The Story of the Chocolate Chip Cookie

While chomping into a gooey, delicious, chocolate chip treat, have you ever wondered who first thought up America’s favorite cookie?

In the 1930s at the Wakefields’ Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, Ruth Wakefield was making an old favorite cookie recipe called “Butter Drop Do.” The recipe said to use bakers’ chocolate, but all she had on hand was a few bars of semi-sweet chocolate given to her by Andrew Nestle. Guessing that it would melt in evenly just like bakers’ chocolate, she chopped up a bar into small pieces that she added to the batter. When the cookies came out of the oven, she was surprised to see that the chunks of chocolate had retained their shape. She decided to serve the cookies anyway. They quickly became a local favorite which she called: “Toll House Crunch Cookies.” The recipe was soon published in newspapers, and Nestle bars started selling rapidly.

Andrew Nestle made a deal with Ruth that in exchange for a lifetime supply of the chocolate for Ruth, Andrew would be permitted to print her recipe on the back of every chocolate bar, which would include a chopper. The bar was used for cookies until Nestle invented chocolate morsels around 1939.

In 1966, Ruth and her husband sold the inn. It was turned into a nightclub, and burned down in 1984.

Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

Ruth Wakefield’s recipe:

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter or margarine
3/4 granulated sugar
3/4 packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 2/3 cups chocolate chips (11 oz. package)
1 cup chopped nuts