Brownies
A homemade chocolate brownie
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| Type | Square or bar |
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| Place of origin | United States |
| Main ingredients | Flour, butter, eggs, chocolate or cocoa powder, sugar |
| Variations | Blondie |
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A brownie is a square baked dessert. It is a cross between a cake and a soft cookie in texture and comes in a variety of forms. They can be made without anything aside from the essential ingredients, but nuts (usually walnuts) and chocolate chips are commonly added to make them more substantial. Another variation made with brown sugar and chocolate bits but without melted chocolate in the batter is called a blonde brownie or blondie. The brownie was developed in the United States at the end of the 19th century and popularized in the U.S. and Canada during the first half of the 20th century.
Brownies are typically eaten by hand, often accompanied by milk, served warm with ice cream (), topped with whipped cream, or sprinkled with powdered sugar and fudge. In North America they are common lunchbox treats, and also popular in restaurants and coffeehouses.
One legend about the creation of brownies is that of Bertha Palmer, a prominent Chicago socialite whose husband owned the Palmer House Hotel. In 1893 Palmer asked a pastry chef for a dessert suitable for ladies attending the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. She requested a cake-like confection smaller than a piece of cake that could be included in boxed lunches. The result was the Palmer House Brownie with walnuts and an apricot glaze. The modern Palmer House Hotel serves a dessert to patrons made from the same recipe. The name was given to the dessert sometime after 1893, but was not used by cook books or journals at the time.
The first-known printed use of the word "brownie" to describe a dessert appeared in the 1896 version of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer, in reference to molasses cakes baked individually in tin molds. The earliest-known published recipes for a modern style chocolate brownie appeared in the Home Cookery (1904, Laconia, NH), Service Club Cook Book (1904, Chicago, IL), The Boston Globe (April 2, 1905 p. 34), and the 1906 edition of Farmer cookbook. These recipes produced a relatively mild and cake-like brownie.
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