Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Sweetest Mistake in Baking History
It’s hard to imagine life without chocolate chip cookies, but did you know that this beloved dessert was actually a happy accident? It all started in the 1930s with an inventive baker named Ruth Wakefield, who was running a charming little place called the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts.
The Baking Mix-Up
One day, Ruth set out to make her famous Butter Drop Do cookies, a popular recipe that called for melted baker’s chocolate to give the dough a smooth, chocolatey flavor. But when she realized she was out of baker’s chocolate, she had to improvise. Ruth grabbed a bar of Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate, chopped it up, and tossed the chunks into the dough, thinking they would melt into the batter and create the same effect.
To her surprise, the chocolate pieces didn’t melt—they held their shape, softening just enough to create gooey, chocolatey pockets throughout the cookie. The result was a brand-new treat: the chocolate chip cookie!
An Instant Hit
Ruth’s accidental creation became a sensation. The guests at the Toll House Inn couldn’t get enough of the cookies, and soon the recipe was being shared far and wide. People loved the contrast of the buttery dough with the rich chunks of chocolate, and the chocolate chip cookie was born.
Nestlé Gets Involved
The recipe became so popular that it caught the attention of Nestlé, whose chocolate bar Ruth had used in her creation. In 1939, Nestlé and Ruth made a deal: in exchange for printing her cookie recipe on the back of Nestlé’s semi-sweet chocolate bar wrappers, Ruth would get a lifetime supply of chocolate. Talk about a sweet deal!
Nestlé went one step further by creating chocolate chips, the now-iconic morsels that make it even easier to whip up a batch of cookies. Thanks to this partnership, the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe became a household staple across America.