BROWNIES

Brownies are an American chocolate dessert made very much like cake, although with slightly different ingredients. They appear to have originated in the late 1880s, either through a happy baking mistake or through calculated work. Unlike cakes, brownies are not leavened with baking powder, so they are denser and heavier. They are also served in cut squares or bars, and are often presented without icing, although they may be served with whipped cream or ice cream. There are three basic types of brownies, depending on their density, and they may include nuts, frosting, whipped cream, chocolate chips, or other ingredients. The first is cakey brownies, which have a more flaky crumb and cakelike texture. Fudgy brownies are incredibly dense, much closer to chocolate fudge than cake, while chewy brownies have a rich, chewy texture which falls somewhere in the middle. The texture is determined by the ratio of chocolate, butter, sugar, and flour in the brownies. Typically, ingredients like nuts, dried fruit, and chocolate chunks are added to brownies to provide extra flavor and texture. Brownies can also be made with brown sugar and no chocolate, in a version known as blondies, or they can be marbled with a chocolate and vanilla batter. For extra rich brownies, cooks add things like cream cheese. Most people have a favorite version of brownies, ranging from lightweight cakey brownies to intensely dark fudge brownies.

REFERENCE: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-brownies.htm

CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

A chocolate brownie is a flat, baked square or bar introduced in the United States at the end of the eighteenth century and popularized in both the U.S. and Canada during the first half of the nineteenth century. The brownie is sliced from a type of dense, rich chocolate cake, which is, in texture, like a cross between a cake and a cookie. Brownies are common lunchbox fare, typically eaten by hand, and often accompanied by milk or coffee. They are sometimes served warm with ice cream ( la mode) or topped with whipped cream, especially in restaurants. ORIGINS The brownie first appeared in public during the 1893 Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, Illinois. A chef at the city's Palmer House Hotel created the confection after Bertha Palmer requested a dessert for ladies attending the fair; it should be, she said, smaller than a piece of cake and easily eaten from boxed lunches. These first brownies featured an apricot glaze and walnuts, and they are still being made at the hotel according to the original recipe. The earliest published recipes for a brownie like those of today appeared in the Home Cookery (1904, Laconia, NH), Service Club Cook Book (1904, Chicago, IL), The Boston Globe (April 2, 1905 p. 34) and the 1906 edition of The Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer. These recipes produced a relatively mild and cake-like brownie. The name "brownie" first appeared in the 1896 version of the cookbook, but this was in reference to molasses cakes baked individually in tin molds, not true brownies. The chocolate brownie, once familiar only to North Americans, can now be found in many bakeries in Europe.

REFERENCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_brownie

SAMPLE RECIPES
CLASSIC BROWNIES
INGREDIENTS 450 g Unsweetened chocolate 675 g Butter 675 g Eggs 1350 g Sugar 7 g Salt 30 g Vanilla 450 g Bread Flour 450 g Chopped walnuts or pecans

PROCEDURES MIXING Modified sponge method 1. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler. Let the mixture cool to room temperature. 2. Mix the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla together until well blended, but do not whip. Whipping to a foam creates more leavening, resulting in a more crumbly, less fudgy brownie. 3. Blend in the chocolate mixture. 4. Sift the flour and fold in. 5. Fold in the nuts. MAKEUP Sheet method. Grease and flour the pans, or line them with parchment. One recipe fills 1 full sheet pan (18 x 26 in. / 46 x 66 cm), 2 half-sheet pans, four 9 x 13 in. (23 x 33 cm) pans, or six 9-in. (23 cm) square pans. If desired, sprinkle the batter with an additional 50% (8 oz / 225 g) chopped nuts after panning. BAKING 325F (165C) for 45 to 60 minutes. For 2-in. (5 cm) square brownies, cut sheet pan into 8 rows of 12 to yield 96 pieces.

RICH BROWNIES
INGREDIENTS 60 g Unsweetened chocolate 145 g Bittersweet chocolate 290 g Butter 200 g Eggs 260 g Sugar 2 g Salt 7 g Vanilla extract 115 g Bread flour 115 g Walnuts or pecans, chopped

PROCEDURES MIXING Modified sponge method 1. Melt the unsweetened chocolate, the bittersweet chocolate, and the butter together in a double boiler. Let the mixture cool to room temperature. 2. Mix the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla together until well blended, but do not whip. Whipping to a foam creates more leavening, resulting in a more crumbly, less fudgy

brownie. If the eggs are not at room temperature, stir the mixture over a hot-water bath just until the mixture is at slightly warm room temperature. 3. Blend in the chocolate mixture. 4. Sift the flour and fold in. 5. Fold in the nuts. MAKEUP Sheet method. For 2 lb 9 oz (1194 g) batter, use one 9 x 13 in. (23 x 33 cm) pan or two 8-in. (20 cm) square pans. Grease and flour the pans, or line them with parchment. BAKING 325F (190C) for about 45-50 minutes. For 2-in. (5 cm) square brownies, cut sheet pan into 4 rows of 6 to yield 24 pieces. VARIATION INGREDIENTS 3 g Baking powder For a more cakelike brownie, sift the above quantity of baking powder with the flour in step 4.

