What type of baked item is a chocolate brownie classified as?

A chocolate brownie is classified as a dessert bar: a chocolate baked confection that is typically cut into squares or rectangles. Unlike a layer cake, it is usually baked as one relatively shallow mass and portioned into individual bars.

Brownies can have very different textures. Fudgy brownies contain a dense, moist interior, while cakey brownies use proportions and mixing methods that produce a lighter crumb. Both styles remain brownies, and recipes may add nuts, frosting, chocolate chips, caramel, or dried fruit.

The brownie developed in the United States near the end of the 19th century and became widely popular during the first half of the 20th century. Early recipes commonly combined chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar, flour, salt, vanilla, and sometimes chopped nuts. A frequent classification mistake is calling brownies cake simply because they contain flour and eggs. Their shape, density, and bar-cookie format distinguish them from a conventional layer cake, even though cakey brownies can resemble cake in texture.