When the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 decimated the city's downtown, the Palmer House hotel had been open for less than a year.

Its swift reopening in 1873, when Gilded Age wealth rushed to rebuild the city, became a symbol for a city rising from the ashes.

Today, it operates as a Hilton hotel.

Beyond boosting the local economy, Chicago leaders hoped the event would show the world that the growing city had fully recovered from the 1871 fire.

The fair, which was held from May until October 1893, showcased international developments in technology, art, and transportation on the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas and attracted over 27 million people to the city, per Choose Chicago.

The Palmer House owners, Potter and Bertha Palmer, were one of the wealthiest families in the Midwestern city during the Gilded Age.

In 1893, Bertha Palmer served as president of the fair's Board of Lady Managers, which gave wealthy women a voice in constructing and decorating the fair's Women's Building, showcasing the achievements of American women, among other tasks.

As part of her role, Bertha Palmer asked the hotel's chef to create a dessert that would be easy to transport in a lunchbox for the other society women serving on the fair's board.

Although she didn't call it a brownie — the name wouldn't come until 1898, per the hotel — Bertha Palmer's dessert, which she directed to be "more unique than a piece of pie or cake" and "like a cookie, but denser and more decadent with chocolate," per the Hilton website, set the foundation for what is today one of America's favorite desserts.

While the chef's name wasn't preserved alongside the dessert's origin story, their creation lives on.

The original brownie recipe, which is available on the hotel's website, uses precise measurements of 60% dark couverture chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and baking powder.

The final brownie is covered with finely chopped walnuts and a glaze made with apricot preserves and unflavored gelatin.

The brownie made using the original 1893 recipe is available to guests dining at the downtown hotel's Lockwood Restaurant and for those stopping by the hotel café, where it is sold as a grab-and-go dessert.

The brownie, which cost $13, was served with a rich chocolate topping, strawberries, and a side of brownie crumbs.

When I took my first bite, I was surprised; it tasted very different from other brownies I've had in the past.

It was chocolatey, rich, and nutty, with a tart-like and fudgy texture that felt almost gritty at times.

Rather than being cake-like, I thought the original recipe leaned a lot more on the dark chocolate. Looking at the recipe's ingredient list, I was surprised by how little flour it actually contained.

Compared to even modern brownie recipes, where cocoa powder is often used to replace melted chocolate, this recipe places greater emphasis on liquid ingredients like dark, cocoa-heavy couverture chocolate, eggs, and butter, and uses a lot of granulated sugar.

The apricot glaze on top also added an unexpected fruity taste to the decadent dessert, making it more dimensional and luxurious than other versions I've tried.

Compared to boxed brownie mixes, Bertha's Brownie felt like an entirely different dessert.

In addition to serving the original brownie, the Palmer House has other menu items inspired by the 1893 creation.

The hotel's Lockwood Restaurant serves Bertha's Brownie Pancakes topped with brownie crumbs at breakfast and a rye Brownie Old Fashioned garnished with a mini brownie on its drinks menu.

If you asked me to name a fancy dessert, I would probably think of elaborate concoctions like baked Alaska or meticulous recipes like French macarons before a brownie, but the Palmer House brownie might just change that.

More than a sophisticated take on a classic, the recipe is a classic of its own and stands apart from other brownies I've tried.

Eating the brownie felt like biting into a piece of history, and I'll probably be thinking about it until the next time I'm in Chicago.

I've followed a few Garten pie recipes before, and I remember liking her easy-to-make crust. That memory held true.

I needed to make four crusts: a bottom and top for the apple pie, and one crust each for the pumpkin and pecan pies. It only took me between 10 and 15 minutes.

Garten uses a food processor for her "perfect pie crust," which makes prep easy. I divided the dough into two batches, and I could already tell from the look and feel that the crusts would be buttery and delicious.

With all of the dough resting in the fridge, I was ready to start tackling the individual pies.

Garten's maple-pecan pie has just 10 ingredients, excluding the crust.

I was excited to taste the combination of maple syrup and bourbon with the pecans. And I liked that she included some fresh orange zest to cut through the richer ingredients, like corn syrup and honey.

