When I think “brownies,” I don’t think “Mexican” first. I think of little girls in cute brown uniforms, with brown beanies atop their heads..
. Or I think of those luscious, decadent, fattening, melt-in-your-mouth chocolatey, culinary delights that I can’t get enough of! But from where did these tasty morsels originate? They are American, dating back to 1893, Chicago, when a wealthy socialite by the name of Bertha Palmer asked the chef at the Palmer House Hotel to invent a dessert that kids could put in their boxed lunches when they attended the Chicago World’s Fair. (Bertha’s husband, Potter, built the hotel in 1871 and gave it to his wife as a wedding present.
) The original product was dense, fudgy, filled with walnuts and topped by an apricot glaze. But let’s not leave Bangor out of the mix. The story goes that a housewife in Bangor, Maine, attempted to make a chocolate cake but forgot the baking powder, resulting in an unleavened, rich, chocolatey concoction that became known as “Bangor Brownies.
” The recipe first appeared in the Boston Globe, 1905. Brownies may have been popular back then, but they didn’t take off until chocolate became more accessible in the U.S.
in the ‘20s and afterward, they started to make their way south-of-the-border, but with a few twists. As we know, Mexicans like to spice things up a bit and that even applies to their chocolate, which may be infused with cinnamon and a hint of cayenne pepper, which adds warmth and depth.
