My grandmother recently gave me her mother’s recipe for brownie. Now this is brownie not as most of the world today knows brownie, (a chocolatey, decadent dense slab.) This is brownie that was born out of two world wars and one great depression. A time when making do and frugality skipped hand in hand and landed with a plop on your kitchen table top.
During this period, sugar was readily available, locally grown sultanas were in abundance and a simple slab of this would easily fill up hungry bellies. My grandmother in the 1960′s did the same thing with her children, reducing the sugar somewhat (it’s achingly sweet) and filling my dad’s childhood bottomless belly along with that of his siblings. I remember eating great squares of it when I would go and visit. The ting of the metallic cake tin as eager hands would cut just a little more.
Twenty plus years went by and speaking with Grandma she reminded me of it again. Asking whether I would like the recipe for the bottomless bellies of my own Monkeys. I sure did, but…. couldn’t promise I would adhere strictly to the recipe. (I have a proud “Hack Baker” reputation to uphold here!)
(original recipe without the mixed spice)
First go, and I did follow it to the letter, (well almost, I didn’t have any mixed spice, which sort of loses the ‘brown’ effect. Ooops.)
It’s tooth achingly sweet, but gets a thumbs up from Little Monkey and visiting friends tasting it. One friend said it’s exactly as her grandmother would have served up during the same era in the UK. I do like it, it’s very plain and simple, but I think I could probably fiddle with it and jazz it up just a little.
So I did.
Now I had set my self rules with this though. It still had to be frugal and simple, with minimal butter, and no egg at all. I did wonder to myself as I handed out another slab for The Monkeys to eat, what my Great Grandmother would have thought about this slightly jazzed up version of her trusty old recipe.
I like to think she’d have liked it.
Great Grandma’s Brownie
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup sultanas
1 tbls butter
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice and baking powder
Boil water, sugar, sultanas and butter together for approximately 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool, add remaining ingredients. Bake in a greased and lined tin at 180C for approximately 30 minutes.
My Old Fashioned Brownie
1 1/2 cups currants and raisins (or mixed fruit)
2 cups water
3/4- 1 cup brown sugar
50g butter
zest of a whole orange
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
3 cups self raising flour (450g)
Add all ingredients together (except flour) in a pot and boil for about 5 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Add flour, fold through and pour into a greased and lined square tin.
Bake at 180C for approximately 40 minutes.
i am just remembering my grandma made this! I don’t think she had a name for it though, we just ate it.
Kim I wonder just how many Australian childhoods have this sort of thing wrapped up in their taste bud memories.
Was your Grandma’s just as sweet?
I grew up thinking of cakes like this as a slice, which I didn’t realise until I was an adult was a very Australian term. Your version sounds delish, Brydie!
You don’t much hear of a ‘slice’ these days do you. Things have gotten way too fancy for an everyday slice I think. It’s all macarons, cookies, chocolate brownies and friands!
Mmmm…I have a hollow spot that might like this.
Alice it is perfect for hollow spots
I remember my grandmother making something similar! Brydie I love that sentence: “A time when making do and frugality skipped hand in hand and landed with a plop on your kitchen table top.”
Thanks Rose
What an interesting recipe steeped in history and memories Brydie. Thanks for sharing the recipe and your version too
Lorraine I’m so used to creaming butter and beating eggs, I really wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I was surprised and pleased!
My mum has a very similar brownie recipe and it’s a family favourite. There’s a great story about how my great aunty used to make the best CWA brownie but my nan always claimed she only gave out her recipe with missing ingredients. We thought it was a bit of sour grapes on my Nan’s behalf – until my great aunty died and her daughter shared her recipe. Some of the spices and golden syrup were missing from Nan’s recipes when compared!
Now Jen my other grandmother has ALWAYS told me… never ever give the exact recipe as you don’t want the other person’s cooking to be the same or better than yours. Must have been the era I suspect
How lovely to have your great grandmother’s recipes. My grandmother gave me the Edmond’s cookbook and that harks from the same era of frugality where there are quite a few baking recipes without eggs because eggs where hard to come by during the Depression. I see your recipe has water in it and I’m sure that’s probably because they couldn’t afford or source milk. I think our generation could learn a lot about making a lot from a little xx
Maybe that could be the next Masterchef series?…
Frugal Cooking!
