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Brownies (Cake pans cup butter cup)
cake pans. 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup powdered sugar 1/3 cup Porto Rico molasses 1 egg, well beaten ⅞ cup bread flour 1 cup pecan meat, cut in pieces Mix ingredients in order given. Bake in small shallow fancy cake tins, garnishing top of each cake with one-half pecan.
These are not chocolate brownies. They are small molasses-and-pecan cakes, and the transcription is fragmentary at both ends — the leading "cake pans" and trailing "1/2 cup butter" belong to neighbouring recipes on the page and should be ignored.
- Powdered sugarIn this period "powdered sugar" means finely granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold under that name today. Ordinary granulated sugar is the right substitute.
- Porto Rico molassesA cane molasses generally sold as a good, mild grade: darker than golden syrup but well short of blackstrap. Any standard mild molasses works; blackstrap will make the cakes bitter.
- Bread flourBread flour was the ordinary default in cookbooks of this period, so no special intent should be read into it. The flour quantity is small relative to a full cup of nuts; note that the transcription is damaged in places, so the measure may not be reliable.
- OvenNo temperature or time is given. Around 350F is a reasonable modern guess for small shallow tins, with the cakes checked from about 12 minutes on, when the tops are set.
- Mixing order"Mix ingredients in order given" most likely implies the usual method of the period: butter and sugar worked together, then molasses, then egg, then flour and nuts.
- The tins"Small shallow fancy cake tins" means individual shaped moulds of some kind; the exact form is not specified. Mini muffin or madeleine pans approximate them; grease well, since molasses batters stick.
- YieldNo yield is stated; the quantities are small, so expect a modest number of little cakes. Each is finished with half a pecan on top.
History: Brownies of this kind -- molasses, one egg, a great many nuts and little flour -- predate any connection between the name and chocolate, and the recipe is often cited in arguments that the word originally described colour; the etymology remains unsettled rather than established. Pecans and a named Caribbean molasses grade reflect the ingredient trade of the period, though nothing in the recipe itself documents that context.