Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ruth Graves Wakefield, a graduate of Household Arts from the Framingham State Normal School Department, ran a B&B with her husband, Keneth. In her Toll House Inn, she would try out many interesting foods, and one of them was the Drop Do Cookies, which she made with baker’s chocolate.

One fine morning (or maybe afternoon), she discovered half way through her baking that she had run out of the chocolate. What she had in her store was a bar of Nestlé’s semi-sweet chocolate. So she broke up the bar into bits and assumed that the little chocolate chips would melt while baking inside the cookie, giving her the same chocolate cookie she called Drop Do.

The chocolate, however, had a mind of its own and the chips stayed put into the cookie even after baking, refusing to met completely. The result was a slightly stony version of her famous cookies, with little bits of unmelted chocolate inside, but she decided to serve these anyways. The rest, as they say, is history.

The chocolate –chip cookie was an instant hit. Ruth then started publishing the recipe in several newspapers. The Toll House Chocolate chip Cookie recipe became popular and Nestlé’s sales of the semi-sweet bar also increased. By 1939, Nestle started manufacturing chocolate chips (we know them as chocolate morsels) too, so great was the demand for cut up semi-sweet chocolate. Eventually Ruth struck a deal with Nestle – her Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe would be printed on the package of their latest product – chocolate chips. In return, she would have a lifetime supply of Nestle chocolate.

Today the chocolate chip cookie is the biggest selling cookie in the US. The Americans consume seven billion chocolate chip cookies annually. In fact, almost half the cookies produced in the US are of the chocolate chip variety.

The Toll House Inn had, in the 1960s been purchased by a family that made it a nightclub. It was late bought by the Saccone family that turned it back to its original form. The Toll House Inn burned on the News Year’s Eve of 1984 but the cookies are still being produced at a bakery down the road. It today produces almost thirty three thousand cookies EVERYDAY.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie is itself a classic cookie jar recipe, with a crisp outside and a chewy inside. To make it, you need:

1 and ¼ cup plain flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter
1 egg
½ cup castor sugar
¼ cup dark brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Grease two baking trays or line with non-stick paper.
Combine the four and baking powder. In another bowl, combine the sugars, add butter and then beat the sugar in, till fluffy. Add the beaten egg and vanilla and mix well. To this, add the flour and baking powder mix and the chocolate chips.
Drop rounds of this batter onto the tray, about 2 inches apart.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Then cool completely.
The cookie keeps well in tightly closed jars, unless consumed first.