Banana bread is a quick bread made from bananas, baking soda or baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. Because it uses a chemical leavening agent instead of yeast to make it rise, and does not require kneading, it is easy to make. This quick bread recipe is a popular addition to holiday buffet tables and is often used for gift giving. Banana bread can be served warm or cold spread with butter or cream cheese. In 1933 the Pillsbury Company printed a cookbook with a banana bread recipe. Nuts were added later to make a banana nut bread.

Banana bread is made with the key ingredient fruit, the banana (Scientific name : Musa) which is grown in 400 different varieties in 107 different countries. The Cavendish banana is the most common variety eaten in the United States. Bananas are most commonly grown in tropical climates and while may be grown as far north as the panhandle of Florida, the growing season is short and impacts complete growth and ripening of the fruit. Bananas, a type of plantains, are high in fiber and potassium, making them a good choice for a fruit to eat alone or as a choice to include in fruit base breads like banana bread.

Banana recipes have been in American cookbooks since the 1880s and the combined fruit with nuts started showing up through banana nut bread recipes in the 1920s. This type quick bread is similar in texture and variety to zucchini bread, pumpkin bread, cranberry bread, and apple bread. Bananas can be combined with coconut and pineapple to make a Hawaiian quick bread.http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/196432/the_facts_on_banana_bread.html?cat=38<ref/> <ref>http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#bananaBanana Fast Facts

Banana bread recipes can be found on multiple web sites, in hard back cook books, and are passed down through many generations as family recipes. Magazine articles around the holiday season feature different variations on banana breads. The bread can be topped with cream cheese, fruit spreads like jams or jellies and butters like apple butter or pumpkin butter.