Nothing is quite as American as brownies; small, square chocolate cakes. Brownies can be gooey, fudgy, or cakey. They can be topped with icing, powered sugar, whipped cream or anything else, or nothing at all. You can add nuts or chocolate chips to the batter and they are still brownies. You can eat them as finger-food as a snack or serve them as an elaborate desert with ice cream. Amazingly, brownies don’t even have to be brown to be brownies.Not surprisingly, there are cookbooks devoted solely to brownies; the variations are sheer endless. I suspect, the only criteria a brownie has to meet is be cut into squares, be sweet and good.
Brownies have been around a good 100 years or so. But 30 years ago the majority of Swiss had never heard of, let alone eaten one. While talking to my sister on the phone once she told me she had just made a really great fudge pie. She said it tasted like brownies and gave me the recipe.
When I worked at the library, quite often someone would bring something to share at the morning break. I was no exception. The fudge pie was really good and so easy to make that I made a batch to take to work. I might have even called it “fudge pie” the first time I brought it. Still, I had cut it into squares and squares are never a pie. So naturally somewhere along the line the name changed to brownies. Everyone liked them and that was the main thing, who really cared what they were called.
Brownies in Switzerland
It’s been many years since I made or even thought about them. Nowadays you can buy brownies at most bakeries so they are no longer “special”. But I cringed the first time I saw brownies written as “Brownys” in a bakery. Even the singular of brownies is brownie. Some words just look so wrong when written incorrectly, I had to tell them! Thank goodness the next time I went there they had changed the sign. Of course, there are other English words that the Swiss will probably never get right, one of which is “hobbys”. I’ve seen that written incorrectly so many times that I’ve gotten used to it.
But I digress. Back to brownies, which are almost always spelled correctly now. Currently you can buy boxed brownie mixes at any grocery store. Before Christmas you can even buy dry ingredient brownies in clear Mason jars that make beautiful gifts. Everyone makes brownies now, but they are more often than not the traditional cake-brownie.
Invited for Dinner
A couple of weeks ago Ben and I were invited to dinner with someone I used to work with. I asked if I could bring something for desert and she suggested brownies! “The super-good brownies you made way back when.” Gladly. I dug up the recipe and made them. Just to make sure I hadn’t used salt instead of sugar I tried a small piece. Mmmm. Yep, perfect. Just like the ones I made back then.
Then I got thinking, which is never a good move for me. A lot of time had passed since my friend had eaten them and memories tend to make everything better. Like I said, brownies are everywhere these days but they are usually the cake-brownies. Maybe she had eaten a lot of cake-brownies and forgotten what my brownies were really like. I even thought about making a batch of cake-brownies to bring as a back-up. But there wasn’t enough time left to do that. I could do nothing but bring my fudge pie brownies and hope they were the way she remembered them.
Dinner was great, in fact the whole evening was fantastic with interesting discussions. Then it was time for dessert. While she was putting the brownies on a plate she said she had to try one. She ate it, I held my breath. Drum roll, please. She smiled and said they were just the way she remembered them! Whew. Nothing like making a problem where there isn’t one. Bring on the brownies!
Brownie Recipe
Sorry, no picture of what they look like. They don’t stay around long enough to get the camera out. Here’s the recipe in case you want to make the gooey, not overly chocolate, very good fudge pie, oops, brownies.
Brownies (Fudge Pie)
½ cup butter (ca. 115 g.)
1 ounce unsweetened dark chocolate (about 1 row)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup all-purpose flour
Combine butter and chocolate in a small saucepan; cook over low heat until melted. Set aside.
Combine eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Stir in chocolate mixture. Add flour; stir until blended.
Put baking paper into a 9-inch springform pan (which makes it easy to take out). Pour mixture onto paper. Bake at 325°F (163°C) for 25 minutes or until pie tests done (do not over bake). Yield: one 9-inch pie. When cool take out of pan, remove paper and cut into squares (for brownies).
To add variety to the pie or brownies, add chopped nuts or chopped white chocolate.
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