Chocolate chip cookie

A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that originated in the United States and features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Circa 1938, Ruth Graves Wakefield added chopped up bits from a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar into a cookie.

For the album by Leslie Spit Treeo, see Chocolate Chip Cookies (album).

Chocolate chip cookie
Two chocolate chip cookies
CourseDessert or snack
Place of originUnited States
Region or stateWhitman, Massachusetts
Created byRuth Graves Wakefield, Toll House Inn
Inventedc. 1938
Main ingredientsFlour, sugar, brown sugar, butter or margarine, chocolate chips, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, salt
VariationsMultiple, including adding nuts, oatmeal, peanut butter
A close-up view showing the texture of a chocolate chip cookie
A chocolate chip cookie prepared with chocolate dough
A chocolate chip cookie with chocolate dough, sprinkled with powdered sugar and paired with milk.

The traditional recipe starts with a dough composed of butter and both brown and white sugar, semi-sweet chocolate chips and vanilla. Variations on the recipe may add other types of chocolate, as well as additional ingredients such as nuts or oatmeal. There are also vegan versions with the necessary ingredient substitutions, such as vegan chocolate chips, vegan margarine, egg substitute, and so forth. A chocolate chocolate chip cookie uses a dough flavored with chocolate or cocoa powder, before chocolate chips are mixed in. These variations of the recipe are often referred to as ‘double’ or ‘triple’ chocolate chip cookies, depending on the combination of dough and chocolate types.

History

Invention

The chocolate chip cookie was invented by American chefs Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides in 1938.[1] She invented the recipe during the period when she owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts. In this era, the Toll House Inn was a popular restaurant that featured home cooking. It is often incorrectly reported that she accidentally developed the cookie, and that she expected the chocolate chunks would melt, making chocolate cookies. In fact, she stated that she deliberately invented the cookie. She said, "We had been serving a thin butterscotch nut cookie with ice cream. Everybody seemed to love it, but I was trying to give them something different. So I came up with Toll House cookie."[2] She added chopped up bits from a Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate bar into a cookie.[3] The original recipe in Toll House Tried and True Recipes[4] is called "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies". Wakefield gave Nestle the recipe for her cookies and was paid with a lifetime supply of chocolate from the company.[5]

Later history

Wakefield's cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was first published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York. The 1938 edition of the cookbook was the first to include the recipe "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie" which rapidly became a favorite cookie in American homes.[2]

During WWII, soldiers from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from back home with soldiers from other parts of the United States. Soon, hundreds of soldiers were writing home asking their families to send them some Toll House cookies, and Wakefield was soon inundated with letters from around the world requesting her recipe. Thus began the nationwide craze for the chocolate chip cookie.[6][7] The demand for the cookies helped spread their popularity beyond the east coast.[8] The recipe for chocolate chip cookies was brought to the UK in 1956, with Maryland Cookies one of the UK's best selling chocolate chip cookies.[9]

Nestlé marketing

Every bag of Nestlé chocolate chips sold in North America has a variation (butter vs. margarine is now a stated option) of her original recipe printed on the back.

The original recipe was passed down to Sue Brides's daughter, Peg. In a 2017 interview, she shared the original recipe:[1]

  • ​1 1⁄2 cups (350 mL) shortening
  • ​1 1⁄8 cups (265 mL) sugar
  • ​1 1⁄8 cups (265 mL) brown sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • ​1 1⁄2 teaspoon (7.5 g) salt
  • ​3 1⁄8 cups (750 mL) of flour
  • ​1 1⁄2 teaspoon (7.5 g) hot water
  • ​1 1⁄2 teaspoon (7.5 g) baking soda
  • ​1 1⁄2 teaspoon (7.5 g) vanilla
  • chocolate chips

[The Tried and True Recipes cookbook specifies "2 bars (7 oz.) Nestlé's yellow label chocolate, semi-sweet, which has been cut in pieces the size of a pea."]

Present day
Chocolate chip cookies are often paired with a glass of milk. The fat particles of the milk enhance the tasting sensation of the sugar from the cookies, giving a smoother mouthfeel.

Although the Nestlé's Toll House recipe is widely known, every brand of chocolate chips, or "semi-sweet chocolate morsels" in Nestlé parlance, sold in the U.S. and Canada bears a variant of the chocolate chip cookie recipe on its packaging. Almost all baking-oriented cookbooks will contain at least one type of recipe.