I love reading and experimenting with these old fashioned recipes which are usually very low on butter and sugar. Really shows how much fat and sugar we put into standard ‘everyday’ cakes now, not just decadent desserts, doesn’t it? I usually try and reduce the amount of sugar and butter in everything I bake…but seeing how I was at the supermarket this week buying a kilo of unsalted butter (an embarrassing profusion of those silver blocks in my shopping basket), I really can’t speak too much about this!
There is an alarming amount of butter and sugar used these days isn’t there. Sugar I quite often decrease a lot when I’m cooking but butter for baking I don’t tend to fiddle with. I might try and tweak a few other recipes I use and see if I switch things around a bit.
What are you going to bake with a kilo?
I want to try home made puff pastry…and croissants. We are missing the fantastic croissants we had in France so I figure it is time to give it a try! Scary amount of butter though….
Lovely.. both recipes!! I love the simplicity of your grandma’s and I love the jazzed up flavors in your version! I love that you have this special recipe.. hand delivered with love!! xx
Like you had also written about B, grandparents are incredibly special people.
Ooh yes, this is a brownie I can get behind! I like both versions and yours does sound just that little bit more jazzy
Kari you could easily swap the small amount of butter for a margarine as well, then easy peasy vegan.
Yay for frugality! This post is very interesting indeed – they actually look more appealing to me than the current trend in brownies. Very nice!
Thank you. I do really enjoy the challenge of making something deliciously tasty with just a few ingredients.
Me too – it brings a certain satisfaction
such an interesting take on brownies (although I guess they were the original prototypes
! )
I suspect they were Elle. Before a whole block of butter and chocolate landed in there!
I will show this to Brian and ask him what he would call it, he had one of those grans who baked. I know he would like to be left alone with a plate of these
Joanna I’d be interested to know what his granny might have called them… and I’m happy to leave out a plate for him.
This is what I thought of as a brownie too! Its the sort of thing you would always find in a country kitchen, and always waaaay too sweet
great job!
The original recipe is truly very sweet. My taste buds weren’t quite sure what was going on when I bit into it. My version is a lot less sweeter. I think it’s absolutely fine with just the 3/4 cup of sugar but others might think it needs to be upped a little.
It is the sort of thing my mum would have made – I can imagine that in my childhood this would be eaten with a slab of butter. Maybe that is a sign of my generation finding a taste for richer foods! But I like your addition of orange zest – it is the sort of modern touch I love – but I guess your gran might not have had fresh oranges on tap like we do
I’d have to ask her about the oranges, but you are right about the butter being served with the brownie. That’s exactly how I remember it being served… lashings of butter.
I think this would be called a blondie (no chocolate) here in the US. It sounds delicious whatever the name and I love the orange rind in your updated version. Love the passing down of recipes and the history and memories that go with each one.
Lovely post, Brydie!
Brydie, as always, loved your sweet writing…and there’s something about bringing our grandmas (or greats) into our kitchens and our posts that is so dear. Thanks for this one! xx
If I were your great-grandmother, I know I’d be proud.
I love the addition of orange and ginger
A lovely recipe with a family story attached, fantastic. Made me think of my gran’s stories of food rationing during the war
Lovely to hear about family recipes being passed down. I am going to a meeting at our local library on Tuesday when we all have to take something our mother would have baked/cooked and take the recipe with us.
This looks seriously similar to one my grandmother baked and I love your adaptation. Will be baking this shortly. x
Hi , Brydie…have been away on hols and have been catching up on all your posts. Looks like some lovely stuff going on in the city. Even though I have commented on this post, I had to come back to it to read alllll the comments. Isn’t it marvellous what an influence grandmothers have had on all these people – looks like you really hit a soft spot with us all here!
And my grandma’s was just so sweet …I think perhaps they made them so sweet so you couldn’t possibly eat it all at once. The other thing my grandma made were things called ‘Johnny boys ‘ which looked a bit like a biscuit and a bit like a cake… I am inspired to go looking in mum’s recipe cupboard and see if I can find the recipe.