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 A homemade brownie | |
| Type | Dessert bar |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Region or state | Worldwide |
| Main ingredients | Flour,butter,eggs,chocolate orcocoa powder,sugar |
| Variations | Blondie |
Achocolate brownie, or simply abrownie, is a chocolatebakeddessert bar. Brownies come in a variety of forms and may be either fudgy or cakey, depending on their density. Brownies often, but not always, have a glossy "skin" on their upper crust. They may also include nuts, frosting, chocolate chips, or other ingredients. A variation made withbrown sugar andvanilla rather than chocolate in the batter is called a blond brownie orblondie. The brownie was developed in the United States at the end of the 19th century and popularized there during the first half of the 20th century.
Brownies are typically eaten by hand or with utensils, and may be accompanied by a glass of milk, served warm withice cream (à la mode), topped with whipped cream, or sprinkled with powdered sugar. In North America, they are common homemade treats and they are also popular in restaurants,ice cream parlors, andcoffeehouses.
One legend about the creation of brownies is that ofBertha Palmer, a prominentChicago socialite whose husband owned thePalmer House Hotel.[1] In 1893, Palmer asked a pastry chef for a dessert suitable for ladies attending the ChicagoWorld's Columbian Exposition. She requested a dessert that would be smaller than a piece of cake, and easily eaten from boxed lunches.[2] The result was the Palmer House Brownie, made of chocolate withwalnuts and anapricot glaze. The Palmer House Hotel still serves this dessert to patrons made from the same recipe.[3] The name was given to the dessert some time after 1893, but was not used by cookbooks or journals at the time.[2]
The first-known printed use of the wordbrownie to describe a dessert appeared in the 1896 version of theBoston Cooking-School Cook Book byFannie Farmer, in reference tomolasses cakes baked individually in tinmolds.[4] However, Farmer's brownies did not contain chocolate.[5] Brownies in this style are now known as "blondies", derived from the term "blond brownies", which appeared in the mid-1900s.[6]
In 1899, the first-known recipe was published inMachias Cookbook. They were called "Brownie's Food". The recipe appears on page 23 in the cake section of the book. Marie Kelley from Whitewater, Wisconsin, created the recipe.
The earliest-known published recipes for a modern-style chocolate brownie appeared inHome Cookery (1904, Laconia, New Hampshire), theService Club Cook Book (1904, Chicago, Illinois),The Boston Globe (April 2, 1905 p. 34),[2] and the 1906 edition of Fannie Farmer's cookbook. These recipes produced a relatively mild and cake-like brownie.
By 1907, the brownie was well established in a recognizable form, appearing inLowney's Cook Book by Maria Willet Howard (published by Walter M. Lowney Company, Boston) as an adaptation of the Boston Cooking School recipe for a "Bangor Brownie". It added an extra egg and an additional square of chocolate, creating a richer, fudgier dessert. The name "Bangor Brownie" appears to have been derived from the town ofBangor, Maine, which anapocryphal story states was the hometown of a housewife who created the original brownie recipe.[4] Maine food educator and columnistMildred Brown Schrumpf was the main proponent of the theory that brownies were invented in Bangor.[a] WhileThe Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink (2007) refuted Schrumpf's premise that "Bangor housewives" had created the brownie, citing the publication of a brownie recipe in a 1905Fannie Farmer cookbook,[11] in its second edition,The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (2013) said it had discovered evidence to support Schrumpf's claim, in the form of several 1904 cookbooks that included a recipe for "Bangor Brownies".[12]
In 2021, thefood science journalist and home cookery YouTuberAdam Ragusea conducted a series of experiments to discover why modern brownies tend to form a desirably glossy "skin" on their upper crust. In a video reporting his findings, Ragusea asserted that the "skin" was the result of making a batter of high viscosity, with low levels of moisture and sugar well-dissolved into the mixture.[13]
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