CREAM CHEESE BROWNIES

20 g Egg yolks 1190 g Rich Brownie batter without walnuts

PROCEDURES MIXING 1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, work the cream cheese at low speed until smooth and creamy. 2. Add the sugar and vanilla and mix in at low speed until smooth. 3. Add the egg yolks and blend in. 4. Prepare the brownie batter according to the recipe. MAKEUP Sheet method. Grease and flour the pans, or line them with parchment. Pour about half the brownie batter into the pans. Spread it evenly. Deposit half the cream cheese mixture in pools on top of the brownie batter. Pour in the remaining brownie batter. Spread evenly in the pan. Drop the remaining cream cheese mixture in pools on top. Swirl the two batters together slightly, using a palette knife or a spoon handle. BAKING 325F (190C) for about 45-50 minutes. Cut into 2-in. (5 cm) square brownies.

A biscuit (pronounced /bskt/) is a baked edible product. The term is used to apply to two distinctly different products in North America and the Commonwealth Nations. In the United States it relates to a small soft leavened bread, somewhat similar to a scone. In Commonwealth English, it commonly is used to refer to a small and hard, often sweetened, flour-based product, most akin in American English to a cookie, or sometimes in the case of cheese biscuits, a cracker. ETYMOLOGY The modern-day confusion in the English language around the word biscuit is created by its etymology. The Middle French word bescuit is derived from the Latin words bis (twice) and coquere (to cook), and, hence, means [1] "twice-cooked." This is because biscuits were originally cooked in a twofold process: first baked, and then dried [2] out in a slow oven. Hence: Biscotti in Medieval Italian Biscuit in Modern French Zwieback in German Beschuit in Dutch Bizcocho in Spanish This term was then adapted into English in the 14th century during the Middle Ages, in the Middle English word [3] bisquite, to represent a hard twice-baked product. However, the Dutch language from around 1703 had adopted the word koekje, a language diminutive of cake, to [4] [citation needed] have a similar meaning for a similar hard, baked product. This may be related to the Russian or Ukrainian translation, where biscuit has come to mean sponge cake. The difference between the secondary Dutch word and that of the Latin origin is that, whereas the koekje as a cake rose during baking, the biscuit, which had no rising agent, in general did not (see gingerbread/ginger biscuit), except for the expansion of heated air during the baking process. When peoples from Europe began to emigrate to the United States, the two words and their "same but different" meanings began to clash. After the American War of Independence against the British, the word cookie became the word of choice to mean a hard, twice-baked product. Further confusion has been added by the adoption of the word biscuit for a small leavened bread popular in the United States. Today, according to American English dictionary Merriam-Webster: A cookie is a "small flat or slightly raised cake."[4] A biscuit is "any of various hard or crisp dry baked product" similar to the American English terms cracker or [3] cookie. A biscuit can also mean "a small quick bread made from dough that has been rolled out and cut or dropped from [3] a spoon." Today, throughout most of the world, the term biscuit still means a hard, crisp, brittle bread, except in the United States, where it now denotes a softer bread product baked only once. In modern Italian usage, the term biscotto is used to refer to any type of hard twice-baked biscuit. HISTORY Biscuits for travel The need for nutritious, easy-to-store, easy-to-carry, and long-lasting foods on long journeys, in particular at sea, was initially solved by taking live food along with a butcher/cook. However, this took up additional space on what were either horse-powered treks or small ships, reducing the time of travel before additional food was required. This resulted in early armies' adopting the style of hunter-foraging. The introduction of the baking of processed cereals including the creation of flour provided a more reliable source of food. Egyptian sailors carried a flat brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake, while the Romans had a biscuit [5] called buccellum. Roman cookbook Apicius describes: a thick paste of fine wheat flour was boiled and spread out on a plate. When it had dried and hardened, it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper.

Many early physicians believed that most medicinal problems were associated with digestion. Hence, for both sustenance and avoidance of illness, a daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for one's health. To this day, however, when biscuits get older, they get softer. So, the bakers of the time, in order to solve this problem, attempted to create the hardest biscuit possible. As a result, because it is so hard and dry, properly stored and transported, the navy's hardtack will survive rough handling and endure extremes of temperature. The more refined Captain's biscuit was made with finer flour. To soften it, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cooked into a skillet meal. Baked hard, it would stay intact for years as long as it was kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather [6] than the more common two, and prepared six months before sailing.

