Ruth Wakefield,
who was the owner of the Toll House
Inn in Massachusetts, is credited with
inventing the chocolate chip cookie. The story goes that one day in 1930 she
cut a Nestle's Semisweet Yellow Label Chocolate bar into small chunks and added
it to her butter cookie dough. The cookies were an instant hit with her
customers and word of their popularity reached the Nestle company. Nestle must
have realized that adding small chunks of their chocolate bar to cookie dough
would appeal to the mass market because by 1939 Nestle was selling chocolate
morsels (or chips). What a brilliant marketing plan it turned out to be when
Nestle packaged the chips in a Yellow bag and then bought the rights to the Toll
House name and Ruth Wakefield's chocolate chip cookie recipe. They called her
recipe "The Famous Toll House Cookie" and printed it on the back of the Yellow
bag of chocolate morsels.
This recipe is very similar
to the recipe on the back of the Nestle's chocolate chip bag. Made with
butter and a combination of white and brown sugars it produces a rich and
chewy cookie with caramelized edges. Now, making chocolate chip cookies can present a
challenge. As John Thorne states in his book 'Serious Pig', "our national cookie
demands more skill than many of us can muster.....It is too rich for its own
good." So if you have trouble making these cookies you are not alone and as John
Thorne tells us "there is no really foolproof method."
Note: Although flour, sugar
(white and/or brown), butter or margarine, baking powder and/or baking
soda, eggs, vanilla, and chocolate chips make up a chocolate chip cookie
recipe, taste and texture do vary by recipe. So if you want to try another
type of chocolate chip cookie I have included a recipe for
Chocolate Chunk Cookies. This recipe
has more brown sugar than white sugar which gives the cookies a more
caramel flavor. And true to Ruth Wakefield's original cookie recipe, I
have chopped up a semi sweet chocolate bar instead of using chocolate
chips. There is also less flour in these cookies so their texture will be
more crisp and you may need to chill the batter before baking.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190
degrees C) with rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment
paper. Set aside.
In the bowl of
your electric
mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter. Add the white and brown sugars and beat until fluffy
(about 2 minutes). Beat in eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat well after
each addition. Add the vanilla and beat until incorporated.
In a separate bowl,
combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to
the egg mixture and beat until incorporated, adding the chocolate chips
about half way through mixing. If you find the dough very soft, cover and
refrigerate until firm (about 30 minutes).
For large cookies, use
about a 2 tablespoon ice
cream scoop or with two spoons, drop about 2 tablespoons of dough (35 grams) onto the
prepared baking sheets. Bake about 12 - 14 minutes, or until golden brown around
the edges. Cool completely on wire rack.
Makes about 4
dozen - 3 inch round cookies
Note: You can freeze this dough. Form the dough
into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Freeze and
then place the balls of dough in a plastic
bag, seal, and freeze. When baking, simply place the frozen balls of
dough on a baking sheet and bake as directed - may have to increase
baking time a few minutes.
Recipe:
1 cup (2
sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room
temperature
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