Thank you for this! One of fav chocolate things to make, share, and eat. Fabulous as they are but also amenable to endless adaptions and variations.
As a person originally from Boston, I can say New Englanders firmly believe brownies are ours - but who knows. It would be interesting who/when/ how molasses was swapped out for chocolate - genius! But probably lost in the mists of time. Just thank goodness it caught on.
Brownies in the UK have moved on since the 1980s, when I first came here: they were dry chocolate cake squares with no soul :( They are so much better now - but I still prefer making them fresh - you get the whole house smelling chocolatey! No bad thing that.
Yes, I agree freshly made brownies are always better. As for the molasses & chocolate swap I can only assume it occurred around the turn of the century. I guess someone figured that chocolate was tastier (and by this point more affordable for baking) than molasses. Not that the latter variety tastes bad. They are a bit like gingerbread in texture minus the spices.
Thank you for this! One of fav chocolate things to make, share, and eat. Fabulous as they are but also amenable to endless adaptions and variations.
As a person originally from Boston, I can say New Englanders firmly believe brownies are ours - but who knows. It would be interesting who/when/ how molasses was swapped out for chocolate - genius! But probably lost in the mists of time. Just thank goodness it caught on.
Brownies in the UK have moved on since the 1980s, when I first came here: they were dry chocolate cake squares with no soul :( They are so much better now - but I still prefer making them fresh - you get the whole house smelling chocolatey! No bad thing that.
Yes, I agree freshly made brownies are always better. As for the molasses & chocolate swap I can only assume it occurred around the turn of the century. I guess someone figured that chocolate was tastier (and by this point more affordable for baking) than molasses. Not that the latter variety tastes bad. They are a bit like gingerbread in texture minus the spices.