The chocolate brownie – is is a cake or is it a cookie?

According to Mirriam-Webster, a brownie is: “a small square or rectangle of rich usually chocolate cake often containing nuts”.

According to dictionary.com, a brownie is: “a small, chewy, cakelike cookie, usually made with chocolate and often containing nuts”.

The precise origin of brownies is not known, but recipes have been found in early 1900′s American cookbooks. Since that time, the brownie has become a much-loved dessert and snack in North America. There are many, many recipe variations for making brownies. Typically, brownies are made with chocolate (as you would expect from the name), but there are recipes such as the “blondie” which features a caramel batter with chocolate chips. Some recipes result in a dense and fudgy browny, while others have a lighter more cakey texture.

Modern day cookbooks will normally include brownies in the “bars and squares” category, which is indeed somewhere between a cake and a cookie.  They are actually easier to make than either a cake or a cookie, as they normally just require stirring the ingredients together (no creaming or long beating as needed when making a cake), and then you just have to pour the whole thing into a pan to bake (no individual cookies to form.)

Whatever the origin, and whether they are cake or cookie, brownies are a tasty treat. We hope you may find a recipe or two here, to help you bake up a batch of tasty brownies today!