Lowney's Brownie Recipe

This was one of the first published brownie recipes (below) - see 'History of the Chocolate Brownie'.  I decided to test this recipe out as it used ingredients which were readily available in today's supermarkets! I did however leave out the 'nut meats' due to me personally not liking nuts in brownies. I think that a brownie should be pure chocolate with no nuts or other tastes conflicting the chocolate flavour. It is interesting though how the very first recipes included nuts and it is a modern thing to exclude nuts.

Before I made this recipe I compared it against other Brownie recipes. I found that Delia Smith's 'American Brownies' recipe was basically the same but included baking powder as well. The only other difference was that the butter and chocolate was melted together and than the other ingredients folded in, compared to creaming the butter and than the other ingredients.

The first test I did was to make this recipe in two different ways; one using the creaming method (as the Lowney recipe says) and two melting the chocolate and butter together and than folding in the other ingredients, as Delia Smith does.  For each test I would use the same ingredients, same cooking pan (20cm x 20cm), same oven temperature (Lowney's recipe did not specify any temperature so I went with C180) and the time amount of time in the oven (30mins).

Lowney Brownies (Lowney’s Cook Book 1907)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 squares Chocolate

2 eggs

1/2 cup nut meats (nuts with the shell removed)

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

 Cream the butter, add remaining ingredients, spread on buttered sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Cut in squares as soon as taken from the oven.



Brownies made by Lowney's Method



Brownies made by Delia's Method





The batter for the creaming method was much paler than the melting method. This was due to there being more air in the creaming method mixture. The air pockets also made the mixture rise quiet a lot even though there was no rising adgent in the mixture.

Once both brownie mixtures were cooked and cooled. I did a taste test. Personally I found that the brownie mixture which had the melted butter and chocolate was better tasting which a richer chocolate flavour. The batter which was creamed was much chewery which I liked but the flavour was not to my liking.

This little experiment showed that the order in which the ingredients are combined alters the end product. Which is why all recipes have a method!  

History of the Chocolate Brownie

Next I looked at the history of the brownie. There was a recipe for a treat called brownies in the 1896 Boston Cooking School Cookbook, but it does not include any chocolate in the recipe. Instead there were molasses which made the mixture brown, so they were called brownies.

1896 'Boston Cooking School Cookbook' Brownie Recipe

 1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup Porto Rico molasses
1 egg well beaten
7/8 cup bread flour
1 cup pecan meat cut in pieces
Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in small, shallow fancy cake tins, garnishing top of each cake with one-half pecan.

There are many tales on how the first brownie was created; a chef mistakenly added melted chocolate to a batch of biscuits...a cook was making a cake but didn’t have enough flour. The tale which is the most highly regarded is one about a housewife. The first brownies came about when a house wife, from Bangor Maine forgot to add leavening to her chocolate cake. Some say she didn't  want to admit her mistake or that she didn't want to throw out a cake which didn't rise. So she cut it into bars and served it. This theory is thought to be true as 6 years later (1906) a nearly identical recipe (to the housewives who forgot to add the baking powder) for brownies was published in a cookbook from Bangor, by one of America most famous cookbook writers Fannie Merritt Farmer.

1906 'Boston Cooking School Cookbook' Brownie Recipe

 1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup Porto Rico molasses
1 egg well beaten
7/8 cup bread flour

2 squares of melted chocolate
1 cup pecan meat cut in pieces
Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in small, shallow fancy cake tins, garnishing top of each cake with one-half pecan.

The second brownie recipe was created by Maria Willett Howard, who was trained by Fannie Merritt Farmer. Farmer added an extra egg to Howard's recipe to create the Lowney Chocolate Company brownie recipe. According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink this is the recipe which was most often reprinted in New England community up to 1912. 

Here are the two recipes which were published in Lowney's Cookbook in 1907. The two recipes are similarie but the quantities for each ingredient are slightly different.

Bangor Brownies (Lowney’s Cook Book 1907)

1/4 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3 squares chocolate

1/2 to 3/4 cup flour

1 cup nut meats (nuts with the shells removed)

1/4 teaspoon salt

 Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat until well mixed. Spread evenly in a buttered baking pan. Bake and cut in stripes.

Lowney’s Brownies (Lowney’s Cook Book 1907)

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 squares Chocolate

2 eggs

1/2 cup nut meats (nuts with the shell removed)

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

 Cream the butter, add remaining ingredients, spread on buttered sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Cut in squares as soon as taken from the oven.

