National Brownie Day
Also known as
National Chocolate Brownie Day
Observed
annually on December 8th
Dates
Tags
Food & Drink
Snacks & Desserts
Hashtags
Sources
Today celebrates the popular chocolate dessert, the brownie. Brownies can vary in their texture; they may have a similar consistency to cake, fudge, or cookies. Although they are often plain, they many times include ingredients such as nuts, frosting, or powdered sugar. They almost always are chocolate, but variations exist such as the blonde brownie, which substitutes the chocolate for brown sugar, and butterscotch brownies, popular in the South, which also contain no chocolate, and are topped with butterscotch meringue.
Brownies were created in the late 19th century, and were popularized at the beginning of the 20th. There is some debate as to their provenance. One story claims that Bertha Palmer, wife of the owner of the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, asked a pastry chef to create a dessert for women to eat at the World's Columbian Exposition. The chef created the Palmer House Brownie, a brownie with walnuts and apricot glaze, that is still sold at the hotel today. Another story claims a housewife in Bangor, Maine, created the brownie. Brownies began appearing in their current form in various cookbooks during the first decade of the 20th century.
How to Observe National Brownie Day
Celebrate the day by making brownies and trying not to eat the whole pan in one sitting!