Nutella-Stuffed Caramelized Bananas

Nutella-Stuffed Caramelized Bananas - made September 7, 2015

I’m going to blame one of my friends on Facebook for this one. Or maybe I should say credit her instead. Because someone posted a video on her wall about how to make Nutella-stuffed bananas and I was so intrigued that I had to try it for myself. 

The video made it look so easy! You slice the curved ends off the banana, poke a straw down the middle of the banana to create a hole, fill that hole with Nutella then plug the ends with bits of the banana that came out in the straw. Then you roast the bananas. Simple, right? Ha, never be fooled by a BuzzFeed video that could make building a shopping mall with 3 Q-tips, 2 toothpicks and some string look easy. 

First of all, bananas are curvy. If you cut out all the curvy parts, you’d be left with a 1-inch log of banana. If you really only do cut off the ends and stick the straw through the main banana, the straight straw will not follow the banana’s curve and you’ll end up with a straight hole in a curved banana. So it might look like the hole is perfectly in the middle at one end of the banana and completely to the left or not even in that part of the banana anymore by the time you get to the other end.

Second, there’s no earthly way to neatly get the banana that was hollowed out by the straw. That part of the banana is inside the straw and it’s staying there. I end up plugging the holes with parts of the banana ends I had cut off the banana. It wasn’t a perfect fit but really, does it matter? I didn’t think so either.

The Nutella was easy enough to fill the banana with. I spooned some in a plastic baggie, cut off a corner and squeezed that baby into the banana. My only point of dissatisfaction was the straw didn’t make a big enough hole to put very much Nutella into the banana. Next time I’m using an apple corer. Ha.

Lastly, I made up my own caramelization step – melted a tablespoon of butter with a tablespoon of brown sugar and let the bananas bask in their caramelized glory. The only thing I would caution is that you need to caramelize the bananas under low heat and keep a careful eye on it. You’d be surprised how quickly a nice brown sugar caramel goes from nice to burnt. *I* would no longer be surprised by it but the element of surprise tends to be removed once you learn something the hard way.

In any case, this was fantabulously yummy. Yes, I just made up a word and no, I don’t care. It’s caramelized bananas. With Nutella inside. Glory, people, just glory.

1 large banana, firm-ripe but not overly ripe
nutella, fitted into a plastic ziploc bag, corner cut off
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar

1. Peel banana and cut off ends. Puncture middle of banana through with a straw or other cylindrical object that will hollow out the inside of the banana.
2. Squeeze the nutella into the hollow left by the straw until it fills through the other end. Plug both ends with bits of banana.
3. Melt butter and brown sugar over low heat in a small frying pan and place nutella-filled banana into mixture, rolling gently until it has caramelized. Be careful not to burn the mixture.
4. Remove from heat and serve immediately.