Brownies are bite-sized chocolate squares that rank among so many people's favourite treats. There are several styles to suit every taste. But have you ever wondered how brownies came about, who first thought up such a delicious idea, and what the different types are? Let's find out.
Where Brownies Began
Brownies originated in the United States in the late 19th century, although no one knows for sure who invented them. One story goes that in 1893 a woman named Bertha Potter Palmer wanted a small, easy-to-eat sweet that would fit in a lunch box, to take with her friends to the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. She asked the chefs at the Palmer House hotel to create it, requesting a dense chocolate bake topped with walnuts and an apricot glaze. That treat went on to become a signature of the Palmer House, and remains so to this day.
Another story says a cook set out to make a chocolate cake but got the proportions wrong, adding too little flour, which produced a rich, dense and chewy chocolate bake.
A third story tells of a cook in Bangor, Maine, named Mildred Brown Schrumpf, nicknamed "Brownie". She was making a chocolate cake but forgot the baking powder, so the cake didn't rise. Not wanting to waste it, she cut it into squares and shared it with her family.
How Many Types of Brownies Are There?
The different types of brownies come from bakers' creativity and their wish to give the bake different textures, which led to different methods. By texture, brownies fall into three groups: cakey, fudgy and chewy.
- Brownie cake (cakey brownie) has a light, soft, fluffy cake-like crumb. It contains more flour and eggs than other types. It is classed as a cake because it doesn't hold together in pieces like a cookie, and it is usually eaten with a spoon or fork.
- Fudge brownie is dense and chewy, holds its shape well and has a shiny, crisp top. It uses the least flour and more dark chocolate than other types, which makes it chewy. Because the batter isn't whipped to add air, the crumb stays dense. A film of dark chocolate forms on top during baking, giving it that glossy, crackly surface.
- Chewy brownie is soft and light, though not as light as a cake, with moist pockets of chocolate throughout. It is a cross between the cakey and fudgy styles: it has less flour and egg than the cakey type but more dense dark chocolate. Chopped chocolate is folded into the batter before baking, creating gooey chocolate pockets, though it is not as moist as a fudge brownie.
Other Brownie Variations
- Cookie brownie: the round shape of a cookie combined with brownie batter.
- Brownie cheesecake: cheesecake combined with brownie.
- Brownie cracker: the crunch of a cracker combined with brownie.
