Chicago's Palmer House serves the original 1893 brownie recipe it invented for the World's Fair. Kristine Villarroel/Business Insider

When you think of vintage desserts , various ingredients suspended in Jell-O might come to mind. But a Chicago hotel serves one 1893 recipe that will be a lot more familiar to today's tastes: the brownie.

The Palmer House hotel , which is still open today, developed the first-ever brownie in its kitchen as part of the preparations for the World's Columbian Exposition, or Chicago's 1893 World's Fair. The decadent dessert was inspired by a Gilded Age socialite 's quest for a treat that could be easily transported.

As a brownie enthusiast, I wanted to try this legendary recipe on a visit to the hotel last year — and I discovered the dessert was rich in both history and chocolate.

The Palmer House Hotel became a symbol of the city's resilience after the Great Chicago Fire.

The hotel opened less than a year before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.…