When Food Dreams Really Do Come True: Nutella Edition

Last week I was reading this article on my girl crush, Christina Hendricks, and her love of fine scotch when she mentioned some dishes her husband likes to prepare. First up: Nutella loaf. I had to read the sentence a couple of times just to make sure my eyes hadn't deceived me (Apparently I sometimes invent foods that don't exist--though I still maintain that macaroni pancakes can be made!) However, after a quick google search I found that yes, such a thing was real and reasonably easy to make. I mean if Joseph Gordon-Levitt's dorky friend in 500 Days of Summer can pull it off, how hard can it be? Right? Right?

Admittedly, this is really more of a butter pound cake with a Nutella swirl, which is slightly more boring than what I had originally imagined: A decadent, chocolatey hazelnut confection. Though I suppose one could simply melt the Nutella, then pour it into a loaf pan and refrigerate until cool...If one were to want such a thing...

Anyways, I found this recipe from Food & Wine magazine.

And here's some Do's and Don'ts they should have included...

Don't worry if the butter and sugar takes a while to cream. You didn't measure wrong. The batter needs those three minutes.

Do be patient when spreading the Nutella layers. It's a little difficult, since Nutella isn't terribly spreadable on top of batter. Go slowly and use small strokes (heh).

Don't bake for more than an hour without checking it, lest you enjoy your loaves a little crispy. The recipe's bake time is listed as 1 hour and 15 mins, but this was around the 1 hour and 8 mins mark and it had already started to burn (and stick to the bottom of the pan)

And lastly...

Do bring it to a holiday party or, for instance, your last Saturday ESL class. Otherwise, be prepared to eat the whole thing yourself.