The first known printed brownie recipe dates back to the 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalog, but recipe folklore attributes the invention of the recipe to a fortunate mistake. A cook forgot to add baking powder to the batter for a chocolate cake, and brownies were the result, a happy result for us. Brownies before the Internet were largely a North American bar cookie, generally chocolate, and ranging in texture from cake like, to slightly chewy, to incredibly rich and dense and very comparable to a small chunk of a flourless chocolate cake. I do have a few very strong opinions about brownies. First, they're one of the best "first baking" projects to begin with. Secondly, you can make exceedingly good brownies from a decent mix; I favor Betty Crocker or Ghiradelli. Third, the quality of the chocolate or the cocoa is crucial. Don't cheap out; don't use cocoa you wouldn't drink, or chocolate you wouldn't eat. Fourth, the best brownies I've ever had were made from a recipe using Crisco, rather than butter or margarine. I don't have the recipe here, or I'd post it.

Here's a fairly basic, traditional brownie recipe, and yes, it uses butter.

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
3. Beat the eggs, the sugar and the vanilla together, and set aside.
4. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter (one sticks).
5. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the eggs, sugar and vanilla mixture. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix it thoroughly.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Spread it evenly.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.
8. When the brownies are almost completely cooled (wait at least an hour) cut them into squares.

This really is a basic recipe, and yes, you can substitute margarine for the butter; just remember that by so doing you're reducing cholesterol, but not really making a difference in terms of calories. This is pretty easy to double or even triple. Do watch the timing; you don't want to overcook them. You can test them for doneness but inserting a toothpick or a clean knife blade into the center; it shouldn't have batter on it when you remove it. Remember that the thickness of the brownies affects cooking time.There are a fair number of ways you vary this recipe; you can add nuts, or chocolate chips, or butterscotch chips, or dried cherries (soak them in brandy!) or cranberries. You can ice them, or dust them with powdered sugar.

Using chocolate instead of cocoa produces a brownie that is slightly different in taste and in texture; more eggs makes a difference too. Here's a very simple recipe for a slightly chewy, fudgey recipe that is dense with chocolate.

1 cup butter (two sticks)
6 squares unsweetened or "baking" chocolate
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Melt butter and chocolate together.
2. Grease and lightly flour an 8 inch square pan.
3. In a large bowl thoroughly beat eggs together.
4. Add the sugar to the eggs, and blend it in thoroughly.
5. Add the chocolate and butter mixture, and the vanilla.
6. Stir in the flour, mixing it thoroughly, then add the chocolate chips.
7. Pour the batter into the greased 8 inch square pan.
8. Bake at 300 degrees F. for 45 to 55 minutes. Do not overcook.
9. Cool and cut into squares.

I use a microwave for melting the butter and chocolate, but a saucepan on top of the stove works. Technically, you're supposed to use a double boiler to melt the chocolate; I never have. Using high quality baking chocolate, and high quality chocolate chips is crucial; Ghiradelli chips work very well, but you can also simply buy a 60% or high cocoa/cacao semi-sweet or bitter sweet chocolate bar and chop it into tiny pieces for better melting.

One of my very favorite alternate version brownies are blonde brownies; these don't have cocoa or melted chocolate in the batter, but instead use butter, brown sugar, and chocolate chips. They're quite yummy. Here's a recipe for blonde brownies with walnuts. Here's a blonde brownie recipe that I favor since it also uses vanilla. And this is the "traditional" blonde brownie recipe from Nestlé.

Another popular brownie variant are cheesecake brownies; these are made by making a regular batch of chocolate brownies using either a favorite recipe or a mix. Then, before you bake the brownies, combine 1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, an egg 1/3 cup white sugar, and blend them together throughly. Then spread the cream chease mixture carefully on top of the pan of brownie batter. Using a toothpick, create swirls by inserting the toothpick through the cream cheese mixture just to the top of the chocolate batter, and dragging it. Bake as usual.