The Brownie is a classic of Western desserts. This American chocolate treat appeared in the United States at the end of the 19th century. They are well-loved for their simplicity but also for their variety. This is because the brownie is a uniquely versatile dessert, with textures ranging from dense and fudgy to light and cakey, making them a dessert that’s loved around the world.

Jump to Long winded Explanations

History Check

As stated in the little intro, the first version of the brownie came to be at the end of the 1800s in the United States of America and gained popularity in the early 20th century. This makes the brownie relatively new to the baking playing field. Despite its youthfulness, there are several versions of how the brownie was created, some of them believed to be more likely than others.

A popular and widely accepted origin places the birth of the chocolaty deliciousness in Chicago in 1893, where Bertha Palmer, a businesswoman, socialite, and philanthropist, asked a pastry chef at the Palmer House Hotel to create a small, portable dessert for the ladies attending the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. The result was the Palmer House Brownie, made from chocolate and walnut with an apricot glaze.

This version of the brownie is still served in the Palmer House Hotel today, but the first printed use of the word “brownie” for a dessert appears in Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1896). Although that version didn’t include chocolate, it was more like what we now call a blondie.

Another popular legend says that a woman in Maine forgot to add baking powder to her chocolate cake. Naturally, the cake didn’t rise and came out flat and rather dense. But rather than throwing it out, she cut it into squares and served it up. Similarly, one more account suggests a cook added melted chocolate to a biscuit or cake batter, and the result was richer, darker, and denser than expected. But both of these possibilities are based more on cooking logic than historical fact.

All in all, there is no absolute confirmation about the true creator of the brownie. Regardless of how it came to be, by the early 20th century, brownies had become a staple of American home baking. Over time, the brownie evolved into many forms, ranging from dense and fudgy to light and cakey. Though it began as a Western dessert, the brownie is now enjoyed worldwide, appreciated for its simplicity, versatility, and unmistakable chocolate richness.

Explanations

Baking Prep: First thing you want to do is read the recipe all the way through and make sure you have all the ingredients needed and the time for both the prep and cooking. Once you have found the will to persevere and have made sure you possess the necessary supplies, you can start. Turn on the oven to 180°C and make sure you have a rack on the middle shelf. Grease a 30 x 23 cm baking tin with your chosen greasing material (mine is margarine). Place a baking sheet/paper sheet at the bottom and grease that up too. And finally, cover the entirety of the tin with flour (the entirety of the inside, that is). This will allow the mega brownie (not cut) to come out of the tin with ease. That’s the idea anyway.
Dealing with the dairy: Soften the butter. That’s it. That is the whole of step 2. Use whatever means that are at your disposal. The best thing to do is to get it out ahead of time, about 30 minutes (unless you are in the middle of winter and your cooking space is ideal for making ice cream, thus not ideal for the softening of your golden condiment). If you are like me and forget to do things sensibly, you can soften the butter by putting it in the microwave, but it must be very briefly; otherwise, you will melt the butter. This recipe does NOT want melted butter. Do not melt the butter. 10 second intervals and some mixing in between until the desired consistency should do it. If you do melt it, you can stick it in the fridge to chill it out and make it a bit more solid. And if it chills too much, you can try again with the microwave. Hopefully, you won’t end up in a never-ending cycle of liquid to solid dairy product.
Melt the chocolate:
- Using a microwave, with the chocolate in a bowl, melt it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Once the chocolate has softened a bit, you can use a knife to break the chocolate into smaller pieces. Melt it for another 30 seconds, and mix it once more. Repeat this process until you have melted chocolate. Don’t overdo it, or you will have burnt chocolate, and that is a crime.
- Using a bain-marie. What is a bain-marie, you ask? Well, excellent question!
  - History Check! A bain-marie, also known as a double boiler by our American compatriots, is a way of gently melting materials and is used both in cooking and science! It is a French name that is derived from the Latin “balneum Mariae” which literally means “Mary’s bath”. And who is this Maria?
    Well, it is none other than Mary the Jewess , also known as Mary the Prophetess. She was an Egyptian alchemist who lived sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. This woman is regarded as the first actual alchemist by most historians and also a major founder of alchemy. Also also, she is believed to be the first non-mythical Jewish woman to write and publish works under her own name. Also also also, she started her own alchemical academy in Alexandria. All in all, Maria is a badass and will be remembered as such.
- Now back to baking, so in our case, a bain-marie consists of a pot of boiling water and a bowl on top that holds the chocolate you want to melt. So get a saucepan and boil 2-3 cm of water in it. You want enough water for there to be steam when it boils, but not so much that it will touch the bowl. DANGER! Never let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Place the heatproof bowl on the saucepan (use heatproof glass or a metal bowl). Add the chocolate to the bowl and stir until melted. Remove from heat and leave to cool once you’ve made sure it has melted evenly.
The ingredients: You can just dump all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. This may lead to lumps, though, so be thorough. Alternatively, you can take a bit of time to mix the ingredients separately. Start by creaming the butter and sugar together. Add in the eggs and liqueur. When that’s done, add the flour in batches, making sure to scrape the side and bottom of the bowl to ensure that everything is mixed evenly. Stir in the cooled melted chocolate. And finally, add the chocolate chips and voilà, your batter is ready!
Tin it! Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure you get as much batter out. Or be “lazy” and leave lots of batter in the bowl that you will just have to eat up before cleaning the bowl. Spread the mixture into all 4 corners of the tin (that’s assuming your tin has any corners to begin with. Or maybe it has more. Maybe you are baking your brownies in an octagon tin for all I know). Regardless of how many corners you’re baking with, level the top of the batter and move on to the next step.
Baking time! In the preheated oven that you absolutely remembered to turn on, place your tin on the middle shelf and leave to cook for 40 to 45 minutes. Every oven is a bit different, so make sure to check on your brownies every once in a while. Once the top is crunchy, and you can impale it cleanly (as in, a toothpick or knife can be inserted into the center of the tin and comes out cleanly), that means your chocolate goods are ready to come out. If the top is browning too much (yes I know it is brown to start with but if the shade of brown is getting closer and closer to charcoal black) then cover the top with tin foil (or place a tray on a higher shelf).
The end: Now your delicious chocolaty goodness is ready to come out of the oven. At this point, if you are in a bit of a rush, you can cut them now into however many pieces you want. I usually go for about 24. Store them in an airtight container and put them in the fridge to cool completely. Or you can wait to cut them. Just leave them in the tray to cool to room temperature and then put the tray in the fridge to cool completely. The cooling in the fridge is a nonnegotiable step. The less messy option here is to wait until the brownie tray has spent some time in the fridge before cutting. If you do it before they cool, it will be significantly more crumbly and a tad greasy.
Enjoy

Recipe