By 1907, the brownie was well established in a recognizable form. That milestone is associated with Lowney’s Cook Book, compiled by Maria Willett Howard for the Walter M. Lowney Company in Boston.
The dessert developed in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early “brownies” were not always chocolate: Fannie Farmer’s 1896 recipe used molasses and nuts, while a 1899 Chicago cookbook printed an unleavened chocolate cake called “Brownie cake.”
The 1907 Lowney’s recipe adapted a Boston Cooking-School recipe for a “Bangor Brownie.” It added an extra egg and another square of chocolate, producing a richer, fudgier result. That date should not be confused with the 1893 Palmer House brownie legend, which describes an early related dessert but did not originally use the name in cookbooks or journals.
Modern brownies can be fudgy or cakey. A chocolate-free, brown-sugar-based variation is usually called a blondie or blond brownie.