Baking, especially baking bread, is one of those activities that is perennially nerdy-cool, like knitting or discussing artisan teas. If you’ve ever talked with rhapsodic satisfaction about your sourdough starter, you’re a part of it. But you’re not the first.
Elizabeth Bishop was one of the earliest to recognize the proto-hipster qualities of baking from scratch, after the 1920s inventions of Betty Crocker mixes and Wonder Bread made it unnecessary. “My part-time work at present seems to be baking bread,” she wrote to Robert Lowell in 1960, adding presciently, “it sounds food-faddish I’m afraid.”
Although she was always an occasional baker, making treats for cake sales and birthdays, it wasn’t until landing in Brazil in 1951 that Bishop made it a habit. Her trip, which began as a travel fellowship, turned into a 15-year stay, and she soon became a very popular neighbor thanks to one of her signature recipes: brownies.
The earliest published recipes for brownies appeared in Chicago and New England the early 1900s, but according to Bishop they hadn’t made it to South America by the 1950s. Her version was an instant hit. “Since Brazilians are mad about anything chocolate … I have been requested to bring along 4 dozen brownies (something I’ve introduced to Brazil) and a large chocolate cake,” she writes to Lowell in the fall of 1957. “You see how innocent our lives are here—just making money and eating sweets.”
There’s an intimacy about baking, which might be why I always like to celebrate Valentine’s Day with homemade desserts. But reading from the correspondence between Bishop and Lowell is just as romantic to me – no bodice-ripping, but plenty of wit, flirtation, and the kind of tenderness that bespeaks a very deep love.
* * *
Bishop’s brownie recipe has never been published before, to my knowledge, but her recipe lives among her papers in the Vassar Special Collections. I’ve included it here as she wrote it, and have added notes below in case you’d like to reproduce it for the Robert Lowell in your life.
(Sourced from The Elizabeth Bishop Papers at Vassar College, courtesy of Vassar Special Collections and Sarah Stone)
4 squares bitter chocolate (or about a cup of cocoa)
4 eggs
1/2 cup butter
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chopped nuts
Melt the chocolate and butter together – or, if you use cocoa, melt along with half the sugar and a little water. Cool slightly and beat in eggs and rest of sugar.
Sift in flour, add vanilla and nuts and beat. The batter is fairly stiff – doesn’t run much. Spread about <——————> this thick in square pan.
Bake in a slow oven – about 45 minutes to an hr., depending on pan, thickness, etc. They should be dry on top, just pulling away from edges, but still rather damp in the middle. Cut in squares in pan and remove with spatula.
This makes chewy brownies – for a harder kind, use brown sugar and an extra egg – or half brown sugar – Can be made thicker and used hot with whipped cream on top for a desert [sic] –
NOTES:
1) Although Bishop offers the cocoa option, the extra fat content of chocolate gives you a richer, fudgier brownie, especially in a recipe that has so little butter in the first place. I used 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate.
2) Although my sugar-shock alarm starts going off above 2 cups of sugar, in this recipe it’s the measurement for the nuts that really stymies me. 2 cups of walnuts and it would make a good trail mix, but a brownie? Not so much. I cut it down to 1 cup, and felt good about it.
3) Bishop asks for an square pan, presumably an 8×8, but to accommodate her (admittedly vague) measurements, I used an 8×11 and cooked for 40 minutes. For thicker brownies, use an 8×8 and bake for 45-50 minutes.
4) What is a “slow oven” anyway? Convention says 300-325°F; I baked mine at 315°F, because I like them gooey inside.
Paper and Salt 
Love, love, love this blog! Have you seen the book Novel Cuisine by Elaine Borish? http://www.amazon.com/Novel-Cuisine-Recreate-Culinary-Highlights/dp/0952488132
I hadn’t, but now I have to seek it out – I used to try to make dinner parties around certain books, and this would have been great! Finding out what authors liked to eat is a lot of fun, but there’s a lot to be said for letting a novel stir up your own culinary ideas.
It’s so great! I’ve always wanted to make Woolf’s Boeuf en Daub (To the Lighthouse) but haven’t the courage. 🙂 I love Mary Shelly’s Oatcakes (Frankenstein)!
This blog is such a great idea! Are you doing a book too? I hope so! The agency Dystel & Goderich (where my agent is) do a lot of cookbooks…
I’ve always wanted to attempt the banana breakfast from Gravity’s Rainbow, but I think parts of it are beyond my abilities. In case anyone wants to try: http://biblioklept.org/2010/11/24/thomas-pynchons-banana-breakfast/
You’re very kind to say that! No plans at the moment – just cooking and blogging!
What a fabulous idea for a blog! Thanks for your insights so far and looking forward to many more mouth-watering posts…
Thank you! I love that most recent photo on your blog – and, lately, paper sculptures in general. Have you seen these? They are just beautiful. http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/11/29/142910393/the-library-phantom-returns
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I know this recipe! I grew up in America in the fifties, and this is exactly the recipe we used. It’s from the back of the box that the hard squares of unsweetened chocolate (so bitter!) came in.
Good eye! Here’s the Baker’s chocolate recipe as Kraft writes it up now – slight differences from Bishop’s, but you can definitely see the inspiration. http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/bakers-one-bowl-brownies-54515.aspx
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You may be interested to learn of another recipe Bishop wrote in a letter (also at Special Collections at Vassar College) for orange marmalade. Simplicity makes it memorable: two large oranges thinly sliced, with their juices; two cups of white granulated sugar; and, two cups of water. Put everything in a pot and allow to simmer until thickened. May be easily varied by using two lemons, one lemon/one lime, two grapefruit, etc.
This would be great to pair with yet another one of her recipes from the collection, for chocolate cake. Chocolate cake with layers of orange marmalade? Don’t mind if I do! Maybe for a future post …
So happy to have found your blog…eating a brownie while reading Bishop’s poetry or letters to Lowell would be a delight.
Re: Lowell–I mean, a very deep, platonic love. Elizabeth Bishop was definitely a lesbian, and not in love with Robert Lowell. Cool recipe, but I am frustrated with the white-washing of her sexuality.
You’re definitely right that Carlota de Macedo Soares shoudn’t be overshadowed – Bishop was living with her in Brazil when she was making these brownies, after all, and she may well have been the greatest love of Bishop’s life. I think the question of her sexuality is a bit more fluid, though, and she and Lowell had a unique relationship that is hard to define as platonic or romantic. Lowell did say that not proposing to Bishop was “the might have been for me … the other life that might have been had.” That ambiguity what I think makes it a relationship worth dwelling on.
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what a beautiful blog. So elegant and wonderfully written!
Ok… so a guilty ramp up on the brownie recipe… take the same recipe but place a layer of cookie dough followed by Rolos underneath. Bake and serve warm with Vanilla ice cream…. What do you think? decadent and potentially wicked?
They’re known at Filthy Brownies.
Anyway, a stunning blog and such a easy read with a steaming cup of coffee! Am going to show this to my mother, it reminds me of her and she will love this! Thank you.
x
http://www.coffeetoastandlondon.com/2012/04/filthy-brownies.html
Oh, I shouldn’t have read that … now I’m going to try making brownies with layers of every one of my favorite candy bars on the bottom (Reese’s, anyone?). Thanks for stopping by!
It’s cute that she spelt ‘dessert’ as ‘desert’! *chuckle*…
Makes me feel a little bit better about all my typos!
Nice recipe. I love a simple brownie recipe which is easy for the kids 🙂
I also like the below brownie recipe.
http://www.wascene.com/food-drink/perfect-chocolate-brownie-recipe/
Thanks for sharing,
Jane
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