Making Brownies, Eating Brownies, Learning from Brownies

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Americans and Brits are often described as being “divided by a common language”. It’s not just how to pronounce tomatoes or potatoes. Nor is it describing an aubergine as an eggplant. It’s also radically different implications of describing something as “quite good” (i.e. pretty good in American English versus pretty poor often in British English), or somebody as “enthusiastic” (generally a term of praise in the US but can be more one of scepticism in the UK).

Fortunately, in baking and pastry there is less ambiguity. There is an (Atlantic) ocean of difference between chocolate cookies with their chewiness, and chocolate biscuits (especially if digestive) which have more of a snap (and more crumbs). And we can all agree that brownies are an ingenious combination of texture and flavour that have become a classic treat and gift.

The success of brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate digestives are full of extraordinary stories and insights. So over the next few weeks we’re going to compare and contrast their history as well as sharing some great recipes that show how the addition of craft chocolate to these treats take them to a new level.

If you don’t want to read why brownies make such a great gift (especially if homemade), and why the creation of microwavable brownie mix is the epitome of all that’s wrong with ultra processed foods (high prices/margins for rubbish ingredients that encourages even more scoffing), just click below to find out how you can make your own great brownies. And they really do taste so much better if you make them with craft chocolate. And the history of brownies really is “quite” fun (in the American use of quite).

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Brownies’ History

The first known published description of a brownie-like dessert is in the 1896 edition of ‘The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book’ by Bangor (Maine) based Fannie Farmer, with her description of a molasses-based bar “cookie” with walnuts she called “brownies”.

The Palmer House Hotel in Maine claims that Bertha Palmer, a prominent socialite and wife of Chicago businessman Potter Palmer, may have got there first. They claim that Bertha asked her pastry chef to add a “Palmer House brownie”, made of chocolate with walnuts and an apricot glaze, into the lunch boxes of everyone who attended the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Unfortunately, as the hotel admits, they’ve no documentation for this claim; but they do still make their Palmer House brownies to great acclaim. (And it’s a great example of ‘provenance marketing’; far more historically open than the legend of chocolate chip cookies).

Within a decade, more and more recipes appeared, with the first known recipe for chocolate brownies appearing in 1899 from a Wisconsin-based contributor to ‘Machias Cookbook’; a Maine community-sourced cookbook. Not to be outdone, Fannie Farmer published an updated version of her cookbook that included a blondie recipe and a brownie recipe (both called “brownies”) in 1906.

Armed with these recipes, Americans started their never-ending love affair with the easy-to-bake-and-make brownies; delighting in the way that they didn’t need to rise (they can be made without any baking soda or powder) and traditionally are served without any icing or decoration (the heat produces their own glaze).

Post World War 2, three large food companies; General Foods, General Mills (Betty Crocker), and Pillsbury; turbocharged the American interest in brownies by co-partnering with ‘big chocolate’ in the development of brownie mixes’ that they pushed via massive nationwide TV and radio advertising campaigns. Watching these old adverts today gives a nostalgic insight into suburban America, with appeals to the American spirit of invention (there were loads of “bake-offs” and recipe competitions back then too) but also to the convenience, and safety of ready mixes.

The advent of more and more ultra processed additives in these brownie ready-mixes arguably reached its apotheosis with microwavable brownies in the 1980s and 1990s, aimed squarely at ‘latchkey kids’. Making brownies moved from simple ingredients to all sorts of food-like additives, and from a fun family afternoon in the kitchen to a couple of minutes in the microwave.

Fortunately, the advent of artisan brownies has sparked a resurgence of interest in home baking family activity brownies. Pinterest, Instagram, and the whole fascination with pictures of food were made for the home baking of brownies.

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Lessons Learned

…They are social and made for sharing

Most mass market chocolate confectionery is a personal reward, pick me up, or treat. Brownies by contrast are far more social in their making and in their sharing and savouring. Baking brownies is a great family activity for all ages. They are easy to make; as the wonderfully named Linda Sunshine wrote: “A basic rule of baking is that in general it’s almost impossible to make an inedible batch of brownies”. And they are made to be shared too.

…They aren’t ostentatious

Brownies also aren’t too ostentatious or boastful. Everyone knows what to do with them. They send a great ‘homely’ message and make a great homemade gift. Brownies have made an extraordinary virtue out of the ease with which they can be made. Unlike cakes, they are designed not to rise, they don’t need icing, etc. so quite why you need a ready mix for something as simple as a brownie mix is a bit puzzling, unless you only trust your latchkey kid to use the microwave.

…They can be personalised

There is also a HUGE range of brownie options in terms of texture, chocolate type (blondies?), inclusions and more. So they provide a great canvas to showcase innovation and personal creativity.

…They show the power of texture and flavour

Biting into a brownie, especially one made with craft chocolate, is a delight of chewy and gooey textures that are accompanied by an explosion of flavours. Part of the delight of a brownie is the range of textures and contrasts that they contain; they are a great example of what food scientists call ‘sensory specific satiety‘. If you’ve different tastes, flavours and textures you don’t get bored and therefore are more likely to keep eating.

Brownies also show how important texture is in releasing the flavours and aromas of chocolate. We all know the disappointment of a bar of chocolate that’s melted in the sun and then set (or ‘bloomed‘) to be a brittle bar that won’t give up any flavour when you try to eat it (this is because they’ve ‘retempered’ to a crystal structure that won’t melt in your mouth). The gooeyness of brownies is the antithesis of this brittle bar, and that’s why they taste so ‘chocolatey’, the melty nature of the brownie releases chocolate’s flavour incredibly well as you chew. So in some ways, it’s easier to savour the flavour via chewing a brownie. You won’t get all the flavours if you chew and scoff a chocolate bar, but biting into a brownie is almost on par with letting a morsel of a chocolate bar slowly melt in your mouth.

For a similarly delightful experiment with texture, try making a simple chocolate mousse out of a bloomed craft chocolate bar (or indeed any craft chocolate bar) and you’ll be amazed at how many flavours are released.

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So let’s celebrate the delights of homemade or artisanally baked brownies; and leave the ready mixes, filled with all sorts of preservatives, stabilisers and other food-like substances, on the shelf.

Keep savouring!

Spencer

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Get your craft chocolate cooking ingredients to make your brownies:

Or try some bars which evoke notes of “brownie” in their flavour:

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Sources and further reading:

https://revolutionarypie.com/2015/04/10/brownies/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/60011/who-invented-brownie
https://ushistoryscene.com/article/brownies/
https://www.nestle.com/stories/timeless-discovery-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe
https://newengland.com/food/toll-house-cookies/