad after having sat for a few days!  Like, it was actually good!   

But I went ahead with my salvaging plan and crumbled up a couple slices.  (I had to cut the tops off of each piece because of how soft they are.)  Then I mixed the crumbs with some cream cheese and hot cocoa mix and squished them up into balls.  Then after an hour in the fridge I did what any self respecting person would've done . . . dipped them in Nutella!  That was an original flavor anyways and more is better, right?

Overall, I liked the bread better by itself after it sat. It is sweet enough, still has the banana flavor, but the hot chocolate blends with the Nutella really well.   The truffles weren't as good in my opinion, but feel free to give it a go if you have old crumbly bread.

Nutella Swirled Hot Chocolate Banana Bread

1/4 cup +1 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. applesauce
1/2 cup sugar
2-1/2 bananas
1 tbsp. milk
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 cup hot chocolate mix
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dark cocoa powder*
1/4-1/2 cup Nutella

Beat butter and applesauce with the sugar.  Add bananas, milk, and egg.  Stir in flour, hot chocolate, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder.  Pour into greased loaf pan and swirl in Nutella.  Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.

*This was mainly to give it color, because I thought the batter was too light.  Use more if you are using regular cocoa.

Let sit overnight!!! This gives the Nutella a chance to make the top of the bread all soft and gooey.  If you do a better job than I of swirling it throughout the bread, your bread will be even softer.