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Brownies

Makes one pan. You'll need: Large mixing bowl, Sifter, 9-inch square baking pan, Wire rack. Adapted for home kitchens by Halite from the U.S. War Department's Army Recipes (TM 10-412, 1946): scaled down from 100 servings, 1946 ingredients swapped for ones sold today, and the method rewritten. The recipe as printed is the Original version in this recipe's history.

24 servingsBy U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 106g (¾ cup) Flour, sifted
  • 2.3g (½ tsp) Baking powder
  • 1.6g (¼ tsp) Salt
  • 50g (9 ½ tbsp) Cocoa
  • 150g (1 cup) Raisins, seedless
  • 125g (½ cup) Vegetable shortening, or butter or lard
  • 275g (1 ⅓ cups) Sugar
  • 150g (3) Eggs, beaten
  • 6.2g (1 ¼ tsp) Vanilla

Instructions

  1. 1

    Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa together. Add the raisins and mix well.

    • 2.3g (½ tsp) Baking powder
    • 1.6g (¼ tsp) Salt
    • 50g (9 ½ tbsp) Cocoa
    • 150g (1 cup) Raisins, seedless
  2. 2

    In a large bowl, mix the vegetable shortening and sugar; stir until light and fluffy.

    • 125g (½ cup) Vegetable shortening
    • 275g (1 ⅓ cups) Sugar
  3. 3

    Add the beaten eggs gradually, mixing well after each addition; add the vanilla.

    • 150g (3) Eggs, beaten
    • 6.2g (1 ¼ tsp) Vanilla
  4. 4

    Add the flour mixture and mix just enough to dampen the flour.

  5. 5

    Spread the mixture evenly and fairly thin in a well-greased baking pan. Bake in a slow oven (325°F) for about 35 minutes.

  6. 6

    Cut into squares at once. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

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Brownies

218 brownies (2-inch squares)By U.S. War Department on Army Recipes, TM 10-412 (1946)

Ingredients

  • 2 ⅛ pounds (2⅛ No. 56 dippers) Flour, sifted
  • ¾ ounce (2 mess kit spoons) Baking powder
  • ½ ounce (1 mess kit spoon) Salt
  • 1 pound (1¼ No. 56 dippers) Cocoa
  • 3 pounds (3 mess kit cups) Raisins, seedless
  • 2 ½ pounds (1¼ No. 56 dippers) Shortening
  • 5 ½ pounds (2¾ No. 56 dippers) Sugar, granulated
  • 26 eggs (1¼ No. 56 dippers) Eggs, beaten
  • 2 ounce (4 mess kit spoons) Vanilla

Instructions

  1. 1

    Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa together. Add raisins ; mix well.

  2. 2

    Mix shortening and sugar; stir until light and fluffy.

  3. 3

    Add beaten egg gradually, mixing well after each addition; add vanilla.

  4. 4

    Add flour mixture and mix only enough to dampen flour.

  5. 5

    Spread mixture about ^ inch thick in well-greased baking pans. Bake in slow oven (325° F.) 35 minutes.

  6. 6

    Cut into 2-inch squares at once. Turn out onto rack to cool.

Typed from the page scan above. If the two disagree, go with the scan.

What we changed

  • Cut from the book’s 218 brownies (2-inch squares) to one pan.
  • Swapped “Shortening” for “Vegetable shortening” (or butter or lard).
  • Scaled 9 amounts and rounded each to a kitchen measure, like ½ cup.
  • Fixed 3 fractions the scan of the 1946 page misread.
  • Tidied 1 ingredient name.
  • AI rewrote the method for a home kitchen. Tap As printed at the top to compare.

Taken from the log we keep of every edit to this recipe. We left out the line-by-line unit conversions.

Where this recipe comes from

It’s from Army Recipes (TM 10-412), the cookbook the U.S. War Department printed in 1946 for Army mess halls. As a U.S. government work, it’s in the public domain.

See the scanned book →

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