What’s your fancy – brownie points, an old camera, or ugly mythical creatures that love to clean house at night?
They’re all brownies but not the yummy chocolate treat we love today. Americans chow down 1.4 billion edible brownies a year in different flavors, shapes, and sizes.
Where did it begin? In the case of brownies no one knows for sure. Fortunately, fiction is often more fun than fact. Which brings us to the question – were brownies a mistake, an accident, or a special treat for wealthy, turn-of-the-nineteenth-century ladies?
Let’s start with a mistake and an accident.
Chocolate was very popular in the nineteenth century. Many people believe that an absent-minded chef was mixing batter for a cake and mistakenly left out the flour. Oops. Others say a housewife was out of baking powder and accidently ended up with “flattened cakes” that her guests loved. In both cases, the results were delicious, unplanned fudgy confections.
The most popular story comes from celebrated socialite Bertha Palmer (see below). Bertha was married to Potter Palmer, a business tycoon who, on their wedding day, gave her the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago (now a Hilton Hotel). Nice gift.
In 1893 Bertha wanted to do something special for the wealthy ladies attending the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. She asked her pastry chef to make a dessert that could be included in a box lunch. He complied, creating what was called the “Palmer House Brownie” – a sweet, fudgy confection with an apricot jam glaze.
