I have a thing for nutella, which is funny because I don’t eat chocolate ever. But there is something about the hazelnut that does it for it. It’s floral and aromatic, I would wear it if I could. We now stock our cubbards with jars of nutella but this has only been a recent discovery in the Ferraro household. A few years ago when Joe and I went to Europe, we snacked on croissants and individual sized chocolate spread. To all honesty, we both had no idea what we were tasting but it was amazing and we thought we struck a gold mine. So we got sneaky and pocketed a few of those dime sized treats to take back with us to the States. Wow did we think we were amazing? We thought we were bringing back some kind of Italian specialty that no one heard of. Of course it wasn’t until we finally came out and went grocery shopping did we see the rows and stacks of nutella stocked as high as the eye can see.
Boy did we think we struck a gold mine.
So I figured I would rekindle our love for nutella and Europe and make a very modern twist to nutella and croissants. I had a few over-ripe bananas left over and whipped up a quick bread pudding mixture. Frangelico was key and zests of orange to cut some of the sugar. I also wanted an excuse to use these cute little blue Le Creuset pots.
Nutella and banana swirled together and dripped off the sides. The eggy mixture fluffed up the croissants and created a gorgeous crusty texture with a souffle like feel on the inside. Gosh…I need to make this again and again.
Nutella Banana Bread Pudding
Ingredients
- 4 croissants
- 2 over-ripe bananas mashed
- Nutella 1/4-1/2 cup enough to spread
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp Frangellico hazlenut liquor
- Zest of 1/2 orange
Instructions
- Cut croissants in half and spread each with nutella and banana. Close croissant and cut in thirds or quarters.
- In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and almond extract, frangelico and orange zest.
- Place croissant quarters in baking dish and pour egg mixture over making sure all the bread is covered well. Cover with foil and allow to soak for 30 minutes.
- *I used individual baking dishes and put 3-4 quarters in each. You can also use a 9x13 baking dish and pour everything in.
- Bake in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes covered with foil. Remove foil and continue to bake for additional 10 minutes.
I love that you posted a banana nutella recipe too! Although yours is so much better than my granola. Care to trade? 🙂
Ahhh, yum!! Nutella and croissant bread puddings are two of my favorite things. This looks absolutely heavenly.
Sounds absolutely decadent and delicious!
Oh this looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it.
Bread pudding with croissants… Must be really buttery and delicious! I love banana and nutella too! Quick question: I am not a fan of almond flavor, any good substitute for Frangellico?
Thanks for the comment 🙂 My next idea would be to add Grand Marnier (orange liqeur) instead of the Frangellico. Orange and chocolate go so well together and with the orange zest, that would pair nicely!
Looks delicious! Anything with nutella, banana, and croissants can’t be bad.
I told the wife these sound absolutely scrummy. She said, you’ll be eating them all yourself, they’re a death trap.
Looks great and I shall have to try it.
But just on the P.S. Frangelico is hazelnut liqueur, not almond.
Thanks for the heads up! That was a typo 🙂 Yes I used hazlenut afterall…with Nutella!
i saw this on hungry little girls facebook page and almost died. this looks so good! can’t wait to try.
I can understand why you need to make this again and again. So do I!!!
Can you make this ahead of time? Say 6 hours?
Yes you can! Use day old croissants if you can, it’ll soak up better!