The Invention of a Sweet Confection

The first reference to the “brownie” in America appears in the Sears Roebuck Catalog published in Chicago in 1898. Specifically at the direction of Bertha Palmer to be served at the Columbian Exposition World’s Fair in 1893, the brownie was created in the Palmer House Kitchen in the late 19th century. The recipe below is well over a century old and is the exact same one used for the brownie served in the Palmer House Hilton today! It remains one of the hotel’s most popular confections.

The Palmer House Brownie