The Road to the Perfect Chocolate Brownie

Brownies are an all time favorite. Everybody has their own personal favorite type of brownie; from cakey to fudgy to chewy. The basic brownie recipe ingredients are butter, sugar, eggs, flour and most importantly chocolate.

I have so many different brownie recipes so I thought I would start a quest to find the perfect recipe. I couldn't narrow my perfect brownie recipe to one as there are so many different types. I decided to find the best recipe for each type of brownie; fudgy, cakey and chewy. The first thing I needed to do was look at the science behind a Brownie. This would initially help me separate my recipes into the three categories.

Fudgy brownies have a minim amount of flour and no leaving (such as baking powder). The butter is melted rather than cream as this gives a denser brownie.

Cakey brownies usually have a low butter content but a higher flour content and include baking powder. This makes the brownie softer and lighter. The butter and sugar is creamed together, which adds air to the mixture and causes the brownies to rise higher.

Chewy brownies normally include a mixture of chocolate contents and have an extra egg and have a high sugar content.

Day 4: Pain aux Raisins

Today we are off to France, to have some pastries. I made a Pate a Brioche Feuilletee (which translates literally to mean a Flaky Brioche Dough, but it is a french quick sweet puff pastry). I choose to use this pastry to make Pain aux Raisins, but you could make croissants, pain au chocolate and most pastries.

Firstly I made a simple puff pastry. After hearing the words 'puff pastry' some people might run in the opposite direction, but please don't. Again this is a simple dough to make but is time consuming. If you want to make these for breakfast, I suggest you make the dough and almond cream the night before so all you have to do is construct the pastries, let them rise and cook them in the morning.

My pastires were not amazing, due to them spreading. This could be beacause i didn't leave the pastries in the fridge for long enough.

 

Pain aux Raisins Recipe

Pate a Brioche Feuilletee

Prep time: 60 minutes

Rising time: 3 hours and 30 minutes

Ingredients: 

7g instant dried yeast

1 egg

250g plain flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

15ml cold water

100g unsalted butter 

Method:

1. Place the yeast, egg, flour, sugar, salt and water in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix together at a medium speed, and stop as soon as the dough is smooth. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the freezer for 30 minutes to cool.
2. Cream the butter until soft.
3. Remove the dough from the freezer and roll out into a rectangle 3 times as long as its width. Place half the butter on the bottom edge of the dough. Using your palm push the butter evenly over two thirds of the dough.
4. Fold the dough into thirds, folding the un-buttered third down first. Chill in the freezer for 30minuites, than refrigerate for 1 hour. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the other half of the dough.
5. The dough can now be refrigerated until it is needed.

Almond Cream

Almond cream is similar to a creme patisserie, but does not use the hob. It is traditionally used to fill cakes and pastries.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: 

80g unsalted butter

80g icing sugar

5g cornflour

80g ground almonds

1 egg

100ml creme fraiche

Method:

1. Cut the butter into squares and place in a bowl. Cream the butter with a spatula to soften it. It is important to cream the butter without making it fluffy. If air is beaten in, the almond cream will rise during baking but will collapse and lose its shape when it comes out of the oven.
2. Add the icing sugar, cornflour and ground almonds to the butter mixture. Cream this into the butter mixture with a wooden spoon. Fold the egg into the butter mixture. Pour in the creme fraiche and mix until smooth.
3. The almond cream will keep in the fridge for 36 - 48 hours or can be frozen until required.

To construct the Pain aux Raisin:
Ingredients:
150g raisins
50g icing sugar
2 teaspoons orange juice

1. On a floured surface roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle and to 2 cm thick.
2. Spread the almond cream over the pastry.
3. Sprinkle raisins evenly on top of the almond cream.
4. Roll the up like a swiss roll, starting from one of the long edges.
5. Using a separated knife roll into 8 slices, each one being about 2cm thick and place on a greased baking sheet, lined with baking parchment. Make sure the pastries are spread out as they will expand when they are left to rise.
6. Place the pastries into the freezer for 30 minutes and then put them in a warm room to double in size. It will take about 30 - 60 minutes depending on the temperature of the room.
7. Preheat the oven to C180. Cook the pastries for 18 - 20 minutes, until golden.
8. Whilst the pastries are cooking make the icing sugar glaze. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the orange juice. This should make a runny liquid which can be drizzled over the pastries when they come out of the oven.  

Makes: 8 pain aux raisins

Total Prep time:

Cook: 18 - 20 minuites

Day 3: English Muffins

So, I attempted this recipe for English Muffins twice and both times were a disaster! I follow the recipe to the letter, not taking any shortcuts but it still didn't work! After the second attempt I put it down to the recipe and not my baking skills!

