{"id":19945,"date":"2013-03-15T16:05:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T23:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=19945"},"modified":"2014-03-07T22:13:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-08T06:13:03","slug":"the-accidental-invention-of-the-chocolate-chip-cookie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/03\/the-accidental-invention-of-the-chocolate-chip-cookie\/","title":{"rendered":"The Accidental Invention of the Chocolate Chip Cookie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"chocolate-chip-cookies\"<\/a>It\u2019s difficult to imagine that the chocolate chip cookie, one of the world\u2019s most beloved sweet treats, was actually invented by accident. The invention of the chocolate chip cookie happened in 1930 when Ruth Graves Wakefield and her husband, Kenneth, were running the Toll House Inn on Route 18 near Whitman, Massachusetts. Mrs. Wakefield, a dietician and food lecturer, prepared all the food for the guests at the inn and had gained an enviable local reputation for her impressive range of desserts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s often said that necessity is the mother of invention, and so too it was in this story. One night, Ruth decided to whip up a batch of Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies, a popular old colonial recipe, to serve to her guests. But as she started to bake, Ruth discovered she was out of baker\u2019s chocolate. Ruth then chopped up a block of Nestl\u00e9 semi-sweet chocolate that had been given to her by Andrew Nestl\u00e9 of the Nestl\u00e9 Company. Ruth had expected the chocolate to melt and disperse through the cookie dough as regular baking chocolate would. Instead, the chocolate pieces retained their individual form, softening to a moist, gooey melt, and the world had its first known chocolate chip cookie.<\/p>\n

These original chocolate chip cookies proved to be such a scrumptious success that Ruth had no choice but to repeat the recipe. She called her new invention the “Chocolate Crunch Cookie” and published the recipe in several Boston and New England newspapers. When Ruth\u2019s Chocolate Crunch Cookie recipe was featured on an episode of The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air<\/em> radio program, the popularity of the humble chocolate chip cookie exploded and the cookie soon became a favorite all across America. The popularity of the cookie further increased after Ruth published the still popular, Toll House Tried And True Recipes<\/em><\/a>, featuring the “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie”, in 1936.<\/p>\n

Due to the enormous popularity of the cookie recipe, sales of Nestl\u00e9 semi-sweet chocolate skyrocketed and Andrew Nestl\u00e9 and the Wakefields struck a deal. In exchange for a lifetime supply of free chocolate, Nestl\u00e9 printed Ruth\u2019s recipe, by this stage called “Mrs. Wakefield\u2019s Toll House Cookies”, on the chocolate labels and even started to score their chocolate bars and include a special chocolate chopper so people could easily make the chocolate chips for their cookies. This continued until 1939 when\u00a0Nestl\u00e9 introduced their own brand of conveniently pre-chopped chocolate- the small chocolate buttons still known today as “Nestl\u00e9\u2019s Toll House Chocolate Morsels”.<\/p>\n

The original recipe is still printed on their bag of chocolate chips. Nestl\u00e9 owned the rights and took all profits from the “Toll House Cookie” until 1983 when ambiguities were discovered in the original agreements with the Wakefields and Nestl\u00e9 lost their exclusive rights to the trademark.\u00a0 From that point, “Toll House Cookies” became a descriptive name only. The name “Toll House”, however continues to be a subsidiary brand of the Nestl\u00e9 Company and is still used on Chocolate Morsels, chocolate chip cookie dough, and coco powder- all products coming from that one, off the cuff baking decision and accidentally delicious result.<\/p>\n

If you’re curious, here’s Mrs. Wakefield’s Original Toll House Cookie Recipe<\/p>\n