brown betty

noun

1. a baked dessert made of apples or other fruit, breadcrumbs, sugar, butter, spice, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of brown betty¹

An Americanism dating back to 1860–65

Example Sentences

A more elevated version of both desserts is the traditional Brown Betty, Baldwin suggests.

From Salon

Among Thomas Jefferson’s luncheon delicacies is his favorite dessert, Brown Betty, a wicked reference to the presidential fancy for slave women.

From Los Angeles Times

One person’s crisp is another’s brown betty; a cobbler might be called a buckle by someone else, but there are slight differences.

From Washington Post

Also running for Queens district attorney are Melinda Katz, the Queens borough president; Greg Lasak, a former judge who also worked as a senior prosecutor under Mr. Brown; Betty Lugo, a lawyer; Rory Lancman, a councilman from Queens; Jose Nieves, who worked in the New York attorney general’s office as a deputy chief in the special investigations and prosecutions unit; and Mina Malik, a former prosecutor in Queens and Brooklyn and a deputy attorney general in the District of Columbia.

From New York Times

We trooped downstairs to bowls of dangerously hot Apple Brown Betty that seared the mouth.

From Literature