The recipe seemed simple enough, the batter was made like a pancake batter (which we all know how to do as yesterday was pancake day!). Once the batter was made, it was left for an hour to form bubbles on the surface. The muffins were cooked on the hob. Metal pastry cutters were put into a pan and warmed. When the pan was very hot, butter was added and batter poured into the pastry cutters (the batter was very runny, so the pastry cutters made sure the batter kept its shape). The recipe said, and I quote "Cook for 5 -7 minuites until the surface is dry and full of holes and the muffins are shrinking away from the sides of the cutters". This is not how it went for me  . . .

Attempt 1: 7 minuites later there are no bubbles on the surface . . . and the batter is not shrinking away from the edges. But 15 minuites later the batter is shrinking away from the edges, the bottom of the muffin is burning and there is no bubbles forming on the surface! The main problem was that they were not cooked inside. It was a disaster!

Attempt 2: Next I tried a slightly lower pan heat so the muffins wouldn't burn, but the muffins didn't come away from the edges or form bubbles on the surface. Also they were still not cooked in the middle. 

After this I felt that the recipe was not correct and I would have to try another recipe! So look back here in the near future to see the results!  

Day 2: Brioche

Golden Brioches

The next thing that I attempted to make was the brioche. The final product was VERY tasty. My little brioches had risen beautifully and tasted buttery, just as Brioche should!

Brioches are sweet breads from France. They are similar to a bread dough but have a higher butter and egg content. They are cooked in a very high oven temperature so they rise quickly and steeply. Brioches are traditionally eaten as a teatime treat with butter and jam. But you can eat them with foie gras or cheeses.

I made individual little brioches dusted with sugar.  You could also add raisins, chocolate or other dried fruits if you wanted to.

Brioche with jam

 The dough for this recipe is super simple, basically you put the ingredients  into a bowl of an electric mixer and mix (but at different stages)! Something to watch out for is that your butter needs to be very soft, otherwise it will not combine well. The thing which takes so long is the rising. It total the dough needs 5 hours rising time, split into 3 different stages. 

For this recipe I suggest you make the dough the night before; the dough can put into the fridge overnight. Then in the morning all you need to do is shape the dough and let it rise for 30 - 45 minutes.

Sugared Brioche Recipe

Makes 18 individual brioches  

Prep 30 minutes plus 5 hours rising

Cook 12 - 14 minutes

Brioche

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

4g instant dried yeast

25g Castor sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
200g unsalted butter, softened

Method:

1. Put the flour, yeast and sugar in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add one egg and then mix on a medium speed until most of the egg is combined. Repeat this for the other 2 eggs. Mix the dough until the mixture is fully Incorporated and coming away from the sides.
2. At this stage add the salt and softened butter. Mix at a medium speed until the butter it combined. The dough is ready when it starts to come away from the sides. It will be very sticky!
3. Transfer the dough into a large bowl which is dusted with flour. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for 2 - 3 hours, until it has doubled in size.
4. Lift the dough out of the bowl and put onto a floured work surface. Punch the dough with your fist, so the dough deflates and return to it's original size. Knead for 3 - 4 minutes. Then put it back in the bowl and cover in cling film. Put the dough into the fridge for at least 1 1/2 hours or overnight.
5. To make individual Sugared Brioches: Grease 18 six inch fluted tins. Divide the brioche dough between the 18 fluted tins. Leave at room temperature until they have doubled in size, about 30 - 40 minutes.  
6. Preheat the oven to C220. Cut a cross in the top of each brioche. Brush milk over the top of each one and then sprinkle with granulated sugar.
7. Cook for 12 - 14 minutes. Remove from the tins to cool or eat warm!

Day 1: Cinnamon Scrolls



Cinnamon Scrolls

From the 21 February to 24 February I will be doing a feature on 'Sweet Yeast Treats'. Over the week I will be making 4 delicious treats; Brioche, English Muffins, Cinnamon Rolls and homemade puff pastry which can be used to make pain au raisin or croissants. I felt that this would be a good project as I had long days of revision ahead of me! Whilst the dough is rising I am able get some revision done and return to the dough a later.

 I have always been scared of making these things due to them having yeast in them and me having a previous bad experience with yeast. The secret to making things with yeast is to knead lots and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size. The temperature where the dough is put to rise can vary, so the time the recipe gives is an estimate. Therefore it may take longer for you if your dough is in a lower temperature than the recipe expects.


