Chocolate Chip Nutella Banana Bread with a Cream Cheese Swirl

I have this theory:  That my family purposely leaves ripe, ready-to-eat bananas languishing in the fruit bowl until they are a bunch of sad specimens only good for mashing and putting in banana bread. Hmmmmmmmm...?

*NOTE: The original recipe didn't specify what size loaf tin, so I used a 20cm x 10cm loaf pan. There was too much batter for this size tin and I ended up with an over-flow situation and having to bake my loaf for about 10 minutes longer to get it to bake fully. Next time I will use my larger 25cm x 13cm loaf pan and cook it for the recommended amount of time.



Chocolate Chip Nutella Banana Bread with a Cream Cheese Swirl
slightly adapted from Ring Finger Tan Line

For the Bread:
115g butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed banana (about 3 medium bananas)
1/2 cup sour cream or cream fraiche (I used cream fraiche)
1/2 cup Nutella
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

For the Cream Cheese Swirl:
170g cream cheese, room temperature
1 egg

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Butter a loaf pan(*see note above), and line the base with baking paper. Cream butter and sugar in a electric mixer. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly. Add vanilla, mix. Add in Nutella, mix. Mix in banana and sour cream or cream fraiche. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt. Add to wet ingredients, and combine until just barely mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.

Prepare the cream cheese swirl by beating together cream cheese and egg.

Fill the loaf pan with half the batter. Spoon cream cheese swirl on top, stirring slightly with a spoon. Layer with other half of batter on top. Bake for about an hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.