It's National Brownie Day!

NATIONAL BROWNIE DAY IS DECEMBER 8TH

Every year brownie lovers far and wide celebrate National Brownie Day. Warm, chewy, and rich, a nice chocolate (or blondie) brownie is the perfect dessert to end your night with. Indulge in gooey goodness and let the real world melt away with you for a delectable moment.

The brownie has become one of the most classic feel good, comfort food treats in American culture. It was developed in the United States at the end of the 19th century and popularized in the U.S. and Canada during the first half of the 20th century.

Chances are you have had a brownie, can you say that about Succotash? Yummy, but it's not a brownie and it's not so popular that it's readily available probably within 10 minutes from where you are right now.

HISTORY OF NATIONAL BROWNIE DAY Legend has it that the creation of brownies hales from the Palmer House Hotel in 1893. Bertha Palmer, a prominent Chicago socialite whose husband owed the hotel, asked a pastry chef for a dessert suitable for ladies attending the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition. She requested a cake-like delicacy small enough to be included in boxed lunches. The result was the Palmer House Brownie with walnuts and an apricot glaze. The modern Palmer House Hotel serves a dessert to patrons made from the same recipe. The name was given to the dessert sometime after 1893, but was not used by cook books or journals at the time.

By 1907 the brownie was well established in a recognizable form, appearing in Lowney’s Cook Book by Maria Willet Howard as an adaptation of the Boston Cooking School recipe for a “Bangor Brownie”. It added an extra egg and an additional square of chocolate, creating a richer dessert. The name “Bangor Brownie” derives from the town of Bangor, Maine, which legend states was the hometown of a housewife who created the original brownie recipe. Maine food educator and columnist Mildred Brown Schrumpf was the predominant proponent of the theory that brownies were invented in Bangor. While “The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink” refuted Schrumpf’s premise that “Bangor housewives” created the brownie, “The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America” said it had discovered evidence to support Schrumpf’s claim, in the form of several 1904 cookbooks that included a recipe for “Bangor Brownies.”

SO MANY RECIPES

There are a trillion ways to make brownies. Here is a simple and fail proof recipe for you. You can gather all of your ingredients at any Morton Williams location or order from us online for quick delivery:

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter

• 1 cup white sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• ¼ teaspoon baking powder

Frosting:

• 3 tablespoons butter, softened

• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 tablespoon honey

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8-inch square pan.

• In a large sauce pan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.

• Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.

• To Make Frosting: Combine 3 tablespoons softened butter, 3 tablespoons cocoa, honey, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. Stir until smooth. Frost brownies while they are still warm.