According to Wikipedia, brownies were developed at the end of which century?
Answer
19th century
According to Wikipedia, brownies were developed at the end of the 19th century.
The dessert emerged in the United States during the late 1800s, when “brownie” was already associated with brown-colored foods and themed social events. An early 1896 recipe by Fannie Farmer described a molasses-based brownie without chocolate, while a 1899 Chicago cookbook printed a recipe called “Brownie cake,” an early form of the modern dessert.
Brownie history is not tied to one universally accepted inventor. A popular legend credits Bertha Palmer, who supposedly requested a compact chocolate dessert for boxed lunches at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Palmer House version included walnuts and an apricot glaze, but the name “brownie” was applied later.
By the early 1900s, recipes with chocolate and recognizable modern proportions were spreading through newspapers and cookbooks. The 1906 edition of Farmer’s cookbook helped popularize chocolate brownies nationwide, and later recipes developed the familiar fudgy and cakey styles. A blondie is a related variation made without chocolate in the batter.