At the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was 1 lb of biscuit plus 1 gallon of beer. Later, Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria's reign were made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen's mark and the number of the oven to which they were consigned to be baked. Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailors diet until the introduction of canned foods, with canned meat first marketed in 1814, and preserved beef in tins was officially introduced to [5] the Royal Navy rations in 1847. Biscuits for pleasure Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened. They were cheap - early biscuits were most often cooked after bread, in a cooling bakers oven; they were a cheap form of sustenance for the poor. By the 7th century AD, cooks of the Persian empire had learnt from their forebears the secrets of lightening and [7] enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of the earliest spiced biscuits was gingerbread, in French pain d'pices, meaning "spice bread," brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenian monk Grgoire de Nicopolis. He left Nicopolis Pompeii, in Lesser Armenia to live in Bondaroy, France, near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there for seven years, and taught French priests and [8][9][10] Christians how to cook gingerbread. This was originally a dense, treaclely (molasses-based) spice cake or bread. As it was so expensive to make, early ginger biscuits were a cheap form of using up the leftover bread mix. With the combination of the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, and then the Crusades developing the spice [7] trade, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By mediaeval times, biscuits were made from a sweetened, spiced paste of breadcrumbs and then baked (e.g., gingerbread), or from [11] cooked bread enriched with sugar and spices and then baked again. King Richard I of England, (aka Richard the Lionheart) left for the Third Crusade (118992) with "biskit of muslin," which was a mixed corn compound of [5] barley, rye, and bean flour. As the making and quality of bread had been controlled to this point, so were the skills of biscuit making through the [7] Craft Guilds. As the supply of sugar began, and the refinement and supply of flour increased, so did the ability to sample more leisurely food stuffs, including sweet biscuits. Early references from the Vadstena monastery [12] show how the Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in the year 1444. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. The [13] British biscuit firms of Carrs, Huntley & Palmer, and Crawfords were all established by 1850. Hence, it is of no surprise that, often together with local farm produce of meat and cheese, many regions of the world have their own distinct style of biscuit, so old is this form of food. Biscuits today Most modern biscuits can trace their origins back to either the hardtack ships biscuit, or the creative art of the baker: Ships biscuit derived: Digestive, rich tea, Abernethy, cracker Bakers art: Biscuit rose de Reims Biscuits today can be savoury or sweet, but most are small at around 2 inches (5.1 cm) in diameter, and flat. The term biscuit also applies to sandwich-type biscuits, wherein a layer of cream or icing is sandwiched between two biscuits, such as the Custard cream. European biscuits tend to be thinner, softer, and more sugary in consistency, and often more creative in design, whereas British biscuits tend to be harder and plainer, perhaps as a result of the country's naval history. Sweet biscuits are commonly eaten as a snack food and are, in general, made with wheat flour or oats, and sweetened with sugar or honey. Varieties may contain chocolate, fruit, jam, nuts, or even be used to sandwich other fillings. There is usually a dedicated section for sweet biscuits in most European supermarkets. In Britain, the digestive biscuit and rich tea have a strong cultural identity as the traditional accompaniment to a cup of tea, and are regularly eaten as such. Many tea drinkers "dunk" their biscuits in tea, allowing them to absorb liquid and soften slightly before consumption. Savoury biscuits or crackers (such as cream crackers, water biscuits, oatcakes, or crisp breads) are usually plainer and commonly eaten with cheese following a meal. There is also a large variety of savoury biscuits that contain additional ingredients for flavour or texture, such as poppy seeds, onion or onion seeds, cheese (such as cheese melts), and olives. Savoury biscuits also usually have a dedicated section in most European supermarkets, often in the same aisle as sweet biscuits. The exception to savoury biscuits is the sweetmeal digestive known as the "Hovis biscuit", which, although slightly sweet, is still classified as a cheese biscuit. In general, Australians, South Africans, New Zealanders, Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Singaporeans, and the Irish use the British meaning of "biscuit" (colloquially referred to as a bickie) for the sweet biscuit. In Canada, the terms biscuit and cookie are used interchangeably, depending on the region, with biscuits usually referring to 'hard' sweet biscuits (i.e. digestives, Nice, Bourbon creams) and cookies for 'soft' baked goods (i.e. chocolate chip cookies). Two famous Australasian biscuit varieties are the ANZAC biscuit and the Tim Tam. This sense is at the root of the name of the United States' most prominent maker of cookies and crackers, the National Biscuit Company, now called Nabisco.

American biscuit (left) and one variety of British biscuits (right). The American biscuit is soft and flaky; these particular British ones have a layer of chocolate filling between two hard wafers.

Ship's biscuit display in Kronborg, Denmark.

Traditional Polish Toru gingerbread

Biscuit rose de Reims

Dunking a biscuit

A dark chocolate Tim Tam