Practically all commercial bakeries offer their own version of the cookie in packaged baked or ready-to-bake forms. There are at least three national (U.S./North America) chains that sell freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in shopping malls and standalone retail locations. Several businesses—including Doubletree hotels—offer freshly baked cookies to their patrons to differentiate themselves from their competition.[10]

To honor the cookie's creation in the state, on July 9, 1997, Massachusetts designated the chocolate chip cookie as the Official State Cookie, after it was proposed by a third-grade class from Somerset, Massachusetts.[11]

Composition and variants

Chocolate chip cookies are commonly made with white sugar; brown sugar; flour; a small portion of salt; eggs; a leavening agent such as baking soda; a fat, typically butter or shortening; vanilla extract; and chocolate pieces. Some recipes also include milk or nuts (such as chopped walnuts) in the dough.

Depending on the ratio of ingredients and mixing and cooking times, some recipes are optimized to produce a softer, chewy style cookie while others will produce a crunchy/crispy style.[12] Regardless of ingredients, the procedure for making the cookie is fairly consistent in all recipes: First, the sugars and fat are creamed, usually with a wooden spoon or electric mixer. Next, the eggs and vanilla extract are added followed by the flour and leavening agent. Depending on the additional flavoring, its addition to the mix will be determined by the type used: peanut butter will be added with the wet ingredients while cocoa powder would be added with the dry ingredients. The titular ingredient, chocolate chips, as well as nuts are typically mixed in towards the end of the process to minimize breakage, just before the cookies are scooped and positioned on a cookie sheet. Most cookie dough is baked, although some eat the dough as is, or use it as an addition to vanilla ice cream to make chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

The texture of a chocolate chip cookie is largely dependent on its fat composition and the type of fat used. A study done by Kansas State University showed that carbohydrate based fat-replacers were more likely to bind more water, leaving less water available to aid in the spread of the cookie while baking. This resulted in softer, more cake-like cookies with less spread.[13]

Common variants
  • The M&M cookie, or party cookie, replaces the chocolate chips with M&M's. This recipe originally used shortening as the fat, but has been updated to use butter.[14]
  • The chocolate chocolate chip cookie uses a dough that is chocolate flavored by the addition of cocoa or melted chocolate.[15] Variations on this cookie include replacing chocolate chips with white chocolate or peanut butter chips.[16][17]
  • The macadamia chip cookie has macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips.[18]
  • The chocolate chip peanut butter cookie replaces the vanilla flavored dough with a peanut butter flavored one.
  • Chocolate chip cookie dough baked in a baking dish instead of a cookie sheet results in a chocolate chip bar cookie, also known as congo bars or blondies.[19]
  • Other variations include different sizes and shapes of chocolate chips, as well as dark or milk chocolate chips. These changes lead to differences in both flavor and texture.
  • Standard chocolate chip cookie ingredients
  • Chocolate chip bar cookies

See also

References
  1. Stephanos, Maria (2017-06-21). "Secret's out! Here's the 'real recipe' for Toll House chocolate chip cookies". WCVB. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  2. Carolyn Wyman (2013). The Great American Chocolate Chip Cookie Book: Scrumptious Recipes & Fabled History from Toll House to Cookie Cake Pie. Countryman Press. p. 23. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
  3. "Chocolate Chip Cookie Day and the accidental origin of this American staple". CNN. 20 October 2017.
  4. Wakefield, Ruth Graves (1942). Ruth Wakefield's Toll House Tried and True Recipes. M. Barrows & Company.
  5. "5 Things You Didn't Know About Chocolate Chip Cookies | Epicurious.com". Epicurious. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  6. Jones, Charlotte Foltz (1991). Mistakes That Worked. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-26246-9.
  7. "History of Nestlé Toll House". Archived from the original on 2009-02-23.
  8. Michaud, Jon. "Sweet Morsels: A History of the Chocolate-Chip Cookie". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  9. Burton's Biscuit Company. "Maryland cookies". Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  10. Nancy Trejos (18 December 2017), "DoubleTree hotels hands out free cookies", USA Today, retrieved 3 May 2018
  11. William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. "Massachusetts Facts - State Symbols: Official Cookie". Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  12. Levitt, Jonathan. "They're Not As Easy To Make As To Eat", The Boston Globe, 7 June 2006, C2. Available through ProQuest eLibrary.
  13. Armbrister, W.L.; Setser, C.S. (1994). "Sensory and Physical Properties of Chocolate Chip Cookies Made with Vegetable Shortening or Fat Replacers at 50 and 75% Levels". Cereal Chemistry. 71 (4): 344–351.
  14. The M&M Party Cookie recipe Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine on m-m.com
  15. Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookie Archived 2007-06-13 at the Wayback Machine recipe on FoodTV.com
  16. White Chip Chocolate Cookie recipe on AllFood.com
  17. Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookie recipe on AllFood.com
  18. Macadamia Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe on AllFoods.com
  19. Congo Bars (Blondies) recipe on chewoutloud.com
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