Ancient Egyptian tablets talk about a simple type of baking soda called Natron, that was used for rising food when cooking.
In 1791 French chemist and surgeon Nicholas Leblanc found a method of producing baking soda from salt, sodium bicarbonate. Starting from the beginning of the 19th century baking soda was used for rising dough. When preparing the dough, acidic ingredients such as vinegar, lemon juice and tartare cream react very quickly with baking soda and create gaseous balloons. That's why in order to achieve proper rising it has to go into the oven as fast as possible.
British chemist Alfred Bird, in order to bake bread for his wife Elizabeth, who was allergic to eggs and yeast, found the modern baking powder in 1843.
The baking powder called Backin was found by German pharmacist Oetker in 1891, and is still being sold in Germany. Oetker, started mass production in 1898, got the patent in 1903, market it to housewives and made the product very popular. Because of baking powder's ability of creating gaseous balloons as the batter heats, control switched from dough to the baker.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s where households were getting poorer, housewives became creative and made use of close to rotting bananas in making banana breads using both baking soda and powder. Over the years this popular cake took its place in many different cuisines. I use Anamur bananas from southern Turkey that are very tasty and rather small in size, you can try my recipe sometimes.
ingredients
- 150 g flour
- 80 grams whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 80 grams walnut, chop
- 500 grams ripe banana
- 2 tbsp yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 100 grams sugar
- 1 tbsp grape molasses
- 80 ml olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
preparation
- Sift both flours, baking soda & powder, cinnamon and salt to a bowl. Add walnut, mix.
- Peel and mash banana. Add yogurt, blend well.
- Whip egg, sugar and molasses with a mixer at high speed for 8-10 min. Color will be very pale and it'll thicken considerably.
- Slowly pour olive oil while whisking and blend.
- Add vanilla extract, mix.
- Add banana mixture, blend well.
- Add flour mixture, fold in with a spatula. Be careful not to over mix.
- Pour batter into parchment paper lined loaf pan.
- Bake in a preheated 320°F (160°C) oven for 50-60 min, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
- 1 çbk = 1 çorba kaşığı = 1 table spoon = 15 ml
- 1 tsp = 1 tatlı kaşığı = 1 tea spoon = 5 ml
- 1 cup ~ 1 su bardağı = 1 cup = 240 ml
- measurements
- ps: The riper the banana the better. :) If not, try baking them til peels brown.
- ps: Can substitute chocolate chips for some or all of walnut.
- ps: Can substitute vanillin sugar for vanilla extract.
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