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The History of Banana Bread:
Bananas appeared in the United States in the 1870’s. It took a while for them to appear as an ingredient in dessert recipes.
A recipe submitted by “Mrs. Dean” in a 1918 issue of The Garden Island paper was for a banana muffin. It closely resembles the banana bread we know today.
During the Great Depression (1929 to 1941), every penny mattered. So throwing away food in your kitchen was not an option. Instead of tossing rotten bananas, a quick bread using bananas was invented. Baking soda and baking powder also began being mass produced during this time. So quick breads in general became popular.
By the 1930’s banana bread recipes began appearing in cookbooks. In 1933, a recipe for banana bread appeared in Pillsbury’s Balanced Recipes Cookbook. Banana bread started becoming more popular.
In 1950, a recipe for banana bread was printed in Chiquita Banana’s Recipe Book. By this time, banana bread was even more popular.
And with the popularity of home baking in the 1960’s, banana bread exploded in popularity. It was so easy to make, and ingredients were not expensive.
Nowadays, there are all kinds of varieties of banana bread and lots of recipes online and in cookbooks. There’s brown butter banana bread, chocolate chip banana bread, zucchini banana bread, pumpkin banana bread, chocolate banana bread and so many more.
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