The chocolate chip cookie, that favorite treat of adults and kids alike, was the accidental invention of an inspired cook.
In 1930, Ruth Wakefield of the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts, decided to enrich her butter cookie dough by chopping up a Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate bar. The resulting cookie was so popular, that it came to the attention of the company, who then negotiated the rights to the delightful recipe.
To facilitate the baking of the new cookie, Nestle’s created chocolate morsels in 1939, packaging them in the same Yellow Label wrapping as their chocolate bars. After they had obtained the recipe, it was printed on the back of each package as “Toll House Cookies”.
Chocolate chips have less cocoa butter than pure chocolate, which helps them to keep their shape while being baked into cookies, muffins, and other goodies. The surrounding batter also aids in maintaining their shape, but the chips do melt, as can be seen when you break a cookie apart while it’s hot from the oven. But when cold, the same cookie appears to have whole, undamaged chips.
