Sunday, October 9, 2011

A Brief History Of The Brownie

In the united states at the end of the nineteenth century and in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century the brownie was introduced. It is a flat baked square or bar. The brownie is sliced from a type of dense, rich chocolate cake, which is in texture like a cross between a cookie and a cake. Brownies come in a variety of forms. They are either fudgy or cake or cookie. They can also include nuts, frosting, whipped cream, chocolate chips and other ingredients. A variation of the brownie is made with brown sugar and no chocolate is called a blondie.

Brownies are commonly found in the lunchbox too to be eaten by hand. They can be accompanied by milk or coffee. They are also sometimes served warm with ice cream, topped with whipped cream, or sprinkled with powdered sugar especially in restaurants.


At Palmer House Hotel in Chigagos a chef there created the confection after Bertha Palmer requested a dessert for people attending the fair, it should be, she said, smaller than a piece of cake, though still retaining cake-like characteristics and easily eaten from boxed lunches. These first brownies featured an apricot glaze and walnuts, and they are still being made at the hotel according to the original recipe.

The earliest published recipes for a brownie like those of today appeared in the Home Cookery (1904, Laconia, NH), Service Club Cook Book (1904, Chicago, IL) The Boston Globe (April 2, 1905) These recipes produced a relatively mild and cake-like brownie. The name brownie first appeared in the 1896 version of the cookbook but this was in reference to molasses cakes baked individually in tin moulds, not true brownies.



A second recipe appeared in 1907 in Lowneys Cook Book by Maria Willet Howard and published by the Walter M Lowney Company of Boston Massachusetts. The recipe added an extra egg and an additional square of chocolate to the Boston Cooking School recipe, creating a richer, fudgier brownie. The recipe was named Bangor Brownies, possibly because it was created by a woman in Bangor, Maine. The Bangor Brownie went on to be rated 3rd in the top 10 snacks a few years later.

A blondie (also known as a blondie brownie or blondie bar) is a rich sweet dessert bar. They are made from flour, butter, eggs, brown sugar, baking powder and vanilla. Chocolate chip blondies may contain white or dark chocolate chips, but the dominant flavour of a blondie is brown sugar, not chocolate. They may also contain walnuts or pecans. Even though butterscotch is sometimes considered the main flavour, they based on brown sugar and often do not call for butterscotch.

Blondies are a brown sugar based dessert bar which resembling the traditional chocolate brownie. They are bake in a pan in the oven similar to how traditional brownies are baked, then cut into rectangular shapes for serving. They are also sometimes referred to as blonde brownies, although are based from brown sugar, unlike brownies made with cocoa.

Like brownies, blondies may include chocolate chips. They may also contain coconut, nuts, toffee, or any other chunky candy for added texture. Blondies arent usually frosted, the brown sugar flavour tends to be sweet enough.

Another popular variation is the Congo bar, which contains chocolate chips with either walnuts or coconut. Blondies are sometimes served in sundaes, often topped with caramel sauce.


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