A HARTE APPETITE: THE BROWNIE: FUDGY, CHEWY, CAKEY TREAT...

The late Mary Jane Rathbun, a.k.a. Brownie Mary, was a beloved California crusader for the legalization of marijuana for medical use. A courageous pioneer in the fight against AIDS, she routinely gave away to people suffering from the disease batch after batch of her own prescription -- cannabis-laced brownies.

Accustomed to being occasionally busted for illegal possession of drugs, she was nonetheless outraged when following one of her early arrests, the local newspaper reported that police had confiscated from her home 20 pounds of high-grade marijuana, 50 pounds of flour, 50 pounds of sugar, 22 dozen eggs and 35 pounds of margarine. Mary was mortified. She was not embarrassed to have been caught violating a law which she thought was unjust, but she was chagrined by the implication that she used margarine as an ingredient in her notable confections.

"The narcs may not know any better," she testily complained, "but that was the finest quality butter."

At the risk of being misunderstood, I want to say that Brownie Mary was my kind of baker. And brownies are my kind of cookie.

Actually, brownies aren't really cookies and they aren't really cake. They are a cross between the two. Though the Oxford Companion to Food concludes that the origin of the bars is unclear, like so many culinary inventions, they were probably discovered by accident.

One legend has it that brownies were invented when a clumsy baker dropped a chocolate cake, but most theorists suggest that the first brownie was the result of someone forgetting to put baking powder in cake batter which was, perhaps, already overloaded with chocolate, butter and sugar. No one seems to know who this serendipitous inventor was, though some claim it was a librarian in Maine by the name of Brownie Schrumpf.

Whatever the case, the cake did not rise and may well have been considered a failure, until someone took a bite. The name, by most accounts, comes from the brownie's deep brown color and is not a tribute to Ms. Schrumpf or anyone else.

James Trager, in the Food Chronology, claims that the first published recipe for brownies appeared in, of all places, the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalog of 1897, and the Oxford Companion agrees. But a recipe for the confection appears in the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (the original Fanny Farmer Cookbook) which was published a year earlier in 1896. To make matters just that much more confusing, however, that recipe contains no chocolate.

Whatever their origin, brownies have been popular ever since their creation. Kristin Miller, a food historian for Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen network, says they were the favorite treat of the Roaring Twenties. Moreover, as she also points out, they are uniquely American. Every culture has its cookies, she observes, but only we have brownies.

Perhaps that's why in this country they often outsell much fancier desserts, even in the most upscale of restaurants. Indeed, no less a celebrity chef than Wolfgang Puck has become a convert. According to Mary Bergin, a pastry chef at Puck's fashionable restaurant, Spago, when she first tried to put brownies on the Los Angeles restaurant's menu Puck resisted. "You know, I don't think I like these square chocolate things," he would say. But when Spago opened a Las Vegas branch, she concocted a brownie sundae and got Puck's permission to give it a try. During the first month of operation it outsold every other dessert! Fittingly, the Spago dessert cookbook, authored by Bergin, contains an entire chapter devoted to brownies.

Conventionally, brownies are classified as either fudgy or cakelike, but Joan Steuer and Rick Rodgers, authors of the immodestly titled cookbook, "Best-Ever Brownies," have identified three distinct varieties: fudgy, chewy, and cakey.

Fudgy brownies, as their name implies, are gooey with an intense chocolate flavor. They are the classic version and are traditionally made with unsweetened chocolate and a very small amount of flour. They are seldom iced. They are removed from the oven while the center of the brownie still seems unbaked and a toothpick inserted one inch from the side of the pan comes out with a moist crumb.

Chewy brownies are also soft and moist, but are usually thicker than the fudgy variety. They tend to be crusty around the edges. Typically made with semi-sweet chocolate and creamed, as opposed to melted, butter, they frequently contain nuts. They are baked until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownie comes out with a moist crumb.

Cakey brownies are springy to the touch and resemble a firm devil's food cake. They will usually contain baking powder or some other leavening agent and often feature thick, creamy frostings. They are baked until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownie comes out clean.

Despite their homespun appearance, baking brownies is actually more exacting than you might expect. Variations of as little as a tablespoon or two of flour can made a fundamental difference in the finished product. Oven temperature is critical. And just two or three minutes of baking time can spell the difference between success and disaster. As dessert virtuoso Maida Heatter, whose reputation as a pastry chef started with her brownies, observes, "Perfectly timed brownies are a great accomplishment!"

