Brownies are the quintessential American dessert, and these Easy Cake Flour Brownies are representative of what brownies should be. They are easy to make, fudgy, and don't require a lot of ingredients. Even though this is a brownie recipe using cake flour, they're not what I'd call cakey. And they're not extremely fudgy like the popular Katherine Hepburn brownies, either. They are not exactly the same, but are close to the original Lowney's Brownies.
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Who Invented Brownies?
It's widely accepted that chocolate brownies were invented in the late 19th century by chefs at The Palmer House Hilton. Bertha Palmer requested a little something for the Women's Pavilion at the 1893 World's Fair and pastry chef Joseph Sehl came up with brownies. His were a little different in that they were topped with walnuts and apricot, but they were most definitely chocolate brownies. Those were much fudgier and richer than the ones that came later.
Chocolate Brownies in The 20th Century
I couldn't find references to The Palmer House brownies in Jean Anderson's American Century Cookbook, but she was focusing specifically on recipes and stories from the 1900s on. She mentions a lady in Bangor, Maine who ruined a cake and called it “Brownies”, an idea that they’re Americanized versions of Scottish cocoa scones, and a story saying they were invented by a lady named “Brownie”. But what’s fact is that food historians found early recipes in two places, the 1906 edition of Fanny Farmer’s The Boston Cooking School Cookbook and the Lowney’s Cookbook, which was published around the same time, by a chocolate company.
Early Lowney's Brownies Ingredients
There were other early brownie recipes, but the Lowney's recipe is probably the most well known of the originals. The ingredient list was something like this.
4 oz butter (114 grams)
1 cup sugar (200 grams)
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (56 gram)
2 eggs
½ cup all purpose flour (65 grams )
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup nut meats
Easy Cake Flour Brownies
Cake Flour Brownies are very similar to the original, but different in that they call for cake flour instead of all-purpose and a little baking powder to lighten the texture. These should not come out cakey at all, but rather soft and fudgy. For no-fuss brownies, these are excellent and perfect for everyday baking.
Only 2 oz Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
On paper 2 oz unsweetened chocolate doesn’t look like a lot, but given the small amounts of everything else, it packs a good punch. And since the recipe is small, you can use your favorite high end baking chocolate. I used what I had on hand which was Ghirardelli’s 100% cacao baking chocolate.
Recipe
Easy Cake Flour Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter (114 grams)
- 2 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate (56 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 2 large eggs (110 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅔ cup cake flour (80 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup toasted nuts optional
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8-inch metal pan with foil. Spray bottom only with cooking spray. Alternatively, you can use parchment paper.
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. Turn heat to low, add chocolate, stir for a second, then turn off the heat and melt chocolate with residual heat. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- Add the sugar to the chocolate mixture and stir well, then add each egg, one by one, whisking or stirring until blended. Whisk in vanilla.
- Mix together the cake flour, baking powder and salt and add to batter. Stir until blended. If using nuts, add them too.
- Pour the batter in the prepared pan. If desired, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top (and maybe some extra nuts!). Bake on center rack for about 20 minutes or until brownies start to smell done and look set. They'll puff up a little in the center and sink a bit as they cool.
- Let to room temperature or quick cool by setting the pan in a larger pan of ice water. Lift foil from pan when brownies are cool. Cut into whatever size you like.
Anna says
Hi Steve,
Thanks for letting me know the metric is helpful. I use my measuring cups mainly as scoops these days and go by weights, which is so much more accurate -- or at least if I input them correctly! It's great to hear the reduced sugar version worked and that the brownies didn't come out too dry. I think I'll try your low sugar version too when I get a chance.
Steve says
Anna, thank you so much for including the weights in metric. A great help. I saw a recipe that called for 12 tablespoons of butter and swore loudly. Your measurements are clear and precise.
My partner (and most of the extended family) are not keen on super sweet anything, so I had to modify the recipe slightly (sorry!) by reducing the sugar by half. I compensated for this by omitting one egg white. The result was more than more than acceptable to the family (who are stingy with praise at the best of times, it has to be said). So thank you.
Anna says
Thanks for the review, Bella! I haven't made this particular recipe in a while, but it's a good way to use cake flour. Glad you were able to make the recipe work since your dough was dry. It sounds like you might have used a bit too much flour or maybe used all-purpose rather than cake flour. Cake flour is lighter in weight than all-purpose, so 3/4 cup of cake flour would weigh only 3 oz while 3/4 of all-purpose would weigh about 3.5 oz. When you sift the cake flour and then measure it, the weight is around 2.6 oz. So the only way to really get the exact amount is to use cake flour and weigh it OR use cake flour, sift it and then weigh it. Or maybe you did all that and I'm just saying all this for nothing ;). I've just noticed over the years that measuring flour by volume only isn't very accurate and it sometimes causes dough to be dry.
Bella says
When i made my brownies it turned out like a cookie dough but i added milk to help and they were yummy!i also used peanut butter with a little bit of butter and that also made it yummy.
Anna says
Denise, one more thing I forgot to mention yesterday. You said you made the brownies in a glass dish. There's this rule of thumb that if you bake brownies in a glass dish, you should reduce the heat by 25 degrees F and bake until done --the same amount of time or slightly longer. So in this case, you might have reduced the heat to 325 F. In some cases it doesn't matter, but glass and metal don't conduct heat the same way. From what I've read, the bottom of the glass pan acts as an insulator and the bottom of the brownies don't cook as fast as the top. So what happens is the top gets really crispy, but underneath you have undercooked brownies. Reducing the heat and cooking "slow and low" helps balance things out.
I always reduce the heat 25 degrees for black pans too.
Denise Walker says
Thanx for your response Anna, I was beginning to wonder if I did something wrong. I would imagine that beating the eggs and suger until it foams has alot to do with it. Your right, they taste good nontheless.
Anna says
Hi Denise,
This recipe gave me crackly tops as well. They still tasted good!
Denise Walker says
I baked these in a glass dish lined with foil so I could remove them easily. The top of the brownies came out with a crackle top. Never seen that before. Is that how they are supposed to be or did I do something wrong? Have not tasted them yet, will let u know when they cool down.
olgalopez says
My Favorite dessert is Brownies I love they are simply and really good taste and Texture.
Regards
olga.
Linda says
Lisa and Anna,
The "premier" grocery store out this way, Wegmans, introduced their new bakery brownie a year or so ago. Their final product, after much testing (now there's a job - brownie tester), was a very rich brownie with mini, semi-sweet chocolate chips. They do two versions - one with and one without nuts. While I agree that it may be gilding the lily, after Wegmans made this announcement, I've been adding mini-chips to my brownies. Using the mini-chips gives a very different mouth-feel than using regular sized chips. Just thought I'd share this...
Lisa Ernst says
Anna, if a brownie is too rich for chocolate chips, it has my name written all over it!
Louise says
I have Lowney's Cook Book Revised Edition 1921 (as well as many other old cookbooks). There are two brownie recipes in it. Bangor brownies and Lowney's Brownies.
sweetie says
hi anna,
you never disappoint!
i have a brownie related question for you - i'm prepping for a bake sale and i like the sound of your extraordinary bake sale brownies. i did a cost breakdown and using Ghiradelli, not including any labor, it would cost me $1.11 per large brownie (large) or $.63 (small). is $1.50 or $1.75 (large) or $1-$1.25 (small) market price for a bake sale chocolate brownie these days?
let me know what you think when you have a sec and thanks!
Anna says
Lisa, I thought about adding chocolate chips but resisted the urge. Glad I did because it might have made these too rich. I promise, they do not need the chips.
Sue, they're pretty fudgy, but not greasy.
Jenny, thanks for letting me know about that thumbnail. There will be more where that came from when I get my new theme up and running.
JennyMac says
Yummy! I like your new change on the feed to include a lil thumbnail of your cookie....I wish more people would do that!
Sue says
Thanks for the brownie history! These look like little pieces of fudge with crackly tops. I like it!
Lisa Ernst says
I'm always curious about how recipes evolve over time, and assume tastes have become more sophisticated. But based on your recommendation, it sounds like this recipe works as a contemporary brownie. I guess they figured it out long ago. Of course, I'd add chocolate chips!