The Curious Chocolate Brownie: Did It Really Come From Bangor?

Chocolate syrup brownie, caramel frosting, and ice cream.

Somewhere in the late 1800s or early 1900s, a Bangor, Maine, housewife forgot to add baking soda to her chocolate cake batter. The cake turned out flat instead of fluffy, but the cook served it to her guests anyway. And so goes the mythical story of how the northern city of Bangor became attached to the birth of the modern-day chocolate brownie.

Some sources still claim that actually happened. Others have their doubts. But one lady of renown, the late Mildred Brown Schrumpf (affectionately called Brownie), insisted America’s beloved sugary treat originated in the Bangor area. She noted a recipe for chocolate brownies in the Bangor-published Girls Welfare Cook Book, 1912.

Mildred Brown (Schrumpf), 1929.

Unfortunately Mildred, a food educator and a columnist for the Bangor Daily News for decades, died in 2001 before her theory could be confirmed or denied.

A few years after Mildred’s death, the first edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America maintained that Mildred was incorrect. The encyclopedia stated that the 1905 edition of the famous Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, edited by Fannie Farmer, listed a recipe for chocolate brownies and thus predated the Girls Welfare book.

But in 2013, when the second edition of the Oxford food encyclopedia came out, its argument had changed. It had been discovered, apparently, that several publications with chocolate brownie recipes had been in print prior to the Boston cookbook. At least one of those publications called its dessert “Bangor Brownie.”

The birth of chocolate brownies

From a Maine women’s cookbook, 1948.

In the 1800s, molasses was used more in cooking than chocolate. This is probably why the 1896 edition of the Boston cookbook contained a recipe for a “brownie” that only used molasses. But by the latter 1890s, companies who manufactured chocolate products began advertising and encouraging home cooks to use chocolate instead of molasses, and an abundance of chocolate recipes soon appeared in many parts of the US.

In Illinois, the 1904 Chicago Service Club Cook Book was one of the first publications featuring the brownie called Bangor, although no one seems to know why it was called Bangor. The recipe called for a half cup of butter, a cup of sugar, two melted Baker’s Chocolate squares, two eggs, and a half cup each of flour and nuts. A wonderful concoction for the traditional brownie as we know it today.

Was the Chicago brownie really named after Bangor, Maine? There are 10 communities in the US named Bangor. In addition to Maine, one each is found in Alabama, California, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin. Maine’s Bangor, in 1900, had a population of over 20,000 and was a major business hub. The Bangors in New York and Pennsylvania were small, by comparison. So one solution to the puzzle is that the brownie was most likely named after our Maine city.

In 1905, the New York Home Cook Book published a chocolate brownie recipe, as well as the Boston Daily Globe. “Bangor” was the name of the Globe brownie.

1912 edition.

Two year later, Lowney’s Chocolate and Cocoa Company of Boston produced a cookbook that also featured the Bangor brownie. There were differences between that recipe and the Chicago one: less butter, brown sugar instead of white, and three chocolate squares instead of two.

Closer to home, the Ladies Aid of the Naples, Maine, Methodist Episcopal Church included Bangor brownies in its 1910 recipe book. Slightly different than either Lowney’s or the Chicago club’s, the Naples recipe added more flour and a half teaspoon of baking powder.

Bangor’s competition

In addition to the mistaken claim that the Boston cooking school was “first” to publish a chocolate brownie recipe, a Chicago hotel made an even earlier assertion. Staff at the Palmer House Hilton created a flat chocolate dessert in 1893, but the creation wasn’t called a brownie at the time. The Hilton website maintains that the first mention of the word “brownies” in cookbooks didn’t occur for several more years, and that is why their brownies were not called as such until some time later.

The Palmer brownie—which is still produced at the hotel—has a fudge consistency that’s much heavier than the type of brownie produced elsewhere around the turn of the 20th Century. The hotel’s ingredients included 14 ounces of chocolate, three-fourths cup flour, eight eggs, two cups of butter, one and one-half cups of sugar—in addition to chopped nuts on top and an apricot glaze.

An 1890s recipe from the Boston/Portland, Maine, area that was similar to a chocolate brownie was called Chocolate Treats, with three ounces of grated chocolate, an unclear amount of flour, brown sugar, nuts, and one egg. Baked in a shallow pan, the instructions said to “cut the treats into squares.” The treats were flat, like most brownies made without leavening, filled with chocolate, sugar, and nuts, but perhaps a bit dry with no butter or oil.

In conclusion, with the number of times “Bangor” was associated with brownies in the early 1900s, Bangor, Maine—as the motherland of the mysterious modern brownie—is not that far-fetched of a conclusion to make. But we may never discover, however, the name of the Bangor cook who served it first.

A Bangor chocolate syrup brownie

In the 1930s, Hershey’s Chocolate began selling chocolate syrup to its home customers and encouraging its use in recipes.

Three decades later, Maine’s Jubliee Cookbook, edited by Loana Shibles and Annie Rogers, was published by Down East Books for the state’s sesquicentennial celebration. The Jubliee brownie recipe was made with chocolate syrup instead of melted chocolate. Ironically, the recipe was submitted by a Bangor woman: Mrs. Maude Donnelly, 66, an employee at the Fruit Street school cafeteria.

To celebrate Bangor brownies, I tried Maude’s recipe, with a few updated changes:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.

Mix 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup olive oil until light. Fold in 2 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp. baking soda, 3/4 cup dark chocolate syrup, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Pour mixture into a square pan lined with parchment paper.

Bake 40-43 minutes (don’t over bake). Cool before cutting into squares.

Easy Caramel Frosting from Aroostook

I topped the brownies with boiled caramel frosting made from a recipe in the same cookbook contributed by Mrs. Amy Russell of Fort Fairfield. I had never made a boiled frosting before, but with Amy’s guidance, the frosting came out delicious and easy to spread, and the caramel/chocolate combination was equally yummy.

Here’s the recipe, with a few changes:

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a saucepan; add 3/4 cup dark brown sugar and melt again (don’t stir). Then add 6 tablespoons of heavy cream, stir slightly, bring to a boil, and boil vigorously 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and let cool about 5-6 minutes.

Add about 1 cup powdered sugar gradually while constantly beating the mixture by hand, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla.

Keep mixing (adding more sugar if needed) until frosting is spreadable. It will stiffen some after mixing has stopped, so don’t overdo it. Frost the cake soon, before the frosting hardens.