Probably the most important thing to remember when baking brownies is to avoid overbaking, but here are some other brownie points to keep in mind.

- The easiest way to remove brownies from their baking pan is to line it with aluminum foil. Allow a two-inch overhang of foil to use as a "handle" to remove the entire brownie from the pan before slicing.

- Cool brownies completely before cutting. Though it may be hard to resist the temptation of a warm brownie, they tend to improve in taste and texture after sitting for at least four hours and will be even better after 24.

- Remember that the flavor of brownies can vary dramatically when different brands of chocolate are used because there is no industry standard for the amount of sugar in semisweet and bittersweet chocolate. The use of cocoa powder will affect not only the flavor of a brownie but, because it contains less cocoa butter than chocolate does, its texture as well.

- If a recipe calls for soft butter to be creamed with other ingredients such as sugar and egg, avoid letting it get too soft or the resultant mixture will lack fluffiness and this will affect the texture of the brownies.

- The best way to tell when a brownie is done, according to cookbook author Jim Fobel, is to carefully monitor baking time, which is established through trial and error. The toothpick test is a good guide, but it is not foolproof.

- Be creative with additions to your brownie batter. A cup or so of grated zucchini added to a standard-sized batch of brownies will make them incredibly moist (and provide a welcome auxiliary outlet for zucchini this time of year). Believe it or not, as Mexican cooks who have long known the affinity of spice and chocolate will tell you, a teaspoon of black pepper adds a delightful kick to a batch of brownies. More conventional additions include peanut butter, marshmallows, chunks of white chocolate, coffee, various liqueurs (Grand Marnier is nice), swirls of cream cheese, Peppermint Pattie candies, and, of course, nuts. One of my favorite additions is chopped candied ginger.

But the truth is, you don't have to go overboard with additions to make a great brownie. If made with fresh ingredients and the highest quality chocolate, even a plain brownie, contrary to Brownie Mary's experience, is sufficient for any gourmet to get high on. I think you will find the following perfectly legal recipes particularly exhilarating.

Extra Fudgy Brownies

According to the editors at Gourmet magazine these are the fudgiest brownies they've ever tried, quite a claim considering the magazine must have published hundreds of brownie recipes over the years. This version originated at The Farm of Beverly Hills and is served in giant squares. Gourmet recommends cutting them into smaller portions because they are so rich. I don't!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

2 cups (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate morsels

6 eggs

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Melt butter and chocolate until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in eggs, one at a time. Combine flour, cocoa, and sugar and stir into chocolate mixture. Bake in greased and floured 9x13-inch pan at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until top is firm and toothpick inserted into center comes out with crumbs adhering. Cool at least 2 hours or preferably overnight before cutting into squares.

Sacher Brownies

The Viennese Sachertorte is world famous and the impetus for a prolonged court trial (the "Sweet Seven Years' War) to determine who had exclusive rights to it, the Sacher Hotel or Demel's pastry shop. But as one who has visited both places for some first-hand comparison tasting, I honestly believe this brownie version is even better than the original. I've adapted the recipe from one that appeared some years ago in Ladies Home Journal.

Ingredients:

4 sticks (2 cups) butter, divided

3/4 cup powdered sugar

2 3/4 cup flour, divided

1 cup toasted hazelnuts, finely chopped

1 jar (12 oz.) apricot preserves

5 squares (5 oz.) unsweetened chocolate

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate morsels

2 ounces white chocolate

Directions:

Cream 2 sticks butter with powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 and 3/4 cups flour and nuts and spread in foil-lined 10x15-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Puree preserves in a food processor and spread over baked crust. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Melt remaining 2 sticks butter with unsweetened chocolate and cool 10 minutes. Beat eggs, sugar, and salt to ribbon stage, then beat in chocolate and remaining 1 cup flour. Pour over preserve-glazed crust and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until tester comes out just barely clean. Cool. Melt semisweet chocolate and spread over brownies. When set, melt white chocolate and drizzle decoratively over top.

Listen to A Harte Appetite every Saturday at 11:59 a.m. following Whad'ya Know" on KRCU, 90.9 on your FM dial. Send suggestions for this column to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.