Over this week I will be experimenting with yeast to make lots of different yummies. It will be like travelling around the world; with Danish Pastries from Denmark, Croissants from France and English Muffins from England. I have travelled to all of these countries so know what I am looking for in the product.



Please try these recipes for yourself and give me your feedback!

Cinnamon Scrolls Recipe


Cinnamon Scrolls



Some people might be slightly fazed by making sweet buns with yeast. It is important to stress that these are buns and not pastries, therefore they are more cakey than flakey. Some recipes can be really complicated but this one is very simple. It will take some time to make due to the dough having to double in size.

Makes 12 Cinnamon Scrolls

Prep 30 minutes plus 50 minutes rising
Cook 20 minutes


Cinnamon Scrolls



Ingredients:

7g dried yeast

50ml milk

90g butter (60g diced, 30g melted butter)

300g plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

30g Castor sugar

1 egg

25g brown sugar
15g ground cinnamon
125g icing sugar


Method:


Butter, milk and egg poured
into the well in the flour mixture

1. To make the dough, dissolve the yeast in 2 tablespoon tepid water. Pour the milk and 60g diced butter into pan, and heat gently until the butter has melted. Sift in the flour to a large mixing bowl. Stir in the salt and sugar, make a well in the middle of the mixture. Pour the milk and butter into the well and then crack the egg in. Using a large metal spoon fold the mixture until it forms a dough.

Dough ready to knead

2. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead the dough for 8 minutes, add extra flour if it is too sticky. Grease a bowl with butter and then put the dough into it. Cover and keep in a warm place for 30 minutes.

       




Kneading Step 1:
Flattening Dough



Kneading Step 2:

Folding dough in half and squashing







3. Put 30g butter, the brown sugar and the cinnamon in to a pan. Heat gently until the butter is melted.

4. Punch the dough down and turn it onto a floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes before rolling the dough into a rectangle. Roll the dough to 0.5cm thick. Brush the rectangle with the butter mixture. Roll the dough into a log shape. Slice the dough into 12 rounds. Place on a greased baking tray. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Cover and set aside for 20minuites.

5. Preheat the oven to C180. Bake the rolls for 20 minutes or until golden.

6. Mix the icing sugar with water to make a runny drizzle. Pour this over the cinnamon scrolls.

7. Eat and Enjoy!

Valentines Cookies



A packaged heart cookie



This is one of my favorite recipes for mint chocolate cookies. It is an American recipe so it uses cups (this is a special measurement system not just a kitchen cup!). If you do not have any cups it is very easy to find a conversion chart on the Internet.

These are great cut out chocolate cookies to give to your valentine. After making the cookies you can decorate the cookies with your own style and personalise them for your Valentine. To finish put the cookies or cookie in a bag and tie with a ribbon or stick onto a card to give to your valentine!



Small Hearts



Mint Chocolate Cookies

Makes 12 4 to 5 inch hearts. 

Ingredients:  

1 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
400ml royal icing mix (I used the Tate Lyle Royal Icing Sugar)
80ml water


Method:

1. Combine the butter, sugar, egg,  peppermint extract in the bowl of a electric mixer. Mix at a medium speed until the mixture is soft and creamy.
2. Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt to the bowl. Mix this at a low speed, until the mixture comes together as a dough. This will take about 5 minutes of mixing so be patient.
3. Divide the dough into two and shape each one into a ball and then flatten. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to C200. Grease 3 baking sheets. Take dough out of the fridge and roll it out to 1/8 inch thick. This will seem quite thick but these cookies are! Now cut out heart shapes and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes. They will seem soft when you take them out of the oven but they will harden up. After removing the cookies from the oven leave to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, before you transfer them to a cooling rack. Let the cookies cool for 60 minutes before icing them.
5. To make the icing: In one bowl mix 200g of the royal icing mixture with 45ml of water. This will make the 'flooding icing'. The 'flooding icing' is used to fill the middle of the cookies. Split this mixture into two; you can know dye this any colour you want to (I dyed one half a light pink and left the other half white). In another bowl mix 200g of the royal icing mixture with 35ml water. This will make the 'lining' icing, which is used to make a barrier for the 'flooding' icing. You can dye this any colour (I dyed mine a dark pink).
6. Now its time to decorate. You can decorate the cookies in any way you like, but this is the way I did mine. Put the 'llining' icing in a piping bag with a nozzle of your choice. Pipe this around the edge of the hearts. Next use the 'filling' icing to fill in the middle of the heart. Now its time to decorate the middle in the style of your choice. Some suggestions are to write words or put dots on.

