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How Did We End Up With The First Banana Bread Recipe?
By Ben Cook | November 2, 2009
While we look at the banana bread recipe as a relatively simple sweet treat to whip up, the history of the banana bread recipe is actually rather impressive. Sometimes, understanding where a food comes from we can also understand the intended flavors at the time of its inception. This helps us make more historically accurate recipes.
While history is earmarked with culinary revolution from the earliest days to the last days of this week, the dawn of the banana bread recipe is harder to track than some of the other breakthroughs in cooking. Despite the difficulties in pinpointing the exact first banana bread attempt, there is plenty of evidence that can show us how the evolutionary experimentation infolded. This can help us understand what we are looking at and the most likely scenario for that time period.
If we look at the evolution of the basic banana bread recipe ingredients we can most likely gauge when the first actual recipe was handed down and where it was probably developed. All banana bread recipes are quick bread recipes. This simply means that there is no yeast used for rising in the baking process.
These early breads were made from a crushed grain that was blended with some water before it was baked on hot stones. It is thought that the first banana bread recipe followed this general outline of bread baking, with the mushed bananas mixed in for a little bit of addition to the taste. While still not the banana bread recipe we love today, it is closer to a resemblance.
Banana bread recipe attempts were most likely made during this time. In order to create a more pleasant taste there were numerous additions to the bread making process, including fruit and spices. A little mashed up banana in the original bread recipe could definitely help create some flavors that would make the bread much more palatable.
Bread was changed dramatically 6, 000 years later when the Egyptians figured out that bread dough made from wheat could rise provided that there was an appropriate place to ferment the dough. This added air, which in turn created a softer more palatable bread.
The banana bread recipes we know today have been significantly altered from the original breads that were made from what we now know and eat today. One of the most significant improvements to the bread included leavening. Instead of fermenting wheat dough, adding water and mashed bananas to cook quickly on hot stones, adding lightness to the bread would improve its taste and desirability
Eventually these first banana bread recipe attempts would grow into what we now lovingly call banana bread through the addition of a leavening agent. In this case, the leavening agent is baking powder. This single ingredient can give the loaf just enough power to rise without turning it into a yeast bread. Baking powder was brought to the United States in 1875. This addition to the ingredients gives credence to the claim that the first banana bread recipe was developed in 18th century America.
If you want to learn how to bake lots of delicious types of banana bread in your home kitchen, try these banana bread recipes from Ben Cook. Ben suggests a blueberry banana bread recipe to start with.
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