How Did We End Up With The First Banana Bread Recipe?

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.

We can not say with absolute certainty when and where the first banana bread recipe surfaced. It was likely an experiment that went over well and was copied over and over again. It was probably not documented considering the time in history. Cooking skills were passed on from either the servant or the mother to little girls who might need them some day.

One of the elements that makes a banana bread stand apart is the fact that it is known as a quick bread. Quick bread is made from all the same basic ingredients that most breads are made from with the exception of the omission of yeast. The beginning of all bread started off as quick bread. Nearly 12, 000 years ago the first bread and bread products were developed. Unlike the light and fluffy versions of today, the original breads were tough, chewy, and somewhat bland.

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

In 1796 North America saw it first cook book, and it also saw its first introduction to leavening with Pearlash. It wouldn’t be until 1875 that baking powder would come to American markets. The 18th century banana bread recipe was made in the United States and very closely resembles the banana bread recipe that sits in your own cook book.

If you want to learn how to make lots of tasty loafs of banana bread at home, try these banana bread recipes from Ben Cook. Ben recommends thismoist banana bread recipe to begin with.