 

Broken Hearts

 

Molly's 'LOVE' Cookie



Selva Cake



Nuala's Selva

This Saturday I decided to treat myself and go to a very nice french patisserie for a mid morning snack. After a lot of deliberating to what cake i was going to have as they all looked so tasty, I choose a cake called 'Selva'. The cake was rich as well as light and had three different types of icing; a chocolate ganache, whipped cream and a custard icing and was garnished with fresh fruit.

After eating this beautiful cake I immediately want to try and create my own. I found that the cake was similar to a Boston Cream Pie but a chocolate version with whipped cream as well. I decided to use a simple chocolate flour less sponge for the cake, cut into 4 layers. Between the first layer of cakes would be whipped cream and in the next layer creme patisserie and in the final layer there was whipped cream again. To top it all off the outside of the cake would be covered with a chocolate ganache and garnished with fresh fruit.

Well it sounds t so tasty, so now all I have to do is make it!

Selva Cake

Makes 1 cake or 8 indivual cakes (58mm)

For the flour less sponge:

14 large eggs

300g Castor sugar

135g cocoa powder

For the creme patisserie:

85 ml milk

85ml double cream

2 large egg yolks

35 g Castor sugar

10g plain flour

For the chocolate ganache:

250g chocolate

250ml double cream

For the whipped cream:

175ml double cream

To make the creme patisserie:

• Warm the milk and cream in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to the boil and then remove from the heat and set aside.
• In the bowl of a food mixer add the egg yolks and sugar. Beat until pale and creamy and then add the flour.
• Add the warm milk and cream to the egg mixture and whisk slowly until combined.
• Pour back into the pan and whisk gently until it comes together as a thick sauce.
• Cool the custard by placing it into a wide bowl. Put greaseproof paper to cover the bowl, this stops it forming a skin. Do not put it in the fridge but put it to side to cool until you are ready to use it.

To make the sponge:

• Heat oven to C180. To make one large cake line and grease two 20cm tins. Or to make small individual cakes line and grease a large square tin (I used a 20cm by 15cm tin). Circles can then be cut out of the tray bake and cut in half.
• Separate the eggs.
• Put the egg yolks into the bowl of a food mixer and add the sugar. Mix for 3-4 minutes until very thick and pale and a ribbon like trail falls back into the bowl when the whisk is lifted and disappears after a few seconds.
• Sift in the cocoa powder into this bowl and fold it in. It will be difficult to work in so after a few strokes leave it.
• In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until it forms stiff peaks.
• Add a small proportion of the egg whites to the egg yolks and fold in. Fold in the remaining egg whites in three batches to make a mouse like mixture.
• Divide the mixture evenly between three tins.
• Bake in a heated oven for 20minuites or until the cake comes away from the edges and is firm to the touch.
• Cool the cakes completely before turning out onto a wire rack.

To assemble the cake:

• Once the creme patisserie and cakes have cooled it is time to assemble.
• Firstly whip the cream until it is very thick and firm.
• To assemble the cake cut each cake into two, so you have 4 different layers of cake. Or if you are making individual cakes cut out 58mm rounds and then cut in half. Use the appraite amount of filling if you are making individual cakes.
• Put the first layer of cake onto a plate with grease proof paper on it. Spread half of the whipped creme onto the cake, spreading right to the edge. It does not matter if the icing spreads down the side of the cake.
• Place the next layer of cake on top. Spread all of the creme patisserie over it, right to the edges.
• Sandwich the next layer of cake on top. Onto this layer add the rest of the whipped cream, again spreading right to the edge.
• Put the final layer of cake on. Taking a knife run it around the edge of the cake removing all the excess icing. Put the cake aside to set whilst you make the ganache.

To make the ganache:

• Melt the dark chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of water, (make sure the bowl and water do not touch) then pour the melted chocolate over the room temperature cream. Whisk this together. Cool by putting it in the fridge for about 10minuites.
• Finally cover the top and sides of the cake with the chocolate ganache evenly
• Garnish with fresh fruit such as raspberries or strawberries.

Selva in a Ramakin

If this cake seems complicated or you want to try an easier method:

Leave out the whipped cream and do not split the cake into 2. So there are two layers of cake filled with creme patisserie and then spread the chocolate ganache over the top.

If you do not feel confident in decorating the individual cakes you can assemble the cake in layers in ramekins, they look just as good.

If you make individual cakes either put the left over cake in ramekins or a large bowl and assemble the cake as instructed.

Another tip is so wrap ribbon or paper around the edges so nobody has to see the sides!