The other day , I was eat a brownie . A really respectable brownie . And I consider to myself , “ Who fabricate this ? I would like to kiss that person . ” So I decided to do some research .
The invention of culinary dishes can be complicated , and the pixy is no exception . Some myths state that a chef circumstantially added fade chocolate to some biscuits , or was making cake but did n’t have enough flour ; still others say that a housewife in Bangor , Maine , forgot to add baking powder to her chocolate patty . But most grounds show to one source : Chefs at Chicago ’s Palmer House Hotel , who make the tasty goody for the World Columbian Exposition of 1893 .
The ancestry taradiddle goes like this : Bertha Palmer , the wife of Palmer hotel owner Potter Palmer , waspresidentof the Ladies Board for Managers for Exposition . When organizers of the eventasked herto produce a afters especially for the boxed in lunches at the Women ’s Pavilion , Palmer went to her hotel ’s pastry chef andgave them the taskof creating a sweet that was easygoing to exhaust than a piece of Proto-Indo European and little than a layer cake that could easily be served in boxed lunches . The result was a pixy made with double the chocolate normal elf consumption , walnuts , and an apricot glaze that ’s still made at the hotel to this day ( and you could make it for yourself by followingthis recipe ) .
The first known recipe forchocolatebrownies — called Brownie ’s Food — appeared inMachias Cookbook , a Maine community - source cookery book , in 1899 . The formula features chocolate , flour , milk , baking soda — all the relevant contribution of a brownie . ( Oddly , though , the contributor was from Wisconsin , andno one knowshow a Wisconsin charwoman ’s recipe found its elbow room into a Maine cookery book . ) Then , in 1904 , The Club of Chicago published a cookbook with a formula for Bangor Brownies . ( Bangor , like Machias , is a Ithiel Town in Maine ; they are about 90 miles apart . So , that ’s kind of weird ! ) Finally , in 1906 , Farmerpublishedan updated adaptation of her cookbook that included a blondie recipe and a brownie formula , both called brownies . After that , the recipes started spreading across the country , and eventually , Brownie conquered the world !
So just how did pixie come to be called that ? Some believe that the kickshaw were named after the traditional mythical sprites popularized by Palmer Cox’sThe Brownies : Their Book , release in 1887 . But there ’s no proof of that , and we ’ll probably never know for sure .
Additional reporting by Austin Thompson .