To make the pie, all I had to do was whisk the filling ingredients — minus the pecans — together.

Then I simply added the nuts and gave it a final stir before pouring the filling into the prepared pie crust.

To ensure I got an evenly cooked crust, I turned the pie halfway through the bake.

The process was easy, and I loved the enticing smells coming from the oven as it baked.

The flavors of the pecan pie reminded me of an old-fashioned cocktail, thanks to the bourbon and orange.

But the pecans ended up a little chewier than I would've liked. If I make this pie again, I'd probably toast the nuts first for a better texture.

Despite letting the pecan pie fully cool before slicing into it, the pieces fell apart on me.

Next time, I think I'd let it chill in the fridge before serving so the filling can firm up more.

I moved on to making Garten's pumpkin pie.

I was intrigued by some of the ingredients in the filling, like orange zest and rum, but most were pretty standard, including pumpkin purée, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.

I was most excited to make the accompanying rum whipped cream.

It sounded like a delicious, indulgent addition to the homemade pie, with ingredients such as crème fraîche or mascarpone and a dark rum.

First, I rolled out one of my crusts and placed it in a pie tin.

Unlike the other two recipes, this one required me to blind-bake the crust before adding the filling. I found some dried lentils and rice to use as pie weights to keep it from puffing up too much.

This first bake helped prep the crust for the liquid-y filling, but it also meant the edges got a little darker by the end than I'd hoped.

The pumpkin filling was easy to make as I just had to whisk all the ingredients together in a large bowl.

I made way more filling than I needed for the pie crust, so I set it aside in hopes I could find a way to use it later. (My partner had a fun idea to use the filling to make pumpkin-pie custards in ramekins.)

Despite the slightly overdone crust, Garten's pumpkin pie turned out great in terms of both taste and texture.

The filling was sweet but not too sweet, and the subtle hint of orange helped balance the custard's richness. The texture of it was smooth and creamy.

The crust was flaky and buttery, yet sturdy enough to hold the weight of the pumpkin filling. Each slice came out of the tin without crumbling.

The rum whipped cream was a unique companion to the pumpkin pie. I liked it much better than regular whipped cream.

I saved the most intimidating pie for last.

I've made apple pies many times before, but I was still worried about whether the top crust would turn out right and if the filling would soften enough by the time the crust was done baking.

Garten's recipe for deep-dish apple pie calls for Granny Smith apples, which tend to be more sour and tart than sweet. The filling also called for both lemon and orange juices and zest, plus plenty of spices.

With all of those ingredients and only a ½ cup of sugar in the filling, I was worried the pie might not be sweet enough.

The filling was easy to make after I finished peeling, coring, and chopping what felt like 100 apples. The recipe called for 4 pounds!

The dough for my crust was very easy to roll out and transfer to the tin, thanks to the butter and vegetable shortening. It made easy work of assembling the pie.

After adding my top crust, I cut slits for ventilation, brushed it with an egg wash, and sprinkled it with sugar, per Garten's instructions.

I let the pie bake for about an hour. Afterward, the top crust was golden and looked and smelled incredible.

Garten's apple pie was pretty tasty, but the crust was by far the best part.

The extra sugar sprinkling on top gave it a sweet flavor and crunchy texture. It was so delicious I could eat it on its own.

The filling was decent, but it had a little bit too much citrus for me.

I was glad the apples softened well without becoming mushy, but I think I'd precook them a little bit more next time. That would hopefully help concentrate the apple flavor and keep the filling from shrinking so far away from the top crust.

I also might sub some of the tart apples for a sweeter variety, as the combination of the Granny Smiths and citrus made for a pretty tart pie.

In the end, all of the pies I made using Garten's recipes turned out pretty good, and they were easy enough to make in one day without breaking a sweat.

I like that she adds citrus zest to each of these pies to really boost their flavors and give them a freshness. The rum whipped cream that went with the pumpkin pie was also delicious, and I think it would pair really well with the pecan pie, too.

However, my favorite part of all three recipes was the pie crust.

It was quick and easy to make, and it worked well with all the different fillings. I'll be using this crust for all my pies moving forward.

This story was originally published on November 19, 2023, and most recently updated on October 29, 2026.