The History of Brownies

Brownies were invented in the United States. Although the first brownie recipe was printed in the early 20th century by famed cookbook author Fannie Merritt Farmer, it’s not clear who first created the beloved treat. One popular legend (cited in Betty Crocker's Baking Classics and John Mariani’s The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink) attributes the original recipe to a housewife in Bangor, Maine who forgot to add baking powder to her chocolate cake batter and then served the result anyway. However, this took place in 1912 — after Farmer’s recipe had been published in 1906. Interestingly, the second published brownie recipe came out in Lowney’s Cook Book Illustrated in 1907 and was written by one of Farmer’s protégés, Maria Willet Howard, who created a more chocolatey version of the recipe and called her version “Bangor Brownies.” It took until the 1920s for brownies to become a popular treat, but once they caught on, their popularity never wavered and they’ve been an important part of the American food scene ever since.