The Toll House Inn in MA, courtesy of New England History
As early as 1928, newspapers were printing ads for major
supermarkets that were baking and selling cookies
containing chips of chocolate. But it wasn’t until 1938 that the
Chocolate Chip Cookie as we know it today became America’s all-time favorite cookie
treat. To this day, it is the official state cookie of Massachusetts.
In 1930, during the Great Depression, Ruth Graves Wakefield - a
college educated dietitian, teacher and chef - and her husband
Kenneth, purchased a tourist lodge in Whitman, Massachusetts.
They called it The Toll House Inn. It began with seven tables, which
soon expanded to 60. Located in New England between Boston and
Cape Cod, it became a popular stop for travelers on their way to the
scenic peninsula.
Ruth Graves Wakefield, courtesy of Nestlé Toll House
Well-known for her desserts, Mrs. Wakefield would serve a thin
butterscotch and pecan cookie with ice cream. The cookie was dotted
with small chunks of semi-sweet chocolate, that she would break off
from a Nestlé chocolate bar with an ice pick. She would tweak and
update the recipe, until it evolved to become the Toll House
Chocolate Crunch Cookie that it is today.
Named for the place it was created, the cookie grew in popularity,
and customers began asking for the recipe. Mrs. Wakefield readily
shared her recipe and included it in her first cookbook.
Cookie sales increased, so the labor-intensive task of breaking off
smaller morsels of chocolate with an ice pick prompted Mrs.
Wakefield to contact Nestlé and ask if the company could make
something smaller.
Nestlé’s semi-sweet morsels in their classic
little tear-drop shape, soon began appearing on the shelves.
Meanwhile, news of this delectable cookie traveled, even
before television had become a common household
commodity. The cookies were inexpensive to make and provided
comfort during the bleak times of the depression era.
With more and more people using her recipe to make chocolate chip
cookies, sales of the Nestlé chocolate bar continued to rise,
particularly in Massachusetts.
Original Ad, courtesy of Nestlé Toll House
Nestlé’s CEO at the time, Edward Mueller, became curious as to why so many chocolate bars were being sold. When he found out it was due to Mrs. Wakefield’s recipe, he
asked permission to publish her recipe on the bars’ wrapper.
In 1939, Mr. Mueller approached Mrs. Wakefield and an agreement
was made in which she sold the rights to the Toll House Chocolate
Crunch Cookie recipe for one dollar. In return she would be hired as
a consultant, given a lifetime of chocolate and have her recipe on
Nestlé‘s packaging.
Her recipe gained national exposure at the advent of World War II, so Americans began mailing the chocolate chip treat in care packages to troops on the frontlines. Soldier consumption boosted the cookies’ popularity even more. Due to wartime rationing, butter and sugar were sometimes substituted with shortening, honey and maple syrup.
In 1955 Nestlé launched its ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookie
dough. Eventually, shelf-stabilizing ingredients would be added,
allowing the cookie to stay fresh for months and be appealing to
consumers who had no time to bake.
Mrs. Wakefield died in 1977; but in 1984, someone suggested to the
popular ice cream company Ben & Jerry that they mix clumps of cookie dough into their vanilla ice cream. The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor was so well received,
that it was packed into pints and on its path to becoming a classic
flavor worldwide for decades to come. Mrs. Wakefield’s original
dessert of serving a chocolate chip cookie with ice cream had come
full circle.
Though the Toll House Inn burned down from a kitchen grease fire
on New Year’s Eve in 1984 (and was never rebuilt), the original
recipe from over 80 years ago continues to be printed on the widely recognized
yellow Nestlé bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels.
And now, Sweet Designs has removed the guesswork of how to
make the perfect chocolate chip cookie by creating The Chocolate
Chunk & Cocoa Nib Cookie Kit. According to customers, the rich, full-bodied
blend of European gourmet chocolate with lightly roasted cocoa
nibs, topped with a pinch of local heirloom salt is quite simply
divine.
References:
1. Wikipedia: Ruth Graves Wakefield
2. Wikipedia: Toll House Inn
3. www.nestle.com. A timeless discovery / the chocolate chip
cookie
4. https://ourswedishamericanpantry.wordpress.com
Sept 7, 2014. Malin Norrby
‘Ruth Wakefield: the dietician that gave us the Chocolate
Chip Cookie’
5. eater.com 4/21/2022. Claudia Geib
Gastropod
‘Contrary to What You’ve Heard, Toll House Didn’t Invent
The Chocolate Chip Cookie’
6. mrsfields.com Sept 5, 2024
‘The History & Origins of Chocolate Chip Cookies’
7. benjerry.com
June 19, 2020
The Epic History of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough