The brownie is in the first American cookbook to mention the exact instructions for successful preparation of a dish.

From this publication in the "Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" at the end of the 19th century until today, the recipe for this delicious chocolate nut cake has remained childishly simple.  

Five minutes of preparation for a delicious dessert, who could say better?

That's the never-failing promise of the brownie, a chocolate nut cake invented in the United States at the end of the 19th century.

The publication of the first brownie recipe is also linked to a major innovation in culinary gastronomy across the Atlantic, as explained by Olivier Poels in the program

Historically yours

 on Europe 1. The columnist does not forget either. give the simple steps of the recipe for a tasty brownie to taste it.

“There is no doubt, the brownie comes from the United States. Its first transcribed recipe dates from 1896, in a book called the

Boston Cooking-School Cook Book

. Why is this book revolutionary in the cooking history? Fannie Merritt Farmer, the author of the book, created something that seems obvious today, but was revolutionary then.

>> Find all the shows of Matthieu Noël and Stéphane Bern in replay and podcast here

Before Fannie Merritt Farmer, cookbooks never mentioned exact measurements.

We always gave directions, like 'put a nice amount of butter'.

She will introduce the notion of precision in the books, with exact temperatures.

And that will change everything.

This book would become the most famous of all cookbooks still in the United States today, with many reissues.

It will change the way we write a cookbook, a genre that has existed practically since Roman times, since we attribute the first cookbook to Apicius, 2,000 years ago.

Two theories on the invention of the brownie

Fannie Merritt Farmer publishes the first brownie recipe.

There are two theories that exist about his birth.

The first says that we would have liked to bake a chocolate cake, but that we would have forgotten the yeast.

The cake would not have gone up and would have remained a little compact.

The other theory concerns the Palmer House, a chic Chicago hotel.

The wife of the owner of the hotel would have asked for a cake that can be transported and therefore a slightly compact cake.

The cook would have made this cake a little harder to transport it more easily than a classic chocolate cake. "

Olivier Poels' delicious brownie recipe

Ingredients:

- 160 gr of butter

- 80 gr of cocoa

- 100 gr of sugar

- 50 gr of flour 

- 2 eggs

- Crushed walnuts

The steps of the recipe:

  • To melt the butter

  • Add cocoa and sugar, then mix well

  • Add the eggs and flour, then the nuts

  • Pour the preparation into a rectangular mold

  • Place in the oven on a rotating heat for 20 minutes at 180 degrees