Banana Nutella Muffins with Toasted Hazelnuts

I don't know what got into me this morning!  This is not a healthy breakfast, OK?  I do realize that.  Ha ha.

Last night, while I was browsing around on Pinterest, I found a delicious looking recipe for Nutella Swirl Banana Bread.  It was posted by Roxana from Roxana's Home Baking.  You can find the recipe (and check out her blog) here!

I've had a couple of brown bananas on the counter for a few days now - they were just looking at me.  I wish there was something healthier to do with brown bananas besides make banana bread.  Sigh.

Well, there probably is, but why would you NOT want to make banana bread, right?  I almost made the recipe as is, but I decided to adapt it a bit to make muffins.  I've always appreciated the way that muffins can give you both permission and a strategy to eat cake for breakfast.  With only two of us, sliced banana bread tends to get stale.  I like muffins - they are pre-portioned, easy to freeze . . . and they look like cupcakes, only without frosting!  :)

I also remembered that I had some delicious toasted hazelnuts from Trader Joe's languishing in the refrigerator.  I had to add those, too!  Thus, my adaptation of Roxana's recipe was born!

Here's what I came up with:

Banana Nutella Muffins with Toasted Hazelnuts

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 large ripe bananas, mashed

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, chopped
1/2 cup Nutella

Non-stick cooking spray

Instructions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  

2.  Whisk the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and whisk until smooth.  Add the bananas and whisk again until well combined.

3.  In a smaller bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add to the banana mixture and fold in gently until just combined.  Fold in the chopped hazelnuts.  Finally, gently fold in the Nutella, leaving large swirls. 

4.  Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Divide the batter evenly to get 12 large muffins.  The cups will be about 3/4 full.

5.  Bake for about 18 to 20 minutes.  I have a convection oven, so you may need to bake yours a bit longer and/or bump up the cooking temperature by 10 degrees or so.

6.  Allow muffins to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes.  Enjoy!

That's it - pretty simple!  Another plus about making muffins is that they cook much quicker than a whole loaf of banana bread!  You're only about 25 minutes away (including the mixing process) from gooey Nutella goodness!

These are very sweet!  If that's not what you're in the mood for, check out this recipe for raspberry muffins that I posted a while back.  Those are more like a true breakfast bread.  These are like . . . cheating.  :)

I know.  The butter seems like overkill.  There's just something about a smear of salted butter on a warm muffin, though.  I couldn't help it!  

Please let me know what you think!  Did you try them?  How did they turn out?  

Thanks for reading!