If you look into where brownies come from there are a few different stories around as to who made the first one, or who created the recipe.
But to save you having to run search after search on the internet we thought we’d provide you with a brief run through.
A long time ago in Chicago, 1893 to be exact, the owner of the Palmer House Hotel a Mr Potter Palmer had a wife, his wife Bertha Palmer (a well know socialite) was to attend the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and wanted to take something delicious for the ladies attending the exposition to enjoy.
“The dessert was not known as a brownie until sometime after 1893”
She asked her pastry chef to create something, giving the direction that she wanted a cake like confection that was smaller than a slice of cake and that could be included in boxed lunches.
The chef took this to his kitchen and created ‘the Palmer House Brownie’ a small chocolate cake like dessert studded with walnuts and with an apricot glaze.
The dessert was not known as a brownie until sometime after 1893, but the modern Palmer House Brownie made from the same recipe is still served to guests of the hotel to this day.
The recipe is simple to follow and if you feel like making an original Palmer House Brownie why not check out the recipe on our recipes page.
Moving on to 1896 and the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer saw the word brownie used to describe a dessert in print for the first time.
The recipe referenced molasses cakes baked individually in tin moulds, interestingly though Fannie’s brownies did not contain chocolate.
No Chocolate!! That’s right, in fact from looking at the recipe you would probably think that it looks more like the recipe for a modern day blondie rather than a brownie.
However, this recipe does not taste like a blondie, the molasses gives it a much deeper darker flavour that may not be modern day brownie, but also is definitely not a blondie.
You can check out the recipe for ‘Fannie Farmers Brownies’ on our recipe page.
In 1899 in a little town called Machias in Maine (USA) which has the distinction of being the location of the first naval battle in the American Revolution.
A great little cook book was published called ‘The Machias Cook Book’ The book was complied by Mrs. Willis H Allen and “presented to” the ladies’ social circle.
Within this book a recipe can be found for Brownie’s Food and as far as we could find this is the first printed recipe for a Chocolate Brownie.
This recipe, as you can see below however was very different to a modern day brownie as it calls for layers, frosting, does not include nuts or eggs, and altogether seems to be more of a cake recipe than a bar.
Brownies Food (Original Recipe)
First Part: 1 ½ cup brown sugar, ½ cup sweet milk, ¾ cup grated chocolate, boil and set away to cool.
Second Part: ½ cup butter (scant), 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup milk, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoonful soda in flour, add the first part and 1 teaspoonful vanilla. Bake in layers.
Cream frosting for above
½ cup good, sweet cream, 1 pound confectioners’ sugar.
Home Cookery (1904, Laconia, NH), Service Club Cook Book (1904, Chicago), The Boston Globe (April 1905) and the 1906 edition of Fannie Farmers cookbook appear to be the earliest known publications for a ‘modern style’ brownie although the recipes produced a relatively mild and cake-like brownie.
By 1907, the brownie was well established in a recognizable form.
The adaptations of previous recipes having seen the addition of extra egg and more chocolate creating a richer fudgier dessert much like the brownie that is known and loved today.