Chocolate chips: A new thing?

I love chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven and still warm, and I’ll gladly devour a whole plateful with a glass of milk.  They seem to me to be one of those things that have always existed, so I was surprised to learn that this cookie is not even 100 years old.

Ruth Wakefield invented the chocolate chip cookie in the 1930s. Ruth ran the Toll House Inn with her husband, Kenneth, in Whitman, Massachusetts. She was an accomplished and educated chef and cookbook author. The popular restaurant attached to the inn had been serving a butterscotch nut cookie to complement their ice cream. Ruth wanted to give her patrons something different, so she invented what she called the Toll House cookie.

In 1938, Ruth published her cookie recipe in her cookbook Toll House Tried and True Recipes under the name Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies. The cookie was so popular that Nestlé noticed an increase in sales of chocolate bars in Massachusetts. In 1939, Nestlé purchased the rights to the recipe and the Toll House name for $1. Ruth also received a lifetime supply of chocolate, and Nestlé wisely hired her as a consultant. Ruth claims she never saw that $1.

One of the suggestions Ruth made to Nestlé was to sell chocolate in smaller pieces. Initially, she had to break her chocolate bar into small pieces with an ice pick. She was eager to skip this labor-intensive step. Nestlé responded by creating chocolate morsels. Other companies, such as Hershey, copied the move and called them chips. So, the chocolate chip was actually invented to make it easier to make chocolate chip cookies. Nestle still calls them morsels.

Nestlé printed the original recipe on the back of their chocolate bars and morsels, spreading the chocolate chip cookie across the East Coast. Their popularity was further helped by their inclusion on the Betty Crocker radio show. But what really made the chocolate chip cookie an All-American dessert to rival the apple pie was World War II. Soldiers from the East Coast received care packages from home containing chocolate chip cookies, which they shared with their fellow soldiers, who then wrote home asking for more.

Ruth’s original recipe can still be found on the back of every bag of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate morsels. Next weekend, I think I might try a batch of the original version of this not-so-old classic.

• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-ounce package) 
  Nestlé Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans (optional) 

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Combine dry ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugars. In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract until the mixture is creamy.
4. Add eggs. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Gradually add flour mixture. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, beating until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
6. Stir in chips and nuts. Stir in the semi-sweet chocolate morsels and chopped nuts (if using).
7. Scoop dough. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto an ungreased baking sheet, spacing them a few inches apart.
8. Bake. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. For a chewier cookie, bake for less time; for a crisper cookie, bake for a little longer.
9. Cool. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Crystal Kelly is a feature writer for Bizarre Bytes with those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or to stump your in-laws.

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