“And I’ve just pulled a new brownie out of the oven: a deep, dark chocolate base with a praline pecan topping, sort of a marriage of brownie and that crispy top layer of a good pecan pie.” Stacey Ballis (author of Wedding Girl)
Something quick, easy and delectable are few of the pre-requisites required for adding to the list of holiday baking. If chocolate is added in, the better. It would be something that blend in with other well loved and basic desserts. That something would be square, baked or frozen cut choclate cake pieces, more popularly known as the “brownie”. Coming in a variety of forms, from fudgey to cakey with nuts, fudge, frosting, cream cheese, chocolate chips and the favourites included in the batter; the brownie is an all-time favourite of many. Like sheet cookies, they may eaten by self or with milk, ice cream (a la mode), topped with whipped cream or sprinkled with powdered sugar and fudge.
Like all delectable treats, brownies have their own share of legends. As one legend credits the brownie to the creative ingenuity of Palmer House Hotel pastry chef (1893) for the Palmer House Brownie with walnuts and an apricot glaze made for the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition on the request of the owner’s socialite wife Bertha Palmer. The first-known printed use of the word “brownie” was to describe a dessert in the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer (1896 version) in reference for a cookie-type confection that was colored and flavored with molasses and made in fluted marguerite molds. Later further publications like The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1906) edited by the same Fannie Merritt Farmer records a recipe brownie as an adaptation of her chocolate cookie recipe to a bar cookie baked in a rectangular pan. Another well record as written in the Baking Classics (Betty Crocker) is of a housewife who was making a chocolate cake but forgot to add baking powder. When her cake didn’t rise properly, instead of tossing it out, she cut and served the flat pieces (Bangor, Maine) which would probably account for the Bangor Brownies.
As food historians try to still trace the exact inventor of the “brownie” while the legends credit it to added melted chocolate to a batch of biscuits (added by mistake) or the cook who didn’t have enough flour while baking a cake; brownie are one of the simple things that can be made quite elaborate for the festive season. For instance consider the sandwich brownie (with an ice-cream, cream, icing sugar, meringue or peanut butter as the filling in the middle) or the layered brownie with double chocolate chip at the base, then the layer of Oreos and finally brownie batter on billows of cream cheese, a delight for the wintry holidays. As for the mix, add a scent of cinnamon, essence of the vanilla (blondie twist), sprinkle of the flavours of star-anise, honey or even a little of the cayenne for that extra “hot” to the sweet; brownie can be made as to own choice, flavours and twists. A platter of homemade special brownie can give an extra zest to the holidays. So set, get and go experimenting for a new family festive tradition.
1907
Lowney’s Cook Book
Boston, MassachusettsBangor Brownies (p 261)
¼ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 squares chocolate
1 egg
½ to ¾ cup flour
1 cup nut meats
¼ teaspoon salt“cut in strips”
Source: New England Recipes
Sugar And Spice... Among Other Things 