Maria Willet Howard created Lowney's Brownies for which company?

Maria Willet Howard created Lowney’s Brownies for the Walter M. Lowney Co.

Howard’s recipe appeared in Lowney’s Cook Book, a publication associated with the Boston chocolate and candy manufacturer Walter M. Lowney Company. Howard had trained at the Boston Cooking School under Fannie Farmer, one of the most influential American cookbook writers of the period. Her work helped move the brownie from an emerging recipe into a recognizable chocolate dessert.

The 1907 Lowney’s Cook Book included brownie recipes that adapted the broader Boston cooking-school tradition. Howard’s richer version used an additional egg and another square of chocolate, producing a denser, fudgier result. The company connection also explains why early brownie history is intertwined with chocolate manufacturers: cookbooks and recipes promoted particular baking products as well as culinary techniques.

The answer is sometimes confused with Baker’s Chocolate because early brownie recipes often called for Baker’s chocolate. That ingredient reference does not identify the company that published Howard’s Lowney’s Brownies.