The first brownie recipe may have been a creative baker's "mistake," but tried and true brownie principals prevail to create an unparalled dessert treat.
The Origin of Brownies
The lore surrounding the invention of the brownie implies that a hurried Maine matron created the mixture by forgetting to put baking powder in a chocolate cake recipe. Probably this brownie recipe circulated through the post and among neighbors and families for years, but it first appeared in print in the 1897 edition of The Sears and Roebuck Catalog. Some sources say that recipe was actually a “blondie,” which is a chewy bar cookie made with brown sugar or molasses and without chocolate. (Blondies are second cousins to brownies.) One of the first brownie recipes, rumored to come from a cookbook by Fanny Farmer, the famous confectioner, published the first true brownie recipe around the turn of the 19th century. Here is a modified version of the original recipe:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 cup sunflower oil
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup pecans, cut in pieces
- 2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
Directions:
- Mix ingredients in sequential order.
- Grease and flour an eight-inch baing pan.
- Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 degrees.
- Bake for 20 minutes and remove from oven.
- Cool and cut into bars, one serving at a time.
Baking Good Brownies
The Brownie recipe has mutated and multiplied, but it is still basically the same, calling for unsweetened chocolate or cocoa, butter, eggs, sugar, and flour. Modern brownie recipes use more chocolate and eggs, which makes the brownie product fudgier and chewier. Squares of unsweetened chocolate , melted, are a favorite for brownies, but some very good brownies are made with cocoa. Carob, a flour ground from the carob pod or locust bean, is a good substitute for cocoa and produces a sweeter, blander brownie.
Here are a few tips about the ingredients: Brownie bakers use all-purpose flour. Creaming the butter instead of melting it, results in a cakier brownie. Baking powder may be added to the recipe, which brownie purists eschew, but which produces a slight lift to the heavy dessert.
Brownie batters follow the same rules as muffin mixtures. Over beating produces a dry and tough baked good. Over beaten brownies often are cracked at the edges or harbor a brittle crust. Bakers should stir brownie ingredients just enough to combine them and no more.
The original recipe required a seven-inch square pan, but modern bakers get better results with an eight-inch square pan for basic brownies. The pan should be metal for conventional ovens and glass for microwave ovens Cup cake tins are a good alternative for brownie baking
Brownie pans should be greased with butter, and, if baked in a conventional oven, dusted with flour and/or confectionary sugar. Brownies are done when the edges shrink away from the sides of the pan. It is better to err on the side of undercooking brownies rather than over cooking them. Over cooked brownies are as hard as concrete.
Some bakers dip the bottom of the bake pan into icy water for a minute of two when they remove it from the oven. The cold water makes the brownie coalesce and improves the texture. Bakers should cut brownies into swathes (small squares tend to dry brownies too quickly), and store them in sealed containers and at room temperature. If brownies contain perishable ingredients, such as cream cheese, store them in the refrigerator. In both cases, brownies last three to five days if they aren’t eaten first, which is rare.
